Thoracic Surg Visit

Saw the thoracic surgeon yesterday afternoon. He was nice, very direct, dealt with Brent, who is a bit of a donkey on the edge at this point, very well. I liked him. A lobectomy is my best choice. He gave us all the worst case scenarios, which of course, he must. He will do a less invasive type of the surg by making incisions beneath my right arm and using scopes, however, if anything goes south he will convert to the old time method of an incision beneath my right shoulder blade and go from there. He said it shouldn't be too hard on me because my lungs were in great shape according to my PFT's and I was skinny! (Yeah for someone being happy I'm skinny!!!) The most disturbing point he brought up was his concern that the tumor, while in a branch off the right bronch, is very close to the right main stem. He will send frozen sections from the final incision removing the lobe from the right bronch to pathology while I am in surg, and has to keep cutting until he gets clear margins. If he has to cut too much, I will have to have the entire right lung removed because he will not have enough of the remaining bronch to attach the lower lobes to.

At any rate, we are on for the lobectomy for Friday and the brain radiation on Tuesday. We just have to confirm with the brain guys that that window is sufficient. They indicated that it would be when Brent spoke with them the other day, but he has already put in a call to them just to make sure this morning.

Love to each of you. C