Second surgery follow-up

Well, I went in for my second surgery follow-up appointment this afternoon. All that news was good. The incision looked good and the x-rays showed nothing surprising. The pain that I have sometimes been having is to be expected. It comes after exercise and results from stretching the muscles that are still healing. I suspected/hoped that it was something like that but it's good to hear it officially.

I finally remembered to ask if they could tell me how long the tumor had been growing. The doctor told me that it wasn't possible to tell for sure. It could have been as little as five years but could have been as long as twelve years or more. That was interesting to hear. I had read that neuroendocrine tumors grow slowly but I didn't know exactly what that meant. Some people have them growing for a very long time before they're detected. I'm glad my doctor began to suspect mine as early as he did.

Here is a comparison of my x-rays. The one on the left is from last week, the one on the right is from three months ago. Click the image for a much larger version.