Oncologist appointment

The appointment with the oncologist went really well.

My oncologist thinks that it's unlikely that the nodes are enlarged due to cancer both because my tumour markers only went up to 40 (normal is <38), which they've been at before, and because it's very unusual for cancer to show up only in nodes. It's much more common for cancer to enlarge lymph nodes if the cancer has spread to the lungs or liver but there was nothing on the scan that indicated that the cancer has done that.

I gave my oncologist the pathology report from the elbow thingy biopsy showing sarcoidosis there and showed her the other sites I'm pretty sure are sarcoidosis - the ones on my legs, which the dermatologist said were varicose veins but that don't look anything like varicose veins. My oncologist did say that sarcoidosis is one of the things that can cause those enlarged mediastinal nodes, which we already knew. She was also happy that the pathology came back sarcoidosis instead of, say, lymphoma, another kind of cancer. I'm happy that I don't have another kind of cancer, too. :)

The only way to tell for sure why those nodes are enlarged is to biopsy them - and the biopsy has to be done under a general anaesthetic. She's sending me to a thoracic surgeon for the biospy and she's also going to try to send me to a respirologist here. I'll keep my current appointment with the respirologist in Oakville until I know whether she's able to get me into the same specialist here.

She's not worried about the shortness of breath I've been experiencing because it's mostly happening when I'm doing stuff that looks like exercising. If I start having a lot of episodes while just sitting around, we need to be concerned. I'm feeling better about that.

Overall, we felt pretty good coming out the appointment. Ian liked that my oncologist was thinking along the same lines as we were thinking before we went in. Oh, and my oncologist also said that she had a patient that had both breast cancer (not mets, just the "regular" kind confined to the breast) and sarcoidosis, which left me feeling more comfortable with her ability to treat me with this extra condition.

So my next step is to wait for the appointment with the surgeon and the biopsy. I'm feeling pretty good physically and mentally about all this... whatever happens, happens. There's not a lot that I can do to change the situation I'm in, and the situation isn't life-threatening or anything, so it's not worth expending energy wishing that the situation were different or worrying about it.