Tuesday's Follow-up Appointment

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not sure about you but, this week feels like a whirlwind!  I wanted to get you all caught-up with what happened at my follow-up appointment on Tuesday in San Francisco but, I haven't had time until today!

On Tuesday, I had two Doctors appointments.  One, with my Chiropractor (sleeping on my back, instead of my side has really tweaked it).  The second appointment was a follow-up appointment with my Surgeon, Dr. O'Donnell.

My appointment time was at 3:30pm in San Fran.  In anticipation of Thanksgiving/Bay Area traffic, we left the house around noon to ensure we would arrive on time if not early.

I'm really getting to like the drive into the city and it seems to fly by.  We ended up getting there 1-hour before my appointment time!  Remember: Dr. O'Donnell is very busy and will not see a patient if they are late at all - We have to be early.  It has become routine to arrive early and read my kindle for a bit.

Like always, the first person I see is the nurse, she takes my vitals and then puts me into a patient room.  Then, the resident comes in.  This is the same resident that I have always seen at Dr. O'Donnell's office.  He is also responsible for sewing me up after the operation, and removing my drainage tube too.  I gave him the update on how my leg is doing.  I told him that I'm not complaining I just want him to know everything so that he can tell me if this is normal or not.

• I have dense numbness around my incision, around my knee, and about 3 inches down my leg.
• The incision hurts.
• My nerve is pissed off, and when I touch my leg (where it's not numb), it hurts - it feels like electricity!
• My ankle is very swollen, not rolled - apparently just swollen from the surgery!!
• My arch of my foot feels like needles.
• My right leg is really swollen and its bigger than my left leg.
• I'm unable to straighten out my right leg fully or put much weight on it.

The resident reminded me that I had a very big operation.  That my incision is 8-inches long and it will take a while to be back to normal.  He told me that since I still have feeling in my right foot, that the nerve appeared to be working (excellent)!  However, that it could take up to a year for the nerve pain to subside.  He removed the gauze and the Tagaderm and inspected the incision.  He told me that my outer skin appears to be healed.  He told me that I can leave the gauze up and I CAN TAKE a shower now!!!!!!  So exciting!

(Dr. O'Donnell typing notes into my file)

Then, it was Dr. O'Donnell's turn!  He came into the room and seemed really happy to see us.  I immediately asked him how the surgery went for him.  Dr O'Donnell told me that the surgery went well.  He told me that they had a hard time finding the tumor at first.  He told me that the tumor was wedged in between my muscles and he had to search around using a 'hot knife'.  He told me that the tumor was resting ON my nerve.  He told me that in most cases he would have removed the nerve all together.  However, my tumor was not 'self-contained' as they originally thought.  However, it was compartmentalized in a specific area so he felt comfortable leaving the nerve in.

I asked him if I said anything funny while I was out, during surgery.  He laughed, looked down, while his face turned red, and told me no, that I didn't say anything!!  lol

Nate asked about the tumor board last Friday.  He asked what the conversation was. Dr. O'Donnell told us that all of the doctors agreed that the tumor was low grade due to a couple of factors:

1. There were no round cells in the tumor
2. There were no dead cells in the tumor
3. The cells had not metastasized

Dr. O'Donnell then told me that because the 'sack' that the tumor was is was so very thin, that the margins came back positive (this is another way of saying that they left come caner behind). He told me that the Sarcoma Tumor Board all agreed that follow-up Radiation is necessary.  This will consist of 5 Weeks of Monday-Friday daily radiation.  We asked him about our New York trip again, at first Dr. O'Donnell told us that its not advisable for us to have a break in treatment. Then, he told us that it would be fine.  We will talk more with my Radiation specialist.  We asked for a referral to the Sacramento area, so that we wouldn't have to travel far for treatment.

Dr. O'Donnell also informed me that they decided to monitor the nodule that was found in my lung with a follow-up Chest PET CT scan in January.  They will be monitoring my lung nodule for growth.  This makes me feel uneasy but, at least I know the surgeon is thorough and I am in good hands.

Dr. O'Donnell also referred me to Physical Therapy.  He told me that I will need three months of Physical Therapy twice per week.

We ended up leaving San Francisco at about 4:30 and decided to go over the Golden Gate Bridge, Nate knows that it's my favorite.  Check-out this sunset!

We pulled over in Sausalito and had dinner by the water.  I was a little under dressed for the dinner location with my sweatpants (I can't wear anything too tight on my incision just yet).  If your ever in the Sausalito area I highly recommend Le Garage.  It was delicious!

In all it looks like I haven't fully kicked Cancer's Ass!  My journey will continue until I'm Cancer Free!  Please pray that the Radiation Therapy goes well.  Pray that the side-effects are minimal and that it is still ok for us to go to New York.  Pray that I will be Cancer-Free.

On this day and everyday, I am very THANKFUL for the support and love from friends and family.

Thanks for Reading!  Happy Thanksgiving!