Making a Plan

I had another appointment with Dr. Yahanda today. He said there were two possible outcomes of the needle biopsy. One is a gastric-blah-blah-blah tumor and that one is more likely to be malignant.

The other possibility is a liomyoma (no idea if that is spelled right) and he started talking about smooth muscle. I didn't hear much after the liomyo...I know two people who have had a cancer called liomyosarcoma (again...spelling?) One of them was told that she would not live long, but has been cancer free for about 3 years, I think, after she had surgery to have all the cancer removed. The other one was my cousin's daughter who did not win her battle with the disease.

So as not to interrupt, I waited until he was finished talking and I said "Are you saying this is a liomyosarcoma?" He said "NO...it is a liomyoma" They are very rarely malignant. He said that is what my tumor is and it is definitely not malignant...not cancer...not liomyosarcoma!!!

So what we will do is this...

1. The cyst on my pancreas is no big deal. We will just leave it alone and have it checked in about a year.

2. Since I am having no symptoms, he is going to leave the gallbladder alone also. He said until I have symptoms, there is no reason to mess with it.

3. The tumor will definitely have to come out because it could bleed again.

They are supposed to call me tomorrow to schedule that surgery. It will involve taking about a third of my stomach out and reconnecting the rest of it to the duodenum. If it is in a different place than where Dr. Wiersema (the dr that did the endoscopic ultrasound) described then that plan might change, but he is not thinking I will lose my whole stomach...thank goodness.

I will have to have some pre-op tests, as usual, and I think they will schedule those when they call me tomorrow also. I will be in the hospital 5-7 days. I will not be able to drive for at least two weeks then it depends on whether I am taking pain killers or not. I could be off work up to six weeks, but he thinks with my job and my boss letting me come home if I don't feel good, I should be able to be back in three to four weeks.