I said I’d write this post, but the truth is, I don’t want to. It feels like having to tell people about my diagnosis all over again. Hope existed in the fact that I was stage I. That a simple surgery could remove all the cancer. Because removing the cancer led to just a 5% chance of the cancer returning within 5 years. Before, everything sounded so good.
And then the pathology report.
It didn’t come back as was expected. At all.
The cancer spread to the pleural lining. It has spread to four of the lymph nodes they’ve tested as well.
They now type my cancer as Stage IIIA.
Quite a difference from Stage I. Instead of completing treatment with surgery, surgery begins treatment.
I’m unsure what else treatment will involve now. I will be going back to Cleveland Clinic on Thursday to meet with both an medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist to try to establish a plan to move forward. Hopefully, treatment will likely involve an third oncologist close to home who will be able to follow the Cleveland Clinic doctor’s plan and treat me a little closer to home.
I don’t know what the future will bring, but I continue to face it one day at a time the best I can.
Ugh! What an awful thing to learn. B st wishes from r successful treatment