He Passed Another Test!

This one was the final exam! Troy passed the Barium Swallow Test this morning without a hitch. We are excited now that more of the tubes and wires will be disappearing. Also, he can now swallow ice chips and a little water, he even had an Italian Ice today.

We saw the surgeon this morning and we were really hoping that they would remove the chest tube today. Apparently they are concerned that there was still quite a bit of drainage overnight so the plan is to wait a little while on that one. The drainage slowed to almost nothing since this morning, so maybe they will remove it soon. They removed the epidural and the catheter this afternoon. Troy was most thankful and greatly relieved to get the catheter out! Now the only things left attached to him are the chest tube, the central line and the heart monitor. The chest tube is really the only thing left that ties him to a machine.

We received the pathology report today and as far as I can tell, it's all good news. There was no cancer in the lymph nodes! We will need to discuss the results in more detail with Dr. Jac (oncologist), but from what I can read on the report they are staging the cancer at Stage IIA which means the cancer has invaded the muscle layer and outermost covering layer or tissue of the esophagus, but has not spread to lymph nodes. Dr. Jac is still considering another round of chemo, which we are not looking forward to, but that will be decided at a later date. Right now it is good to focus on the positive - great news!

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. ~Douglas Adams