Totally Tubular Tumor Times

We spent most of the weekend starting our spring clean of the acreage and trying to finalize plans for eldercare. It looks like we have the next week arranged for care, which buys us a bit more time to establish a more permanent solution. Mom has indicated that she would like to remain with us if that's in any way possible.

The PET scan was this morning around 7 a.m. Following a radioactive-sugar injection Diana was run through this donut shaped machine while images were taken from nose to knees. Not as all-encompassing a tube as with an MRI, nor as noisy. Got good images the first time through, so we were back home before Mom left for daycare.

Met with our pulmonologist after lunch. It appears that the cells have not metastasized elsewhere, making surgery the recommended course of action. "Go in, cut it out and throw it away" says he. Worse case sCenario is that the left lung will be removed without completely removing the cancerous cells. Best case sCenario is that the upper lobe of the left lung can be saved and the tumor completely removed.

Best course of action will be determined by the thoracic surgeon...sort of on the fly during surgery. That is, once he's in the infected area, he will have a better idea of how much of Diana, if any, needs to be removed in order to completely remove the tumor.

If we do nothing, it will most likely result in death within five years. Surgery, especially if the tumor can be completely removed, would improve the numbers, depending on a passel of variables. Radiation and/or chemotherapy at this point is not recommended.

So, we meet with the surgeon next Tuesday and could be in surgery within the next two weeks. Seven to ten days of hospitalization, three to four months of recovery...

In the meantime, we have another week.

Crocus, daffodils, winter aconite are already in bloom and hostas are coming up quickly through the leaves that we left to mulch the gardens last fall. And, as always, we're finding blooming things in places they weren't planted. Circumstances beyond this spring's control is going to result in learning whether we need to remove those leaves, after all.

We finally have all the Winter Holiday decor down and ready to be packed. (Well, I don't think we've ever gotten it all, but...) Putting spring in our step, to say the least.

Some silliness from this past week: every nurse, clerk, etc. that Diana dealt with for any period of time was named something that started with a BIG C: Cindy and Cathy for the bronchoscopy, Connie for the pulmunary stress test. Today's check-in person was named Cathy...really, it was *grins*

While we have a couple of business committments that will need to be honored in May, Diana's employment(s) will probably be curbed severely after the middle of April.

In the meantime, we're trying to cover a lot of information in this short space and time. If you have questions, comments, suggestions or thoughts, please comment them and we'll do our best to answer them.

As Kevin keeps saying, "It could be woise (sic)!" ...it really could.