Prior to my biopsy, this mystery mark was made on my left shoulder. Not certain as to the significance, but hopefully it aided them in getting the right (make that left) side of me.
Aside from that, I am left with two tiny entry points high on my left breast as well as parallel tracks on my left cheek—a red mark from lying face down on top of the oxygen tubes for more than four hours.
Unlike my previous biopsies (there is a benefit to scar tissue), my lung did not partially collapse this time. Diane was able to take me back home with her with the caution that I was to have no alcohol. Therefore, I only had a small glass of wine that evening 😉
What I know thus far is that they were able to get adequate tissue, including a sample for the sponsor of my trial (a token of appreciation). Over the next four weeks, results of genetic testing should start trickling in. This is the watch and wait part of cancer.
Alice called me yesterday (as well as once the night of the biopsy and she also came to see me twice on the day of—goddess that she is). This was a CT assisted biopsy and the surgeon/radiologist who performed the procedure is also the radiologist who reads my scans, so he is extraordinarily familiar with my body/cancer. He told Alice that the tumor around my heart (which they did not biopsy–too proximal) has grown very little and that the tissue that they did sample–along the chest wall–is growing rather slowly. She feels radiation may be an option there but not for the cancer hugging my heart.
Aside from that, there is nothing concrete to discuss yet. I am optimistic, she is cautiously so.
It really is pull the rabbit out of the hat time. And as important as the magician (Alice) is, I am focused on that rabbit.
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 