03-30-2020
With all the snail-paced test results, and waiting, waiting for schedules, everything is now going at high-speed.
Tomorrow I begin the morning with the Savi Scout implantation. That is with a local, and with ultrasound guidance they will put the Savi Scout in the tumor. It looks like a microchip gun, in many way.
This little grain of rice-sized device has radar technology designed into it, and the doctor will use a tool that tells her exactly where the tumor is located and then she can remove it with precision, insuring that she can get clean margins. After that, I get injected with a radioactive material and a blue dye to locate the sentinel lymph gland. The dye, et. al., last for up to 18 hours, and, together they locate the the gland that would be the first to move cancer through it, if cells get loose. That lymph is removed for biopsy. Results happen a few days after the surgery, but one of them takes a bit longer, so might not get everything for a couple of weeks. I’ve always been fascinated with medicine, so all of this is interesting to me, if it wasn’t happening to me! At least I have some things to do, rather than just waiting like everyone else in our orbit, while trying to deal with the virus that has claimed over 37,000 people worldwide, and nearly 3,000 here in the US so far, and we are just reading the peak of the exposure. While it’s super scary, at least in San Diego, we are fairly low in the numbers compared to many areas In our state. Allowing states to stay open, and do business as usual is about as responsible as giving a two-year-old a bottle of baby aspirin without a child-proof cap! We are all going to pay for that in the long run. Not issuing a nation-wide order to stay at home is a mystery that can only result in more death and suffering. At least I have something else to think about right now, which is looking toward getting healthy again.