Yesterday, I met with Dr. Ryan Levy, a lung surgeon at Passavant Hospital in Pittsburgh. His evaluation is that I am a candidate for lung surgery to remove the cancer in the upper right lobe.
The statistics he quoted was that with surgery, I have a 85% chance of removing all the cancer. The only other treatment would be radiation which is 60% to 65% or 70%, at best. He defined it as T2, stage 1B and that is too small for Chemo treatment.
He defined the surgery as more serious than the liver cancer I had. He said I can expect to be in the hospital 3 – 4 days. The surgery is planned four hours, I will spend one day in the ICU. I will be planned to be minimally using robotic or or other arthroscopic techniques. The risk of serious complications is 3% for folks my age.
We scheduled the surgery for June 17th. I will be a call the afternoon before and can expect an arrival time between 4:00 am – 8:00 am. I will not be able to drive for two weeks after surgery. Recovery time is expected to be 4 – 6 weeks. I will need help the first few days home.
There are a number of tests I need to have prior, one of which is a stress heart test. Someone will contact me to schedule that. I also need a blood tests within 30 days of the surgery date.
A organization called PIP will call to help plan the surgery.