Over the past few days, our doctors have informed us of the need to return to the hospital. The lymph node exam that was done during the operation on June 8th showed no trace of cancer, as far as could be seen with the instruments and timeframe available in the OR.
The results were incomplete.
Traces of cancer cells were found two days later when further examined by the pathologist. Two of the three lymph nodes that were removed showed signs of (what medical professionals call) micrometastasizing. What that means is that traces of cancer cells were found. Whether this means that the cancer has spread is unknown. This is something that none of the physicians in the field of cancer research or treatment seem to be able to fully understand.
The net result is that Anne-Marie must return to the hospital to have more (about 10) lymph nodes removed and examined. We'll know more when we get the results from the new test.
This is not what we had hoped for.
(There is still more to this story. I'll talk about tissue removal tomorrow.)
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