Surgery #1 was a success! Last Tuesday I went into the operating room to have a procedure called a Thoracotomy performed on my right lung. When I woke up from surgery I was informed that they cut out 14 small growths. These are being sent off to pathology to be studied and give us a more in depth analysis of how well the chemo is working. We already know the chemo is working great (all tumors are getting smaller) but pathology can give the doctors more specific information in this regard.

Surgery recovery was pretty rough. To make sure the lung healed properly, I had a chest tube in for a week. The purpose of the chest tube was to regulate pressure in my lung and prevent it from collapsing. While this lead to a painful week, I am incredibly thankful that there were no complications stemming from the surgery or the tube. 

Once the chest tube was removed I immediately began round eight of chemotherapy. I'm currently receiving chemo as I'm writing this. It's early (day 2 of 6), but this round is going just as smoothly as all the previous rounds.

This week is also the week that I will begin receiving radiation therapy for my thigh and abdomen tumors. I'm looking forward to starting this new modality of treatment and to see what more tumor size reduction we can squeeze out of these guys before the surgeons go in to remove them in January.

Attached pictures show a fun family visit during chemo round 7 and bandages right after last week's surgery.