Worse News But Some Good

Ralph was diagnosed with colon cancer this morning. Adenoma carcinoma is the type of tumor and has according to the surgeon been there for about a year. A CT scan shows no evidence of cancer anywhere in the adominal or pelvic area - that is the good news. We have a surgeon that we have met with and he will have surgery in 7 to 10 days. They have to let the plavix clear his system. In the meantime, his a-fib is on the "back burner", but his heart rate must be controlled with meds. We have a new cardiologist that is not so busy and can work with his meds more closely. He will be in the hospital until his heart rate is under control. They just changed his meds this evening, so may take some experimenting to find the right combination of meds that will also provide the best outcome for surgery and his coronary heart disease. We are hoping he will be home on Friday at the latest and then back for 4 to 7 days for surgery. During surgery they will remove lymph nodes for testing and will know how much of the colon wall is involved. Chemotherapy after surgery will depend on the outcome of those 2 things, but chemo has improved and he will not be sick. The surgeon said the outcome is very good with his otherwise good health. We will be spending the winter here in Washington at the park in Mount Vernon.