Surgery: Take II

Here I am at Providence Portland, where they are making a second attempt at a surgical biopsy.

The Amazing Dr. Handy (according to another doctor: "that's like having Superman rip off your cast") operated on Jared about an hour ago. Now we hurry up and wait for results. This time they didn't make any attempts at on-the-spot diagnosis. Apparently it wouldn't give us any new and relevant information (we already know it's lymphoma, and the very specific information they need is not on-the-spot kinda stuff). So they've whipped Jared's tissue to lab right away. Jared, on the other hand, will have to stick around a while. Dr. Handy says he's got a pretty ugly wound there and doesn't want him going home until tomorrow.

The oncologist (The Amazing Dr. Nichols) came and talked to us before surgery and gave us some updated information. He ordered new CT scans when Jared went in last week so he could have up-to-the-minute information. Here's what we do know:

• It looks like Jared's about at what they call a "bulky stage 1." Essentially meaning there is only one tumor, but it's big. I'm happy to hear a number "1" in there, but a little alarmed at how urgent the doc thinks starting treatment is.
  
• The tumor has grown significantly in the last three weeks. (Jared has started experiencing symptoms of Superior Vena Cava Syndrome now -- swollen head and neck, trouble swallowing and talking, etc.-- because the tumor is compressing one of his major arteries pretty significantly.) The oncologist is concerned enough that he plans to lean on the pathologist for quick results so we can get going.
  
• Doc wants to start Jared on Chemotherapy as soon as he's recovered enough from surgery. This week, hopefully, so he'll be squeezing us into his schedule right away instead of waiting for our next appointment.

Now I just wait for my personal pager to go off so I can go see him (at this hospital, they give the patients pagers so the doctors can find them. ha!).

tic... toc... tic... toc...