the word from the doc - this afternoon

An update on mom...she's in the recovery room right now. Been there about two hours so far. The doctor said the cancer was pretty extensive (stage IIIC). A tumor the size of a tennis ball on her ovary, with outcrops pretty much all over her peritoneal cavity. Spots on the diaphram, in the lymph nodes, appendix. Also had a big mass on her colon. Dr. Rushing opted to scrape off as much as he could instead of removing that part of the colon. There was (is) a lot of trauma to the area so it's likely she'll be here longer, anywhere from 3-6 days. They gave her a couple units of blood, too.

Main thing: he's optimistic that she'll recovery well. He "debulked" the tumors to the 1 cm or less size, which is what they aim for to begin chemotherapy. He did say that she won't get the chemo directly into the pertoneal cavity until later, given that she needs to heal up first. She'll start with the IV therapy only, then add in the localized chemo.That's it for the moment. We'll keep you posted.

valarie