im going to be going into some frank an gory details, now. . . stop reading immediately if youre prone to sqeamishness or despair.
the tumor is at the root of my tongue. to take it out, they have to somehow cut out a major portion of the root but salvage the functionality of the rest.
the surgery will be in two parts. . take it apart then put it back together. the first excision part is about two hours with my oncologist dr ryu, and the second part is five hours with reconstruction specialist dr jung.
its not simple or risk free, and ive had frank discussions with the doctors about percentages but im not going to mention them here. what i will say here is. . . im not finished being a teacher and im not finished on planet earth, ergo i need my voice (tongue) and i need my life.
the reconstructive part of the surgery is complicated. they need to replace arteries and veins. fortunately, apparently my body has spares. they have selected my right forearm to be the donor. thats the picture that ive attached below . . . dr jung drew a map of some solid prospects. they will take them out and use them to reattach my tongue. this is called flap surgery or another greek name i didnt quite catch.
after surgery i will be in icu for two days . . they have to monitor very closely for any possibe necrosis (a sign the reattached vessels are not working and cells arent getting blood) and race back for another try at reconstruction in the event of a problem.
the following several weeks are still critical so i will remain in hospital. but recovery of full tongue function is a matter of months or even years. if i remain a speaking teacher, i may be a quiet one with an impediment.
and only after im recovered from the surgery and past any danger of a need for additional surgeries can i begin phase two. . . radiation. thats because the chance of remaining metastasized cells with this type of cancer is way too high to just rely on hacking out the visible tumor and calling it a day.
im not certain of the schedule tomorrow but it will start early thurs korean time. i doubt i will post much the first day or two after but who knows. . . im finding a strong solace in blogging the minutiae of this experience, as it serves as a bond of unity with my globally distributed core community of friends and family. so that being the case i may reach for this phone in my first lucid moment.
ill try to get to a few more thoughts tonight.
[sent from samsung galaxy tab.]
