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Today I met with Dr. Engstad, the surgeon who will operate on me in a few weeks. After many different tests and scans, he concluded that the lower lobe of my left lung will need to be removed.
Although I will be losing 25% of my lung capacity, he said
that after a year of healing and rehabilitation I might only be down 10% as the
human body has excess lung capacity. Hiking, biking, skiing should still be on
the table and I don’t yet need to recalibrate with birdwatching.
This certainly was good news, a huge sigh of relief, that
there is a best possible outcome that has me doing the activities that I love. Still,
I need to prepare for the chance that radiation or some other treatment might
be necessary, and nothing is a sure thing.
Dr. Engstad stressed that unlike more common cancers, where
patterns of recurrence and metastasis are well known, the behavior of sarcomas is
little understood. Was the original sarcoma in my neck connected to this new
one? Why had sarcoma been dormant for 15 years? Where was it hiding? Where to
look for any new outbreaks?
He talked about how there is a randomness to medicine as
well as other aspects of life, as the medical profession declares one “cured”
after 5 years of regular cancer scans. How did the doctors arrive at the 5-year
number? “Five fingers, five toes,” he said.
The operation itself will not require a massive incision.
The item of concern that will keep me hospitalized is how long it will take for
the wound to stop leaking air. Generally the time is 3-6 days. Afterwards a few
months of taking it easy and then the work of rehabilitation.
Before this diagnosis I had the aspirational philosophy of
not taking the relationships in my life for granted. Illness certainly sharpens
that feeling many times over. I want to give everyone a big hug in gratitude
for all the good energy sent our way. I will continue to post significant
milestones on this blog but expect that after the operation things will not be
happening so fast.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in person soon.
