The meeting with the Surgeon

The meeting with the surgeon went well. He too seems thorough. Lord knows he was understanding enough and on the ball enough to have recognized that William needs this biopsy right away.

He had happy words, before he scared the crap out of us. He told us that the hugely swollen lymph nodes usually just melt away during chemo. This is good news since William is becoming more crippled each day from the pain in his enormously swollen leg. At that news, we both actually started looking forward to the vomiting of chemo. Anything to get rid of those swollen nodes.

Then he got down to the brass tacks of the meeting, which was to explain the biopsy procedure and the placement of the "shunt". I don't know what I was picturing, but it sure wasn't what was explained to us today. I guess I pictured just your basic I.V. implant. I wasn't expecting the implant plus a rubber tube that goes directly into the jugular vein and extends all the way down to near his heart. Neither was William.

I was so shocked by this revelation that I didn't ask the surgeon my main question which was "Why is this implant necessary? William doesn't mind getting a new I.V. for each treatment." But that's okay because the surgeon continued to explain that putting the chemo into smaller veins such as the hand or arm burns up those smaller veins because it is so toxic.

At these words our unspoken thoughts once again collided overhead "SO THEY'RE PUTTING IT DIRECTLY INTO HIS/MY HEART INSTEAD?" Apparently, at least from what we managed to grasp after that second revelation, the larger blood vessels move the chemo through much more rapidly, leaving less time for damage. He didn't say NO damage, just less damage.

Another fun shunt fact is that "sometimes they get infected". Which means that during chemo when his immune system is depressed, should the shunt become infected it could rampage through his entire body quickly. It would have to be removed and the site nuked with antibiotics. A new shunt would have to be placed. I don't even want to think about hospital borne viruses and bacteria. I'll think about that tomorrow. Maybe not.

So, that's where we stand this Friday evening. We're actually wondering which might be worse, that swollen leg and the lymphoma or the chemo. I reckon we're at "The treatment may kill him, but he'll die without it anyway." stage.

The biopsy is scheduled for Monday morning. We're to arrive at the hospital between 9:30 and 10. They'll prep him and the surgery will be around noon.