Status 3/6/17 - Some good news, BUT...

We made it in to M D Anderson today and met with the Oncologist.   First, I must say that this is the land of super humans.   Every one of the medical people we dealt with was top shelf in their field, had excellent bedside manor, and generally speaking are science minded people who make decisions by fact and not ego.  M D Anderson is 1/2 of downtown Houston and 15 or so thousand people work there.  Not only that, they (including my oncology nurse sister-in-law) are the best of the best in their field.  Mind-blowingly advanced in what they do.

So anyway, for the status update.   The timeline goes something like this: Initial benign diagnosis of the biopsy, the PET scan showing nothing except the tumor as infectious or potentially malignant with no other instances of light up, the diagnosis of stage 4 non small cell lung cancer in the OR pathology staining, inconclusive lab work at UVA, and lots of conversation with doctors in VA.  It is also notable that the UVA report began with a first line of "This is a complicated case", which has also been stated on most of my report cards growing up, and several charts in the world elsewhere, but I digress.  We heard things like "I have never seen this situation not be cancer."  Or one oncologist said, "In my career, 100% of the time this has been NSCLC lung cancer and that will be a carcinoma."  Another oncologist gave me a 50/50 shot at surviving a year Valentine's day after the surgery.  That said, I appreciate the straight message by the VA docs throughout.

M D Anderson reread the labs from UVA, and has said that the next step is to operate and follow through with the lobectomy that I was supposed to have had on 2/13/17.  They believe the tumor to be benign with the caveat that it will need a full pathology examination once it is removed.   So, that is the path we are taking.  The risk is that if for some odd reason it is actually malignant there is potentially danger in disrupting it and spreading cancer cells, but the risk of leaving it in is greater so we operate in Houston in weeks to come, so I will have to come back for that.

So, we have begun a new workup on my case with blood work today, thoracic surgeon meeting tomorrow, and another CT scan on Wednesday.   From there, I will need to come back to have the surgery here due to complications with scaring from the last aborted surgery, and to hopefully not remove the whole upper lobe of my left lung.  They have also seen more thoracic surgeries than anyone in the country and have assured me that they can handle curve balls well.  In the defense of the folks in VA, this has been labelled an extremely complicated case, and they did a great job with the tools available.   No harm done.  This is a really screwball case, and when you need the super humans like at M D Anderson, you go there.

The good news is that we are on a path of this being benign, but we are not out of the woods yet.  Once the tumor is resected, it will be sent to pathology, go through all of the cell analysis exercises as well as cross sectioned with a library of 400 documented gene mutations compiled via MDA research.  If pathology results in malignancy or gene mutation there in of any kind, further treatment will be required.  If not, I should return to life as normal soon paddleboarding, swimming, and hopefully spear fishing the wrecks with my good buddy "Jake the Viking" in KDH followed by a bonfire at the Jellyfish, beers, and fresh cooked ocean goodness with Kenny Chesney playing in the back ground.

I cannot tell you how much the prayers by so many have meant.  WE HAVE BEEN SO BLESSED BY YOU.  Your continued prayers have held us up in our faith, and we continue to covet them in going through with this phase of "we think we have it right", surgery plans.  God has given us faith to believe He has this covered and completely under control.   He has also answered so many prayers including the we got news last night that Kelly's townhouse is under contract at full asking price and it was only on the market for a week.  We have seen bridges built, perspectives change, and spiritual growth happen.  A truly blessed plight to say the least.

#Isaiah40:31