Finally a diagnosis!!

We finally got a diagnosis! Tom's doctors (general surgeon and heme/onc) presented his case in their biweekly "Tumor Conference" this week. As a result the other members of the conference looked at his case with "a fresh set of eyes" and recommended some more tests. Those tests led us to another doctor, a urologist, because everything is now indicating that Tom has testicular cancer. He will have surgery Wednesday to remove the cancerous nodule and then, depending on what type of testicular cancer it turns out to be, they will decide whether to do chemo, radiation, or surgery to remove surrounding lymph nodes and in what order those things will occur.
The surgery Wednesday will be outpatient surgery at St.Vincent East. We are doing pretty well. It has been such a blessing to have Tom's mom here to help out and let me go back to clinical. We appreciate all of you and your prayers and kind words. We are very thankful to finally have a diagnosis and especially something that is so easily treated! (Dr. Bragg, the urologist said ~98% cure rate)
MB

Update #752

Well we heard back just now from the most recent biopsy. They are still going to run more tests but for now we know:

It looks like:
Fibrous outside layers
Necrotic (dead) inside

It's Likely Not:
Lymphoma
Lymphoid Tumor
Hodgkin's Disease
Metastatic
Adenocarcinoma
Aggressive Growth

It Could Be:
Soft Tissue Carcinoma
Desmoid Tumor (although he said it would be unusual because the necrosis inside)
Weird Malignancy (Heme/Onc's words, not mine)
Fibrous Growth/Tumor

He said that surgery may be our therapeutic choice, but we will decide that when we hear back from the rest of the tests (middle to end of this week at the earliest).

Thanks again for all your prayers, kind words, calls, emails, etc.
MB

Update

We just heard back from the biopsy, and still really don’t know much more than we did before. The biopsy revealed that there was “fibrinous and necrotic debris” and that the sample was “suspicious for malignancy.” So we have been referred to an oncologist for further testing/treatment.

I'll keep yall updated.

We still appreciate your prayers and concern.

MB

New eyes

Oh yeah, I am going this afternoon to have Lasik this afternoon. My mom and Luke actually on their way now to help us today and tomorrow.

News... kinda

Well... the good news is we finally heard from the doctor today. Unfortunately (maybe?) all the tests were negative, so Tom does not have a pheochromocytoma. The problem is we still don't know what he does have. We are going to the hospital tomorrow morning for a biopsy so hopefully we will know exactly what we are dealing with by the end of this week/early next week. The doctor really doesn't know what we are dealing with, until we get the results of the biopsy, but he said that it might be either a necrotic lymph node or an isolated (only one node) lymphoma.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and words of concern. We really appreciate all your encouragement.

MB

Still, still waiting

We were expecting to hear from the surgeon yesterday "at the latest," but it turns out that we will not hear back from them until maybe Tuesday (8/12) since the tests were too specialized. That is the only news to report for now. Once the test results are finalized and provided to the surgeon, we should get a call from him with the game plan at that point.

I have been quite "ill" today so far and pitched what my Momma calls a "Yankee Fit" (my Daddy and his family are all from Ohio, so genetics help). But Tom is more rational and has made me back off and wait patiently. I am not very good at being on this side of the healthcare veil.

MB

Still Waiting

We thought we would hear today, but apparently not all of the test results are back yet, so we still haven't heard anything. Thank you so much for all the prayers, we are so grateful to all of you for your prayers and you kind words.

MB & T

Our Whirlwind

(Written 8/4/8 4:00 AM)
Well tonight/this morning has been a sleepless night in the Greenway Casa. Tom's back began hurting this afternoon shortly after lunch, and continued geting worse all day. Finally after we left evening worship service early, we went to the ER around 9:30. Here it is 4:30am and I am still up... not good. We are home now, Tom is resting, but we have an appointment in the morning with a surgeon who is (hopefully soon) going to biopsy the 5 cm "nodule" in Tom's left side. We don't have any idea what it is at this point, but we are begging for your prayers. Two prayers have already been answered; 1) we went to the ER and found out what s going on, and 2) Tom is sleeping comfortably right now.
I'll keep you updated as we know more what is going on.


(Written 8/4/8 4:00 PM)
We just got back and settled in from seeing the doctor. The current thought is that the mass is a extra-adrenal (outside the adrenal gland) pheochromocytoma (epinepherine/norepinepherine secreting usually benign tumor). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheochromocytoma

We are running more lab and will go have a MRI tomorrow to confirm/rule out this diagnosis. Tom is feeling a lot better, his pain and nausea are both much more under control. I am feeling a lot better since this is a condition that I have both recently studied and seen 2 cases in my short time in clinical. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse.

We still will cherish your prayers and will keep everyone updated. We won't hear back anything until Wednesday or Thursday.
Love to you all,
MB and Tom