We have liftoff!

TL;DR: Vic has chosen surgery! Surgery will be on Monday, June 10, somewhere in Aurora. (That Anschutz Medical Campus is huge, and they haven't told us yet exactly where yet—or for that matter, exactly what time. So, more details to come.)

Full story:

Today, we visited the radiation oncologist, Dr. Weeks. I know what you're thinking: "But at the end of your last very very very very long blog post, you said you were meeting with her on Tuesday!" That is true, but this morning, she said she had an opening today, so there.

Dr. Weeks is the radiation oncologist Vic had last time he had cancer, so it was "nice" to see her again.

Without so much as a how-dee-do, she said she agreed that surgery was the best first option. She said it would be more efficacious (having the power to produce a desired effect, I looked it up) and safer, given that he's already had full dose radiation. She said radiation would not be as effective as surgery.

We did talk about what it would look like if we had to do radiation after, and it's not great, so we're really hoping for clean margins on surgery with no follow-up. (That said, we still have an appointment with the oncologist, who may want to do chemo- or immunotherapy after surgery regardless of the margins. We'll find out more about that tomorrow (if we can get the Wednesday appointment rescheduled) or Wednesday (if not).

We asked Dr. Weeks if she knew Dr. Song. She did, and she loves him. She says there are four "head-and-neck guys" in Longmont who do surgery—and they all know their limitations. When they come upon a complex case like Vic's, they all call Dr. Song. And then she said, "He's the one I would go to if I needed this procedure." You can't ask for a better recommendation.

If you made it to the end of last week's very very very very long blog post, you know that we weren't in love with Dr. Song at the end of the appointment, so this really put our minds at ease. As we've said many a time, you don't need a nice surgeon. You need an expert surgeon. And Dr. Song is the expert. Patients all over the state come just to see him.

The last thing she said to us today was "Hopefully, you won't need to see me again." We like her a lot, but we couldn't agree more.

OK. So. Next steps:

• See Dr. Maymani Tuesday or Wednesday
• Get "presurgeried" on Thursday—this involves a visit with the anesthesiologist as well as ... I don't know. The stuff you usually do for presurgery—list of meds, what not to eat and drink the day before, what time to be there, what to expect, yadda yadda yadda.
• Surgery!

Super happy to be moving forward and getting the surgery scheduled so quickly (hint: start the process before you've even decided what you want—you can always cancel!) and in June (for those of you who do not know: Don't get sick in July. As my niece says, "With every new July comes new doctors, fresh out of medical school with a license to practice medicine.")

Now it's all on Vic's shoulders—he's the one who has to undergo the surgery and recovery. So take any thoughts/prayers/love/light/healing energy/etc. that you were sending to both of us and only send them to him. He needs all he can get!

I'll close today with a picture of Vic having one of his favorite desserts: pineapple upside-down cake. This delicious one courtesy of our niece Margeaux, who had us over for dinner last week. :-)