In Recovery, and No Sign of Howard...Phew!

Mom's surgeon, Dr. Nelson, came to speak with us at 1pm immediately after Mom had been rolled into recovery. She did very well during the surgery, however the vast majority of it ended up being done manually rather than with da Vinci due to the amount of scar tissue. The biopsy on the ovary showed that this cancer is not a primary ovarian or gynecological cancer, but rather a recurrence of the ureter cancer she had last December. It is a positive thing that she does not have a new type of cancer, but a negative finding that her previous cancer has come back.

The best explanation is that some microscopic cells remained in her body and latched themselves on to her ovary and grew rapidly over the past few months, since there was no detection or evidence of this cancer on her previous CAT scan.

Out came the two ovaries, two fallopian tubes, and uterus. The cervix stayed since it was well adhered to the bladder, and to take it out might have caused more damage than it was worth. Everything will be sent off to pathology, but Dr. Nelson felt fairly positive that the tumor was contained in the ovary. Based on our knowledge that this cancer cell (transitional cell cancer) clearly wasn't eradicated by Mom's last chemo, she's definitely going to have to undergo another round of chemotherapy starting in 3 weeks. What chemotherapeutic drugs they decide to use will depend on what further pathology results show, and what Dr. Rhaman decides would be the best choice. He will replace Mom's primary oncologist (Dr. Donadio) while she's on maternity leave through February.

A bit of an unexpected twist in the adventure, but bottom line is Mom is safe and stable. It will just have to be one step at a time, one day at a time, but we feel more than confident in her team and now it's just a matter of getting her good and strong to kick the ass out of chemo again!