[cancer] Dept of things you never thought you'd say -or- Things get worse

It's not every day you find yourself saying, "Please, god, let it be metastatic colon cancer," because that would be the best outcome.

Oncologist consult was a bit more exciting than we'd hoped. In summary (and right now, summary is about all there is), the mass on my liver has vanished. Apparently it was some kind of infection. The mass on my lung is now double the size it was on the May scans, and half again the size it was in July, and has been officially classed as a tumor, pending tissue biopsy. Thoracic surgery has been prescribed, sometime in November.

The surgery will be thoraciscopic, which means far less invasive than last year's colonic resectioning. Shorter hospital stay, much shorter recovery/rehab period. The mass is only about a centimeter in diameter, and it's very distinct, so it's an easy target. Back of my left lung, fairly low down, and the oncologist thinks the surgical plan will be pretty simple.

Next step is a pre-operative consult with the thoracic surgeon. Surgery will be scheduled sometime in November. Post-operatively a tissue biopsy will be conducted on the tumor to determine if it is metastatic colon cancer or a novel lung cancer. (Chemo planning will follow from that determination.)

Hence the remark above — lung cancer would be a far more serious diagnosis, with a much poorer prognosis. Even metastatic colon cancer is damned spooky in terms of cure rates and survivability, but lung...meh. We'll cross that bridge when we've set fire to the stream.

So, no further news likely til after WFC, as I won't see the surgeon before next week. The reader is invited to imagine my mental and emotional state, which I will explicate as is my wont, once I've sorted through it a bit more. For now, calendula_witch and I are keeping on with the keeping on.

A bit later today I'll sit down with the_child and explain things to her. Tonight we're having my immediately family over for a little while. And I'm off to Seattle before the crack of dawn tomorrow on Day Jobbe business, then off to San Jose on Wednesday for WFC. Distractions are a good thing.

More as it develops. Just try and shut me up.