USC Norris Cancer Center Visit
Mother and Daddy came to my house on Tuesday, where they spent the night, and then yesterday morning I drove them to the USC Norris Center, where mother had an appointment with Dr. Annie Yessaian at 10:00. The trip was uneventful, and until I got to the Mission Road off-ramp near the interchange of I-5 and I-10, quite familiar to me. We had no problem finding the valet parking in front of the Norris Center, and we had plenty of time to get Mother checked in before her appointment.
She had gone expecting to be scheduled for surgery, and she was also afraid that her Baghdad-educated specialist would be difficult to understand. We could also find nothing to indicate that Dr. Yessaian is a surgeon.
Dr. Yessian turned out to have only a very slight accent, and she is a surgeon. She did a thorough examination and had a list of questions to ask about medical history, recent symptoms and so forth. She concluded that Mother is in no condition at present for major surgery, though that is the only option available for treatment of her endometrial adenocarcinoma. Mother should not have hormone therapies because of her stroke and Coumadin treatment, nor can she have radiation, since she has so many adhesions as a result of her previous surgeries. Before surgery, Mother would need to be, in Dr. Yessaian's words, "fine tuned" to be in much better physical shape. Uterine cancers advance slowly, so there is time.
The doctor also expressed concerns about the weight loss, fatigue and pain, since these are not usually associated with early stage uterine cancers. She planned to order four blood tests for tumor markers, including the CA-125 I had been campaigning for. This test can be useful in determining whether gynecological cancers have spread to other areas. The other tests included one for liver cancer (probably an Alpha-Fetoprotein test), a CA19-9 for gastrointestinal cancer, and one other whose purpose I can't recall, although I think it may have been a GT II, also for gastrointestinal malignancies. Mother is not being tested for testicular cancer, which is about all that's left, I think.
Whether her doctors can get her in shape for surgery remains to be seen, but Mother left Norris yesterday feeling as if she had a reprieve. When it took her a week and a half to recover from her D&C, I have to wonder if she would ever recover from major surgery. For the moment, she only has the four blood tests hanging over her, and she has been having her blood drawn nearly every week for some time, so that part shouldn't be especially onerous. Waiting for the results will be nerve-wracking,however. Then, whatever the results, positive or negative, she will have more tests and procedures to look forward to.
She had gone expecting to be scheduled for surgery, and she was also afraid that her Baghdad-educated specialist would be difficult to understand. We could also find nothing to indicate that Dr. Yessaian is a surgeon.
Dr. Yessian turned out to have only a very slight accent, and she is a surgeon. She did a thorough examination and had a list of questions to ask about medical history, recent symptoms and so forth. She concluded that Mother is in no condition at present for major surgery, though that is the only option available for treatment of her endometrial adenocarcinoma. Mother should not have hormone therapies because of her stroke and Coumadin treatment, nor can she have radiation, since she has so many adhesions as a result of her previous surgeries. Before surgery, Mother would need to be, in Dr. Yessaian's words, "fine tuned" to be in much better physical shape. Uterine cancers advance slowly, so there is time.
The doctor also expressed concerns about the weight loss, fatigue and pain, since these are not usually associated with early stage uterine cancers. She planned to order four blood tests for tumor markers, including the CA-125 I had been campaigning for. This test can be useful in determining whether gynecological cancers have spread to other areas. The other tests included one for liver cancer (probably an Alpha-Fetoprotein test), a CA19-9 for gastrointestinal cancer, and one other whose purpose I can't recall, although I think it may have been a GT II, also for gastrointestinal malignancies. Mother is not being tested for testicular cancer, which is about all that's left, I think.
Whether her doctors can get her in shape for surgery remains to be seen, but Mother left Norris yesterday feeling as if she had a reprieve. When it took her a week and a half to recover from her D&C, I have to wonder if she would ever recover from major surgery. For the moment, she only has the four blood tests hanging over her, and she has been having her blood drawn nearly every week for some time, so that part shouldn't be especially onerous. Waiting for the results will be nerve-wracking,however. Then, whatever the results, positive or negative, she will have more tests and procedures to look forward to.
posted by Jeannette | 11:41 AM
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