You might have seen that David and I went back to Chicago a couple of weeks ago for his six month check-up with his oncologist. I wanted to give you an update.
About a year and a half ago, David was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer on his right calf. He underwent a major surgery to remove the tumor which ended up being about 5 inches by 9 inches and went down to the bone in his leg. At the time, there was a risk that the surgeon would have to possibly amputate David’s leg and this type of cancer can pop up in his brain, lungs, liver and other internal organs. The surgery was successful and the doctor was able to remove the tumor and scans indicated that the cancer had not spread internally. Praise God!
The doctors have continued to keep a close eye on David since then. We head back to Chicago every six months and they run a bunch of scans and tests to make sure everything inside looks good. And we’ve been blessed with good, clear reports every time so far.
Last year, David had a wound that wouldn’t heal on his right knee. Just to be cautious, the surgeon opted to schedule a surgery to remove the wound completely so it could all be looked at under the microscope to be certain that there wasn’t cancer lurking in it and then they took a skin graft from David’s ankle and placed it over his knee. This surgery was successful as well. There were no signs of cancer and with time, David’s knee has closed up.
Sadly, around that same time, David bumped into something out in our garage and it created an open spot on his right leg. That wound hasn’t healed in the past six months so we had the burn doctor look at it a couple weeks ago when we were up in Chicago. We thought they might do a punch biopsy in the Burn Clinic while we were there. Unfortunately, that doctor didn’t want to perform the punch biopsy and instead he suggested that we schedule another surgery in the near future. You see, punch biopsies aren’t completely accurate in diagnosing cancer. The cancer cells can be ¼ of an inch off to the side of where the tool punches tissue for the biopsy and the results can come back as a false negative. That’s basically what happened two years ago when David was first diagnosed with cancer so our surgeons like to be extra cautious, which we appreciate.
So, all of David’s scans came back cancer-free again! Praises!
But we need to schedule a surgery for another operation on his right leg, so the doctors can remove all of the open wound, look at it all under the microscope to make sure it’s cancer-free and then they’ll take another skin graft from David’s ankle and patch the open wound. We’re hoping to schedule this surgery in the next few weeks. David’s not too overly excited about this- he hates losing his independence while he’s recovering from these surgeries. But we agree that it’s better to play it a little safe at this point in the game.
Thanks for praying for us. Thanks for encouraging us.
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