We Have A Strategy, We Have A Tactic, We Have A Tactician, We Have A Time and Place; In Short, We Are Ready To Go

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Yesterday Joan, Linda and I met with the recommended surgeon, Dr. Roderick McKee. He is a very tall, very thin fellow somewhere, I would guess, in his forties. He comes very highly recommended by several of my “cancer club” members as does Dr. Sims, the oncologist who sent me to McKee. He did an physical examination and took us into his office to look at the PET Scan and MRI shots of the tumor. He spent some time explaining them and how an operation would be preformed and what it’s objectives would be. His verdict is that; it looks like it is in early stage, hasn’t obviously spread and that I am a very good candidate for surgery. He was very nice, very open and all of us agreed that we liked him a lot.

I need to have a couple of more checks before the operation such as getting a pulmonary test, which he uses as a base line to compare results and a check of my heart condition by my primary care doctor John Reidel. I see Reidel on Friday at 11:30 AM and the pulmonary test at 10:15 AM on Monday the 9th. I am scheduled for surgery on Thursday the 19th.

The scenario that McKee outlined was very much the same as that which Simms told of. Incision between my ribs, removal of the top lobe of the left lung, examination of the area for signs of spread of the cancer, close back up with some drains installed, a week in the hospital to allow healing and drainage, six weeks or so of recovery and perhaps additional treatment if indicated by what is observed during surgery and subsequent testing to be determined by Sims. So it looks like I may be back in stride by my birthday on June 11th if things go well.

Excuse the italicized “notice” above. I have heard from several people that they wanted to comment but were stopped by a request for a password. I hope the instructions above help and that you will make comments frequently because I value them a great deal.

Right now, that’s all the news from Stratham, NH. Thanks to all of you for your continued support an prayers.