Surgically speaking
The meeting went well with my surgeon - he thinks I look good. I will have an operation on 16 July though it won't be on my liver. I'll be having a exploratory pelvic examination. Yep, you guessed it - the ovaries are back on the front page again. When the meeting started he actually wanted to do a completely different surgery: "we'll just remove the ovaries and move on to the liver."
Well as I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater I countered his decision highlighting what my oncologists had told me: really looks benign, no need to worry. He reacted quite quickly by clarifying that my oncologists aren't surgeons and then he calmed his horses down a bit. He pulled out my scans again and reread the ultrasound report. He requested I have another scan performed before the op - at his hospital (then he saw my face and said I could have it done at my hospital but I need to provide the radiologists with all the information about my surgeries as he fears they are not reading the scans properly). Froggy said it's normal that he would prefer me to have the scan done at his hospital: he knows the team and if there's a doubt about anything he can go and see them quite easily whereas with my hospital everything has to be done via phone, fax post and email.
Anyhoo, the long and the short of it is he will not attack my liver until he is certain there's nothing untoward with my ovaries. If he sees anything remotely questionable he will remove it. I can hack that - it has to be anyway. He'll be performing an extemporaneous biopsy (so I don't get out of the biopsy after all Magicalobizuth, *hugs*) of the liquid in the cyst, the cyst cells and probably of both the ovaries. Those results and his experience will make him take whatever action is necessary: draining of said liquid, removal of cysts, removal of anything else that harbours cancerous cells. The exploratory pelvic exam should only take a few hours to perform. Unlike a hysterectomy or simply removing my ovaries which are relatively quick surgeries, the biopsy work and, more specifically, waiting around for the results necessarily lengthens the duration of the operation.
The liver operation will take place in September which leaves me a few more months to gorge myself.
All in all I'm taking this next operation in my stride. (Although anyone in Chat last night can attest to an unusual augmentation in my overall silliness - compensation I'm sure.) If the professor removes anything then it had to be taken out anyway. If it's a question of my life or my ovaries there really isn't a question at all.
Well as I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater I countered his decision highlighting what my oncologists had told me: really looks benign, no need to worry. He reacted quite quickly by clarifying that my oncologists aren't surgeons and then he calmed his horses down a bit. He pulled out my scans again and reread the ultrasound report. He requested I have another scan performed before the op - at his hospital (then he saw my face and said I could have it done at my hospital but I need to provide the radiologists with all the information about my surgeries as he fears they are not reading the scans properly). Froggy said it's normal that he would prefer me to have the scan done at his hospital: he knows the team and if there's a doubt about anything he can go and see them quite easily whereas with my hospital everything has to be done via phone, fax post and email.
Anyhoo, the long and the short of it is he will not attack my liver until he is certain there's nothing untoward with my ovaries. If he sees anything remotely questionable he will remove it. I can hack that - it has to be anyway. He'll be performing an extemporaneous biopsy (so I don't get out of the biopsy after all Magicalobizuth, *hugs*) of the liquid in the cyst, the cyst cells and probably of both the ovaries. Those results and his experience will make him take whatever action is necessary: draining of said liquid, removal of cysts, removal of anything else that harbours cancerous cells. The exploratory pelvic exam should only take a few hours to perform. Unlike a hysterectomy or simply removing my ovaries which are relatively quick surgeries, the biopsy work and, more specifically, waiting around for the results necessarily lengthens the duration of the operation.
The liver operation will take place in September which leaves me a few more months to gorge myself.
All in all I'm taking this next operation in my stride. (Although anyone in Chat last night can attest to an unusual augmentation in my overall silliness - compensation I'm sure.) If the professor removes anything then it had to be taken out anyway. If it's a question of my life or my ovaries there really isn't a question at all.