Just about a year ago I wrote what I hoped would be the final post on the "Ernie Takes The Cure" blog, closing the door on the subject of cancer and moving on with life. Unfortunately, it appears that the cancer had other ideas.
To bring you all up to speed, the wonderful doctors at Johns Hopkins have been monitoring Ernie with quarterly PET scans. Before these scans, he drinks a sugary solution. The greedy cancer cells absorb the sugar faster than normal cells. This makes the cancer cells "light up" on the scan so they can be identified. Other abnormal but noncancerous cells do the same thing. Most patients show some abnormal activity during the first few months. After about 12 weeks, though, the docs start to become concerned if this activity remains.
Ernie's scans improved at first, but since this summer there has been one small but concerning "mass" in the left side of his neck, where the cancer had metastisized. The docs watched it throughout the remainder of 2012, not wanting to surgically remove it because of his scleroderma. This week, however, the scan showed that the mass had increased in size and was "lighting up" more than in previous scans. Therefore, our doctors and the "tumor board" recommended surgery to remove it. They normally make this recommendation if they think there is a 20% or greater risk of the mass being cancerous.
The surgery--a selective neck dissection--is scheduled for March 14. The surgery itself will take about 4 hours and be followed by a 5 day or so hospital stay. The surgeon said we should plan to stay in Baltimore for about 10 days so he can take the drains and stitches out before we depart. We will try to return to our old digs in Baltimore during this time. Total recovery time is normally 6 to 8 weeks and includes PT to rehab shoulder muscles that will be damaged during surgery. Note to his golfing buddies: probably no golf during this time but he will be back just in time for the warm weather in May.
As before, I will post news of Ernie's progress as it becomes available. Thanks to you all for your constant support and interest in my dear husband. It has kept us going during this unexpectedly long recovery period.
