Fatigue

Iva got news from MD Anderson. "We are not sure," was the general consensus. "Let's wait until you get worse." Dissatisfied with that line of reasoning, Iva called the oncologist back and asked why he didn't feel being more aggressive was a good next move. He ultimately set her up to see the thoracic surgeon, the guy that could possibly remove her lung metastases. We met with him on Tues. He has her scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, June 9th. He wants to resect the right lower lobe of her lung where her largest tumor is--it's about 1 cm in size. He would then work around the rest of her lung, squishing as he went, looking for additional tumors. He calls it "palpating," but squishing is a much better description, don't you think? He would then place a chest tube in to reinflate her left lung, which still remains partially collapsed even after her last surgery. If it reinflates, he will be able to better see if there is any tumors there--again by employing the sophisticated squishing method. However, the left lung surgery would be done at a later date. It all sounded very good and promising, but at the cost of nearly $70,000 for just the one surgery, we can't afford him. So we asked if he knew of anyone else qualified to perform such an operation. He recommended someone and Iva saw her yesterday. She is at the Methodist Hospital here in Houston, which is a private hospital and therefore, has a charity program. We are super hopeful that they will not only cost less, but also that Iva can get approved for financial assistance with them. The Methodist Hospital also has a spine surgeon she is consulting with on Wednesday next week to see if he can perform the operation on the spine tumor. It is not a confirmed tumor, but they think it should be scheduled for removal, just in case.

All of this is very good, but unfortunately, no one is celebrating. Tension is high. We have all been dealing with our little bits of this tragedy for well over a year now. Fatigue is setting in.