All update on this one (but if you’re short on time or interest, I’ll just say upfront we’re still kind of lost in the woods at the moment, and you can check out until we get more concrete info – if you want some details, read on) …
#1: we haven’t had T’s follow-up appointment, so there’s nothing new to report on that front other than she’s becoming addicted to Seinfeld (don’t worry, we’re monitoring the episodes)
#2: got home from NYC last night – MSK (Mem Sloan Kettering) was fantastic – saw four different docs in four hours – as for takeaways … looks like we’re gonna have to live in the dark a bit longer – in fact, there are more questions now than ever because in the words of one doc: “this just doesn’t hang together very well” – aka: the pieces of this puzzle just don’t quite fit – the masses, the PET scan, the biopsy results, the lung nodules, my medical history (or lack thereof), etc., it’s all just hard to reconcile into one, nice, clean narrative – the best way I can describe it is to say they can come up with 20 different scenarios to explain all of it together, but each scenario is unlikely (yet one will have to be correct in the end) – for example, they’re actually thinking the lung nodules might not be related to the tumors – but given my age, lifestyle, and lack of medical history, I shouldn’t just have lung nodules; so next thing you know we’re talking about whether I’ve recently been harvesting rare mushrooms in South America and contracted some kind of infection (no, no, I have not), or whether I might have a totally independent second kind of cancer (c’mon, I am special, but not THAT special)
So, here are the next steps:
1. Their pathology department is still analyzing the tumor biopsy to either confirm it’s a thymoma or determine it’s something else – not likely, but now it seems other types of cancer, including other types of thymus cancer, lymphoma, DMDM (Diet Mountain Dew Malignancy) etc., are back on the table
2. I have to get a biopsy of one of the lung nodules (the Georgetown docs emailed me this morning and said same thing) – details are being worked out: what kind of procedure (there are different ways to do this), where (NY, NJ, or local), and by whom
3. Assuming we get concrete info out of 1 & 2, we’ll get a plan together (some combination of chemo, surgery, radiation, or clinical trial type treatment)
I’m bummed I can’t give everyone what we all want (clear picture, plan of attack) just yet, but there are plenty of positives to hang our hats on: MSK is on top of it and committed to getting the right answers, Georgetown is getting their end of it together and it seems they concur with MSK, and most important of all: this thing is still open-ended, leaving plenty of room for faith and prayers …
Thanks again for all the support and much love to all – man, I had to stop reading the texts yesterday morning or I would’ve walked into my appointments blubbering!