New Doctor! (Update on where the Cancer is)

So on October 7, I was able to go to in the Huntsman Cancer Institute and meet with my new cancer checkup doctor. It was the best doctor visit I have ever experienced. When I arrived at the office I was checking in about 15 minutes early and while I was checking in the nurse was coming out to call me back. (Say, What?! they are calling me back early!) That's never happened at any doctor's office. The nurse waited while I was getting all checked in. Once I got back to the room to wait for the doctor I had not waited for more than a few minutes and the doctor walked in, 5 minutes prior to my assigned appointment, and the doctor apologized for making me wait. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. This was incredible. The doctor sat down and had all my medical records in hand and asked me if I had any questions. Seriously! I couldn't believe it. I asked him what stage of cancer I had as no one had ever told me and he said I'm still in stage 1 as it's still in the local lymph nodes. My next question for him was will I ever be free of cancer and he explained it this way, you're cancer number can be low and manageable but it's just a matter of when and where it'll manifest itself and we'll just need to watch to see. This was surprisingly an answer that brought comfort to me. If we could just manage it that works for me. My last and final question for him was what treatment is available when it does return. He explained to me that the best treatment for my type of cancer is surgery if it continues to appear in my lymph nodes. There are other options if it progresses.

During the visit he explained to me that I did the right thing in doing the surgery last year he just couldn't believe that my previous doctor wanted to wait or do the alcohol ablation. He explained to me that the option for alcohol ablation is when we can confirm that the cancer is only in one lymph node and that it's no where else. That was such a relief. I couldn't believe that I had made the right decision without the consent of my doctor. We have decreased my cancer count to almost zero with doing the surgery. He explained that if we find the cancer has returned we'll want to be cautious as to when we do the surgery because of the risk of the voice-box. Everything he told me simply made sense and gave me peace. I knew this was the place I needed to be. While in this appointment he ordered blood work, did an ultrasound of my neck and he even ordered a chest CT scan. The doctor explained to me that if it where to move on it'd progress to my lungs and he just wanted to get a base line of where things were at so he could better keep track of things.

The next week on October 14, I went in for my chest CT scan and a couple days ago on October 15, I was told that it was clean and that we would only need to watch over the three darker lymph nodes he found from the ultrasound. The doctor explained that I should do a self check every couple weeks and if I feel anything hard or different then I'll need to call and get an appointment. He will see me every six months for blood work, ultrasound and possibly a chest CT scan. Here's to the next six months!