In the heat of my last post I indicated that my wife’s cancer had spread everywhere and was soon going to kill her, and at the time that was her surgeon’s fear, given the advanced state of the main tumor.  Since then we have learned that things may not be as dire as originally feared.

No Metastasis Apparent

Last week, at about 2 weeks post-op, we met with the surgeon, and he presented us with the results from the pathology folks.  They examined everything the surgeon took out, included 20 or so lymph nodes, and found that none of the lymph nodes had any trace of cancer.  The doctor indicated that this was strong evidence that the tumor had not, after all, strongly metastasized.  It does not prove that cancer has not spread to other places farther away from that site on the colon, but if it had done any spreading it seems logical that it would first done so in the lymph nodes nearer to the tumor.  The surgeon had also examined what he could see of her liver and other organs and could see nothing that indicated cancer anywhere on them.

So we may have dodged a major bullet here.

I still stand by my negative and derisive stance in my previous post with respect to the alternative therapies, however.  There is utterly no reason to suppose that any of it has helped — if Essiac was going to help, then by golly it would have stopped the main tumor from growing.  And it did not.

A Lingering Cancer Site

Something discovered in the CT scan done to determine what was causing her fever back at the time was a small site of cancer further down what remains of my wife’s colon.  This is down towards the rectum, which is basically inoperable, but the surgeon said its location outside the perineum makes it eminently treatable with radiation and chemotherapy.  He expects such treatment to be 100% likely to produce a complete destruction of that tumor.  He was quite positive about it, which makes me feel positive, too.

My wife is still planning to use Essiac tea for this remaining tumor, by the way, but I will be using all my powers of persuasion (if I have any) to urge her to go with the conventional medical treatment.  In addition to the Essiac, if I have to, and in replacement of it if I can.

Recovery Going Well

Recovery from the surgery has been progressing very well.  Because of the peritonitis, the surgeon left the lower half of the incision open, in order to help prevent a recurrence of the infection.  The wound is re-packed twice daily with damp gauze, and it is in a condition where rapid growth is gradually closing it up.  I watched the nurses doing to re-pack a few times in the hospital, and now I am primarily responsible for doing it at home.  I am in a position to watch the healing process, and it is amazing to observe.  When I first saw the wound it went all the way down to the muscles and fascia of the abdomen, but over the past 2 weeks it has completely covered them except for a little tiny portion.  In two or three weeks it will completely heal, and be totally filled in!  Amazing what the human body can do.

The wife is becoming more active, and though she has still not ventured upstairs in the house, she does move about to the kitchen, and to the back yard to sit in the sun for brief periods (yes, we have been having a lot of sun over the last few weeks).  At some point, she will venture finally upstairs and will discover that our bedroom is a discombobulated mess!  I look forward to that!  Not really, and I have pledged to myself that I will straighten things up before she gains enough strength to come upstairs.