Health Updates

The biopsy itself went very well. The bone radiologist who did the procedure said that he got a very good tissue sample and, overall, the procedure wasn't as painful or scary as I expected. Yay for modern medicine! Now, mind you, that experience is of course colored by the opioid-sedative cocktail they gave me... but, it was a pretty low dose and I was released after a short rest period. I may be a bit more cautious about feeling recovered, though, in the future. After walking a few blocks to a ramen place, I fainted on the sidewalk and was rushed right back to the hospital. Luckily, Francis caught my fall and some kind bystanders offered their help too, so I didn't hit my head and everything turned out okay. After some tests and a longer wait in the hospital, our friends Rahul & Jo picked us up. Today (Saturday) I'm feeling much better and we'll be heading back to Francis' parents' house to await the biopsy results. 5-7 business days...

Short but very promising update: Dr. F finally got a chance to check the results and report from the CT scan and called to say that his best guess now is something called chondroblastoma: a benign, non-life-threatening form of tumor!! If this is the case, I would need an operation which involves scraping out the tumor from the bone socket and a bone graft. This would likely be the full extent of the treatment, however, i.e., NO chemo etc. Also very positive-- we can probably rule out ewing's sarcoma (the most aggressive) and lymphoma. Osteosarcoma, however, is still another likely candidate, so we'll definitely need to go ahead with the biospy for a more certain diagnosis.  Next steps: We're still not scheduled for the biopsy, but he says we should be by the end of the week. There are a lot more questions I would've liked to ask, but it was a short phone conversation, so that's all I've got for now. I'll update as soon as we have any further details...

Turns out the CT scan takes only 3 minutes... a bit unceremonious, we thought, given our 9 hours of driving! :p Anyway, they said the results usually take about 3 days to process. I'll update here once I have any new information.