Slumming it in Portugal...

We're having a great relaxing trip. We've done a little sightseeing and tasted a bit of the culture from the grilled sardines to the wines to this low key place Ashley and I went the first night in Lisbon called Lux. (http://www.luxfragil.com/)

Thanks for all your comments, thoughts, and prayers. You are all such wonderful friends and I'm so lucky and honored to have you all in my truly blessed life.

We're heading to Spain tomorrow for the week and back to NC on Friday. I've decided after this trip, I'm not carrying any more tumors on vacations. Let's face it, they just don't deserve to go.

See you soon.

obrigado

Full plate.

So it looks like they want to do a similar surgery with a new twist, brachytherapy.

brachytherapy: (brake-ee-THER-uh-pee): internal radiation treatment given by placing radioactive material directly into the tumor or close to it. Also called interstitial radiation therapy or seed implantation.

After removing the tumor, they will insert a dozen or so small tubes into the opening. About five days later, small radioactive pellets will be inserted into the tubes. These remain in place for another 5 or so days then come out. The goal is to deliver a concentrated dose of radiation to the area without damaging the surrounding areas. Sounds a bit like a Toxic Avenger PEZ dispenser...

This process will take some time, possibly involving close to a two week stay in the hospital. After healing up and having a second battle scar....the shot clock resets, the waiting game continues, and things should be all good again.

I'm currently trying to get back to NY for a second opinion with the doctors I met last year. Having them verify the treatment and potentially discuss other options is something I feel cannot be overlooked.

Oh yeah, we’re leaving for a ten day trip to Spain and Portugal with the Vermillions in tomorrow morning. (This is the rescheduled trip that was postponed from last year when this whole saga began) Surgery is tentatively scheduled for the 14th of May. The second opinion visit would be the week after I get back, so what the hell??!!!

Don't worry about me too much while I'm "stressing out" sipping on Rioja for the next week.

Thanks for checking in. Sorry to have to worry everyone with this again so soon. Just another hurdle to jump... (bad analogy, considering I have a 9 inch vert) We'll go with speed bump. Those never really tend to slow me down.

Afternoon P.S. Got the appointment to MSKCC lined up for May 8th. Everything is in place. It's truly amazing to get such instant support and love from everyone. I promise, I'll do everything I can to crush this BS!

Guess who's back...back again.

Although not officially determined a Triton tumor, the mass in my forearm has been called malignant by the pathologist at Duke. It's more disappointing than completely unexpected after knowing they were worried about what they had initially seen from the needle biopsy.

My team at Duke will meet in the morning and discuss treatment strategy. Most likely this will include a similar surgery (graft and all) and a different type of radiation. I really won't know all the details until tomorrow.

So there it is.

Keeping things interesting...

As promised, I said there would be updates as I went in for tests or if anything "worthy" occurred. Considering I was at Duke for 13 hours yesterday investigating a small mass I detected under the scar in my arm on Sunday (talk about Mr. Creepy), the chronicles needed to be reopened, hopefully temporarily. I guess the Mary J. Blidge "No more drama" vacation tour is officially over....

The Homeland Security cancer threat color scale is yellow, significant threat. It's not high (orange) or severe (red) and always at least guarded (blue). I'm currently waiting for results from everything to see if there is a problem and whether I kick it up to orange or ease back into the blue. (I think that paragraph was absolutely pointless)

So what's up? Sunday I noticed a small bump in my arm just under the skin at the edge of the skin graft scar. My first reaction was "This isn't very cool." I think that's the best way to describe it, especially after I've been putting this further and further behind me. I called my doctor and Duke Monday and we set an appointment for Wednesday morning. He looked at it, and agreed with my professional opinion. "This is probably some scarring or a reaction to some stitches, but considering your history, let's cover all our bases." A pathologist came in, stuck a needle into the mass and took several samples on multiple slides. She agreed that these types of things were common after surgeries and most likely harmless. After about five minutes the doctor came in with the preliminary results. "The pathologist is a little worried about what she's initially seeing." Clark and Big C's both winced. I thought, "Here we go again..."

We discussed all the possibilities, whether or not the surgery, radiation, and chemo had been effective, as well as what might happen if this turns out to be Triton Part Deux. A CT scan of my chest was scheduled that afternoon and an MRI of my arm that evening to see if there were any other problems that couldn’t be felt. At this point, the MRI and the pathology results moved instantly on the back burner, but the CT scan had me pretty concerned. We all agreed, this called for a nice lunch and a good bottle of wine.

I've already received good news about the CT scan. It was unchanged, the best possible result. I have to say I got a little emotional when I received the call. This stuff is scary, really scary. I should hear about the MRI results today and most likely I'll get the pathology results on Monday, which also happens to be Big Clyde's 60th birthday.

Keeping things interesting...