The chest surgeon stated that I was the perfect candidate for surgery. My tumor is small enough to go through my right side, and ribs to get to my lung. They will take out the tumor, and look around for any other tumors that might be too small to show up on the scans. They will then insert a chest tube that will last for 2-3 days post surgery. I will be in the hospital for 3-7 days after the fact, before being released home. They say that it will be approx. 1 month recovery to be back to normal.
The good part about my oncologist is that he has an entire team that goes over all cases. The team meets tonight with the chest surgeon to talk about my case. They should all agree, and if all in agreement I will be scheduled for surgery. They do this to make sure this is the best approach. Keep in mind theyve already discussed my case numerous times, and this has been the plan for months. I will hear from the chest clinics office within the next 2 days and find out when Im scheduled for surgery. Surgery will be set within the next 3 weeks. Could be as early as the end of this week!
After surgery if there are no surprise tumors they will declare me in remission. I will continue to get scans every 12 weeks for the next 2 years. Then as long as I stay cancer free they will decrease the amount of scans per year. I will always be considered stage 4 cancer, so its a matter of when it comes back catching it early. We just have to keep healthy and on watch.
We are very happy at the outcome of what happened today. Elliot tagged along with us and was amazingly patient with us. He sat for approx 4 hours and was well behaved the entire time. By the end he was ready to be on the floor and have freedom. How many 10 month olds could you contain for that long?? So today was quite the day. We will all sleep well in the Schmit household tonight. For today it was a big win for us. As soon as I know more about surgery I will let everyone know, but for now good night. :)
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