December 3 2008 OHSU revisited

Aunt Susan and Jim went with me to OHSU to find out my MRI results and the next steps for treatment. We met with the orthopedic surgeon first and he said the my ankle and foot MRI shows no more tumors, but from the tumor they removed they could see on the outside margins that there were cancer cells, so the know that there is still cancer in my ankle. They are not able to just remove those cells because they are microscopic and they like to have a 1 inch clean margin around the tumor site - I know that I do not have an inch to give on my ankle because they would run into bone and other stuff that I need to walk. He said that I should take action soon by either amputation or radiation. He wanted me to decide in the next couple of days. He also said that there were no statistics to say either option would cure me. He said if it was his ankle he would start with radiation and then have amputation as the back up plan if tumors came back. The radiation specialist said the same things and also said with radiation it could cause shrinkage of the fluid around the ankle so that it is stiff and painful to walk, but that may not appear until 5,10, 15 years. The main side effect of radiation is tiredness - I am already tired all the time with 3 active boys - so this should be not big deal -ha, ha! I would need to receive 33 treatments 5 days a week starting soon, but I could go to the Salem Hospital for the treatments. I did sleep on my decision and have realized that I like my foot and ankle and will try to keep them around as long as I can. I have now made future appointments for a PET scan - will check my whole body for cancer and also the appointment to review the PET. I will post those when they happen.