I have had a couple of days full of appointments and have now got a formal treatment plan. Next Wednesday I am having surgery at to remove 6 tumours from my jaw and neck(3 in and around the left jaw and 3 nodes in the right next). I had more scans today to make sure that they were all operable and Neil (my surgeon) is happy that they are. I also have no spread to the lungs (phew!).
I will be in hospital for 3 to 5 days depending on how the radiated side of my neck heals. After that I will have a couple of weeks recovering at home...then comes the worst bit. I will go to Peter MacCallum Hospital (CCC in Melbourne)as an inpatient for a stay of at least three weeks while they radiate my head and neck twice and a day and give me chemotherapy. Hopefully I will be strong enough to leave at the end of treatment. By then it will be Christmas (I know that I have taken extreme measures to have it off this year!).
After being released from Peter Mac I will recuperate at home for however long it takes. The radiation has to monitored very closely because I am being given over the recommended safe levels on the left side of my neck (due to radiation last year) and that has potential to create problems that I don't even want to contemplate at this stage! Certainly Andy, Mum, Tash and I were all teary when the Radiation Oncologist was speaking to us. But it is a calculated risk that has to be taken though if I want my life to extend into 2010 and, hopefully,well beyond.
On the whole I'm feeling much more optimistic and am looking forward to getting this started. My Surgeon was going to be in Queensland on Wednesday but he is flying back to do this surgery (only a day early but I am very grateful!).
(They decided to do the surgery first because the tumours are aggressive and the RO and MO said it takes 6 weeks before you can tell if the chemotherapy has been effective and that would be too late for me if it didn't work!)
Suddenly what they initially regarded as technically very difficult, if not impossible, surgery is now able to be done! Miracles can happen!
Sue
