Biopsy results are in

My surgeon called this afternoon with my biopsy results. The news is good.

The tumor was a typical carcinoid. This is what I had hoped to hear. A typical carcinoid doesn't tend to be invasive. (The alternative is an atypical carcinoid which would have been less happy news.) My initial biopsy from the bronchoscopy showed a typical carcinoid but that was with a limited sample. This result comes from slicing up the actual tumor in detail.

One lymph node was involved but that was because it was very close to the tumor and the tumor actually grew into it. It doesn't indicate that any of the carcinoid cells had escaped. No other lymph nodes showed any bad cells. This means that there's no indication that the disease has spread. I won't need to have chemotherapy or other follow-up treatments like radiation.

What a relief. I didn't realize how much this had been weighing on me until I heard the relief in the voices of my family and friends when I told them. I will now go into a life-long monitoring phase where I'll have scans and other tests at intervals to make sure that nothing else has bubbled up. Those will be frequent at first - every three months - and will become less frequent as time passes. I'll happily go through all of that.

So, another chapter closes in this saga. And happily so.

In other news.............

I'm sure you have been concerned about the $%@&! cat. It turns out that she has some sort of bladder problem - either an infection, cystitis, or a stone of some kind. Jim, who didn't realize that his offer to help care for me would involve cat health care as well, is retrieving her from the vet now. We'll have to monitor her progress to see if the antibiotics help. In the meantime, the laundry will keep running as we try to clean up the various comforters, sheets, and blankets that she has anointed.

Another emotional roller coaster of a day, with happy news at the end.