I have been nervous, worried, anxious, (what? Shelly? A worrier?) and sick to my stomach waiting for the results of Ryan's surgery to come back. On Tuesday, Ryan had his followup appointment with Dr. Noyes. We were sitting in the exam room and Dr. Noyes walked in with two thumbs up. I said, "What does that mean?" His reply was, "You don't know what thumbs up means?" I told him that I wanted to hear him say it. He proceeded to tell us that the lymph nodes were negative and that they didn't find any more melanoma. We were/are both elated. This puts Ryan's melanoma at stage 1b (which is a pretty good place to be).
The next step is a DNA test for a clinical trial that Ryan is participating in. They test the node tissue for markers of melanoma. If this comes back positive, half of the patients have all of the lymph nodes in that area removed. The other half are followed by ultrasound of the nodes. I have mixed feelings about this... Supposedly this test has a lot of false positives. I guess we will wait to see what the result is (which takes 6-8 weeks).
The first few days, Ryan was feeling pretty good. This led to the last couple of days filled with shopping, errands, picking up the house, etc. Tonight Ryan was feeling downright lousy. The incision is more painful than ever, tons of drainage, and he was running a low-grade fever with chills. I called the resident for surgery at the U and she told me that they worry more when the fever is 101.5 or higher... She didn't like that Ryan was having chills, however. I am working from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. Christmas Eve, so we will see what Christmas morning brings. I told Ryan that Christmas Day is going to be filled with lots of laying around. I have to work Friday so it makes it a little harder that day but I think he really needs to take it easy. Hopefully it's not infected.
Thanks so much for all of your concern, love, and prayers. Heavenly Father truly does watch over us. Now if we could get little Emily healed....
Merry, Merry Christmas to all!!
2 comments:
Yea!!!! Congratulations you two!! that is huge!. I am so relieved. it was a merry christmas indeed!!
You have been in our every thought and prayer. So glad to hear good news. Now, get better little Emily!
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