What We Found Out

We left for Nashville at 11:00 this morning. My appointment wasn't until 2:00ct, but we wanted to stop and have lunch in Cookville at "Cheddars", a restaurant we went to on the night before my last surgery. They have the best onion ring appetizers. I have been dreaming of them!!!!
I have to admit, my mood was pretty somber this morning. I was really dreading this trip, afraid of receiving news I did not want to hear. I took along my lap top and my bookwork, and stayed busy during the one and one half hour wait after signing in, before being called back. It did help keep my mind off of things and the time passed fairly quickly. Wendell was busy passed out in a recliner in the waiting room!!!!
Dr. Netterville is one of the most kind, caring, compassionate men I have ever met. He seems to genuinely care about his patients. So what did we find out?.....
They removed 26 lymph nodes, of which three were positive for cancer. I had read on the Internet that if a certain nerve is removed, I don't remember the name of the nerve and am too tired to look it up now :),the numbness will be permanent. Dr. Netterville said he did have to remove that nerve. I asked if my numbness will be permanent and he said one of two things will happen, either the surrounding nerves will fill in and the numbness will go away or the numbness will be permanent and I will learn to ignore it. There's no way of knowing which will happen. I have a hard time imagining being able to ignore it, but I guess with time I will eventually get use to it. He said everything from my surgery was healing wonderfully. The next step is to go back to the radiology oncologist and get started with the radiation. He said it would be up to the oncologist whether or not to administer chemotherapy along with the radiation. Dr. Netterville said chemo sometimes helps the cancer cells to be more successible to the radiation.
The nurse stayed in the room after Dr. Netterville left to kind of give me a heads up on what to expect with the radiation. She said I would not fully recover from the effects of it for at least a year after completing the treatments. She said if in nine months I still have no energy and feel bad, to not be surprised, it will be normal. Wow, my normal has changed so much over the last few months. But I am thankful! No "new" bad news today. I am blessed!!!