Today my surgeon called me to give me an update on the pathology of the cancer. Some of it was not necessarily good news. From all the scans and pre-operative scans, they were anticipating that it had not spread to any lymph nodes. When the pathologist examined the tissue, they found cancer in 14/19 lymph nodes that were extracted. Approximately 74% of the lymph nodes around the stomach. On the bright side 26% of them were not impacted. This would put the staging of the cancer at stage 3a, or 3b. For the next couple of years, we will need to make sure that I am monitored well. The cancer did not spread from the beginning of treatment to the time prior to surgery, which is a good sign. The one thing that was a concern was that from the prior scans it was not evident that the lymph nodes were cancerous, so future scans may not reveal the cancer. The cancer I have is aggressive, so this is not something that is unexpected. It was just a surprise because normally when this occurs the lymph nodes are enlarged and show up on the scans. As far as everyone can tell it has not spread anywhere. The next course of action is to go through chemo and perhaps increase the dosages. I will know more when we speak with the oncologist on June 15th. I may get to experience radiation treatments as well!
Besides that, news things are going well. I have been eating well and have stabilized my weight around 200 pounds. I have a scheduled routine for eating that I follow daily. The bright side is that I have not had any issues or complications and my progression post-surgery has been going well. It is interesting how much of this is mental. I normally do not have any pain or discomfort, but from hearing from the surgeon I have discomfort in my stomach. It is completely in my head as my stomach was fine prior to talking to the surgeon. I have not dropped as much weight as they had predicted, nor have I had any issues with eating, so this is just another interesting twist to the current story. As an exceptional case it should not have too much impact on things.
Quoc Hao