Scare over, healing progressing and prognosis better than docs expected. Here is an email my (Roni's) dad sent to family and friends.
10:00 p.m., 3/1/04
Just got a phone call from Roni with fabulous news.
Kevin's white count is up to 9.0 and climbing. It was below 1 four days ago requiring everyone going into his room to scrub, mask, and glove. Lot's of stories to tell but on to the best news.
The pathology report was excellent. The lymph nodes taken during surgery had no cancer.
The tumors taken were all dead cancer cells. There was no carcinoma in any tissue taken. The diagnosis has been changed to "peritoneal adenomucinosis" [proliferation of the mucin].
Dr. Sugarbaker says that according to his statistics Kevin has a 60 to 80% chance of non-recurrence within the next 10 years. Blood tests will be taken every 3 months for cancer markers. CT scans will be at 6-month intervals at first. He will have some more chemo for any possible metastasis.
Ostomy reversal will be in 6 months. At that time they'll take a good look around to make sure everything is still OK. That is, of course, the best way to know exactly what's going on.
Kevin walked down the hall to visit Alice today [she had surgery the day after Kevin]. He's sitting up and eating. They celebrated the good news with Klondike bars! It may be that Kevin will be able to go home this weekend.
Thanks again to you for your prayers and to G_d who has showed great mercies on us all.
Love, Vern
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