The Start Of Our Journey

We recieved the news today from the surgeon that they will be doing partial gastrectomy and removal of lymph nodes and possible removal of spleen. This will be done on may 6. as of now no chemo. The oncologist seems to think this is non invasive. I am new to understanding this and seems to me if he's worried about the nodes and spleen does this mean spreading or what? Sometimes they really don't explain alot. Maybe they are waiting until after surgery. The dr did say they will have a pathologist on standby to biopsy the nodes and spleen. The tumor is billard ball sized and said it was a slow growing tumor. We are praying every day. I guess we will no more after the 6th.

jan

Typically with a gastrectomy marginal tissue is taken to rule out spreading. They are probably taking both lymph nodes and the spleen because those are very common places for stomach cancer to spread. You don't want to take any chances with spreading because, as most would agree, gastric cancer that spreads to the lymphatic system or the liver is sometimes impossible to treat. My dad had his entire stomach, spleen, and most of his pancreas removed and all organs besides his stomach were clear. No side effects of the removal and the recovery was the same as just a stomach removal surgery. Don't panic. It sounds like the docs are just being extra careful and are following pretty standard protocal.

Good luck.

On 5/2/2008 jan1425 wrote:

We recieved the news today from the surgeon that they will be doing partial gastrectomy and removal of lymph nodes and possible removal of spleen. This will be done on may 6. as of now no chemo. The oncologist seems to think this is non invasive. I am new to understanding this and seems to me if he's worried about the nodes and spleen does this mean spreading or what? Sometimes they really don't explain alot. Maybe they are waiting until after surgery. The dr did say they will have a pathologist on standby to biopsy the nodes and spleen. The tumor is billard ball sized and said it was a slow growing tumor. We are praying every day. I guess we will no more after the 6th.

jan

Jan:

I hope things went well for you today?

 MomwithKids