Well, not entirely true. But it sounded good as a title.
So the first round of pathology results are in...and it's definitely cancer. However, we don't know what type of cancer it is. It has been narrowed down to three: adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and some other type carcinoma. One of these is really slow to grow and spread and if it were this one, it'd be great. For the other two, not so great.
We won't know until the next appointment on Thursday. In the meantime, Dad has a PET scheduled for tomorrow to see if it has metastasized. My sister couldn't understand how they couldn't tell what type it was right away. I think they want to wait until the PET is done so they have all the info.
I'm going to guess that this is squamous cell, as that one apparently likes to grow in the bronchial tubes and that's where the mass was found. But who knows?
No one mentioned if it's possible that this is a cancer from elsewhere that spread to the lung. I guess if they see metastasis, then that means it's very possible.
If we caught this in the early stage, then the 5-year survival rate is decent. If it's late stage...
So more hurry up and waiting.
On an up note, apparently Dad is a good cancer for surgery, so it must be located in a better spot than they originally thought. They're optimistic that they could remove it and preserve the lung. If they can't, his other lung is functioning well enough that it could do the job alone if it had to.
I took a long walk today to clear my head...and to work on losing the next 10 pounds. Since all of the parents bailed on coming out to visit, there's no excuse for me to not work on it. So I walked over to the town line and back. Well, the second town line I came across because I live right on top of a town line: I go to the corner and I'm out of town and into in unincorporated space. So I walked until I reached a line into another town, then walked back.
