Since all 4 Curtis siblings are in Searcy right now, I bet all of you cousins have an accurate update, but for any others out there that may be keeping up with my grandfather, here's the latest:
We were supposed to get the biopsy results on Monday, but had to wait until Tuesday. Grr. Anway, they did confirm that the mass is cancerous and that it is an aggresive type. This kind of cancer starts in the bladder, moves through and into the muscle, then attacks the lymph nodes, and then the bone. The doctor said that Papaw is in between stages 2 and 3.
They did a bone scan yesterday and studied his lung area, too, and found that the cancer had not reached either of these places--yea! His lymph nodes did not appear to be enlarged, which means that they are not overtaken by cancer, though it's possible that there could still be a small amount there. They won't know for certain if there is cancer there until they go in and do the surgery to remove the entire bladder and infected muscle tissue around it.
He has to have a kind of heart surgery, though, before the bladder surgery to ensure that his heart will stay strong through the 2nd surgery. After his biopsy on Thursday, his heartrate shot to over 200, and they put him in CCU until they could manage the heartrate. So, the heart surgery does something to prevent that from happening again (I'm a little fuzzy on those details). He'll have to go to Little Rock for that surgery b/c it has to be done by this specialist there at Baptist Medical Center. Since Papaw will already be in LR for that surgery, his doctor recommended that he just stay there to have the bladder surgery. I'm SO happy about that. I think he will receive MUCH better care there than in good old White County Hospital.
So, what we're waiting on is for the doctors to get their schedules together to see when they can do the surgery. They seem to be all on the same page that this is urgent, so that's good. Hopefully we'll have surgery dates soon.
Two blogs in one day--two very different topics!
Keep praying everyone!
3 comments:
Hey Kim--really glad we're messenging lately. Love you and wish you all the good things in life. Can't wait to see you in October! Love, K ^_^
Tell Johnathan that Aunt K loves him!
Your family is in our prayers! Keep us posted!
You have really great taste on catch article titles, even when you are not interested in this topic you push to read it
Post a Comment