Weirdness Continues

I started writing this in the recovery room, feeling remarkably good after coming out of general anesthesia, light though it was.  It was all very quick, leaving me unharmed except a lot of packing in my nose. I can only breathe through my mouth, and I sound particularly sexy.

I'm in no pain.  One of the advantages of having had a tumor that destroyed the third branch of my right trigeminal nerve is that certain parts of my face just don't feel pain.  Also, apparently, they did not pop my dura mater, so my brain is still is its protective bath of fluid, and I didn't mess up the floor with it, which is nice for me.  This is all much better than I expected, and it gets even better.

After the recovery room, they transferred me to the 19th floor of the hospital, the deluxe floor.*  Apparently, patients who are only going to be in for one night get to stay on a luxury floor if there is a free bed.  So I'm sitting on an easy chair, feet on an ottoman, in a carpeted break room that looks like a very dignified office.  There is a big wooden desk with a globe and comfy furniture, surrounded by dark wooden bookshelves and crimson walls with a wooden running board.  A window looks out on the East River.  A few feet away, French doors open to a wood-paneled living room, and, beyond that, a small dining room for people to eat with their families.

But enough about me.  What about this story's main character--the tumor.   This morning in the OR, Dr. Nariz went in again and took a more extensive look.  Easing the schnozoscope into my right nostril.  The image appeared on a monitor next to him.  He peered at the invader and cursed quietly under his breath.**

"Get Skully,"*** he called.  A nurse went running, and alerted Dr. Skully, who whizzed in with her characteristic speed.  She saw it, and her jaw dropped.  "What IS that thing???"  The two if them  stood transfixed.  Then, they quickly took selfies with it and got back to work.

Seriously, though, neither Dr. Skully, nor Dr. Nariz recognized anything about tumor.  We won't know for sure until the pieces have been properly marinated in dyes, and the genes sequenced (if appropriate), but they did do something called a frozen section.

To do a frozen section, you take some of the specimen, and you throw it into the freezer next to the Haagen Daaz.****  Once its frozen, you slice it very thinly and look at it under a microscope.  The lack of staining with dyes limits what you can see, but, usually, a malignancy is fairly obvious.  There would be lots of chaotic, densely-packed cells with large, irregular nuclei.  Dr. Nariz expected to find something like that in some spot in this enormous mess, but, so far, it all just looks like inflammatory schmutz.  But from what?  Pathology and microbiology may have something to say in a week if they don't all resign in frustration.

Now the scary part.

When we saw him a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Nariz was pretty certain that, whatever this was, complete surgical removal was not an option.  Dr. Nariz was able to take out about 25% of the mass today, but the rest of it has weaved itself around vital structures like my right carotid artery, my right optic nerve, and my right temporal lobe, invading nothing,***** but threatening everything.******

But, clearly, Dr. Nariz has gone over it more in his head and with his colleagues.  He now says that, with an infection even with helpful antimicrobials that would help, and even in a benign tumor, anything this big in these places, might be curable only with a long, highly invasive surgery more dangerous than any I have had before, and there would be a big risk of knocking out something essential.  But, damn, it will be fun to write about it!




* The staff told me it is a new thing in all of the major hospitals in the Big Fruit.  Apparently, a lot of people demanded it on patient satisfaction surveys.  If the luxury suites aren't full, and they expect you'll only need one night, you get to stay here.

** To my knowledge, he did not, but it helps to imagine that way.

*** Not real name.  Neurosurgeon we met during the previous fiasco in 2016.

**** I just ate a couple of serving-size containers of Haagen Daaz.

***** Cancers, by definition, invade other tissues as well as spread to different parts of the body.  There is an area on my MRI and CT that looks like invasion of the bone, but Dr. Nariz says that he is virtually certain that is dead, radiation-burned bone, so it's not applicable.  (That's good.  When I saw the word, "invading," I was certain I would be toast.)

****** I had been quite worried about the fact that it was in my cavernous sinus, because a sudden clot in the cavernous sinus is deadly, but, when I saw her last month, Dr. Hygeia said I was being ridiculous.  A sudden clot there is highly unlikely.  The tumor is in lots of other places that are much deadlier.