Surgery

Hello again!

Last week, Cheryl and I made a trip back to Houston to talk with the doctors about the next step, surgery! The chemo has done what it can, shrunk the tumor as much as it can and actually made it possible to go in and remove it with surgery. That was not a clear option originaly, so that much is good news. The only problem is that we do not know if the cancer has spread into the eye area and if they can save the eye.

So, we went through a series of blood work, and doctors visits to make sure I was ready for surgery. The internal medicine doctor wants me to get more exercise to strengthen my systems for recovery, so I am on a walking program now. That means I walk about two miles each day, which is helping my fatigue issues. Otherwise, all the doctors are happy with how I am doing.

We visited with Dr. Keis to make sure the last round of chemo went well, and he cleared me for surgery as well.

Finally, we saw Dr. Lai, the head of my treatment team, who went over the surgery plan. They will go into the sinus area below my left eye and remove the tumor. He will try to save my eye, but his plan is to go for longevity and if the eye must go, it will go. What I do not like is not knowing what will happen until I wake up from the surgery.

Radiation cannot happen, so this surgery is my only hope for removing this tumor. Dr. Lai is confident he can get it out. If anything comes back, we will have to deal with it with chemo, hopefully not the same kind as I have been getting, since that is actually pretty hard to take.