Big time update...

Well, the surgery was June 25th and was over 7 hours long. Ugh. They took the tumor in the front of the tongue (which was about 1 cm), the tumor in the back of the tongue (which was 3 cm x 4 cm). Dr. Blanco also took my right tonsils and all of the lymph nodes on the left side of my neck. I spent two days in SICU (surgical intensive care unit), with part of those two days being on a respirator. Oh, the joy. Fortunately, for that time, they did me a favor and kept me pretty well sedated, so I don't remember much of it, only that was not the most comfortable thing in the world to deal with.

Once they moved me from SICU, I spent two more days in a regular room before being released on the 29th.

We had an appointment with Dr. Levine (he's the medical oncologist) on the 30th. They didn't have the final pathology from the surgery back yet, so he went over all the options we had for chemo, which was the next step in the process. Let's just say that was not a fun visit. He was talking about chemo lasting 6 months instead of 6 weeks and the possibility of having to go through another round of radiation. Now, he was telling us that all of this was a worst case scenario, and nothing was written in stone, but it was still unsettling listening to all of that.

Fast forward to todays appointment with Dr. Blanco. We went in expecting to hear the worst. This is the news we get from Dr. Blanco;

1) all the margins came back from pathology negative. That means he got all the cancer.

2) I will not have to go through radiation again, due to all the complications I had with it the last time I had to do it.

3) They are holding off the chemotherapy at this time. They feel that since there is nothing there, it doesn't make sense to run me through the chemo at this time. They are going to monitor me closely and take things from there.

If I have missed something, Katie will make sure to let y'all know what it is.

As of now, I am cancer free. Again. That means I win. Again.

'nuff said.