kind of confused...

[w4lucy]

We met with the oncologist today--after the list of questions from the link Scott gave I was full prepared with questions about chemo and such...only to meet w/the doctor and chemo was hardly mentioned... The dr said he is waiting for the pathology report (having a hard time getting them to call him back--grrr...) to see if there was any invasion. Guess I was really caught off guard because the report we got said there was no invasion and the ct scan didn't show anything, but the dr said he has to get the pathology report to see about some other kind of invasion...not sure if that makes any sense or not. I was kind of confused. Are there two different reports?

At any rate, we'll go again next week--they did bloodwork today to see how much his counts have gone down. Depending on that and the path report, we're looking at either surveillance or a trip to Indiana for a possible RPLND. I didn't even realize RPLND was a thought at this point! I'm nervous/scared/confused...pretty much any emotion I can put into words. I'm not trying to expect the worst, but just the thought of RPLND scares me so much. At the same time, I know God is in control and has gone before us, but the unknown is still hard... Hopefully we'll have more answers by this time next week though...

[Scott]

Be sure you get a copy of the pathology report. It will have important details to help with your decision on where to go from here.

[Margaret]

We met with the oncologist today--after the list of questions from the link Scott gave I was full prepared with questions about chemo and such...only to meet w/the doctor and chemo was hardly mentioned... The dr said he is waiting for the pathology report (having a hard time getting them to call him back--grrr...) to see if there was any invasion. Guess I was really caught off guard because the report we got said there was no invasion and the ct scan didn't show anything, but the dr said he has to get the pathology report to see about some other kind of invasion...not sure if that makes any sense or not. I was kind of confused. Are there two different reports?

At any rate, we'll go again next week--they did bloodwork today to see how much his counts have gone down. Depending on that and the path report, we're looking at either surveillance or a trip to Indiana for a possible RPLND. I didn't even realize RPLND was a thought at this point! I'm nervous/scared/confused...pretty much any emotion I can put into words. I'm not trying to expect the worst, but just the thought of RPLND scares me so much. At the same time, I know God is in control and has gone before us, but the unknown is still hard... Hopefully we'll have more answers by this time next week though...

I know the RPLND is scary, it was for us too, but it was not as bad on my husband as we thought it would be. He was in good hands at Sloan Kettering and he healed very well. Even returned to work after 2 weeks and is doing great now. ) hang in there

[w4lucy]

The CT scan was done right after surgery--December 30th. It came back clear but the dr said that's not what all we need to look at--he's needing to know the path report from the actual tumor itself to check for invasion within that. We'll get that report and the results from the bloodwork next Wednesday. He said he expected the results to go down but not entirely because of the half lifes after surgery.

I'm still trying to figure all of this out--when we got the original report from the urologist at his first follow up appointment and it showed PT1NxMx does that have something to do with this additional report we're waiting on? For example, does this path report from the tumor fill in the N's and M's? (not sure if that question makes sense or not) and then from that we'll know the exact stage of cancer that it is? I know it is stage 1, but it hasn't been further classified beyond that. Is it because we don't have this other path report?

Thanks for the encouragement about the RPLND. It's nice to hear from someone who has been through it. I think one of our main concerns right now as far as treatment goes is fertility. We've been TTC since May and want a family so badly. Of course, DH's health comes first, but this is definitely been on our minds. DH is supposed to go for a SA sometime this week or early next to see how things are on that front as well.

[Scott]

It sounds as though you already have the pathology report and CT scan results. The imaging tests filled in the X's from the pathology report's "pT1 Nx Mx" as "pT1 N0 M0," if there are no signs of spread. I believe you're only waiting on new blood test results.

[w4lucy]

Actually no--the dr specifically said he is waiting on another report from the pathologist--I actually asked him about that because I told him we got the pathology report from the urologist. He said they're checking something else, too--to see if there's actually any invasion within the tumor itself or something like that.
The report only shows Nx Mx--they never said it was n0m0--does that determine his staging? I know it's stage 1, but aren't there stages within that, too? (like 1a, 1b, etc.)
But yes, we are also waiting on results from the bloodwork. DH is also supposed to get SA done. He was told he had to schedule it, but he can't get in touch with them to get it scheduled! I know it's not of the highest importance at this point though. I think we're just having a hard time being patient with everything--it's so hard waiting and not knowing everything...