The Time In Between

Paving a road to perdition with good intentions here.

I had aspirations of writing a more fleshed-out account of where I found myself at this moment, but… I first needed to attend to the practical matters of healing from surgery. I then found myself distraught… which lead naturally into a period of moody introspection. Once that lifted, there were other matters that required attention such as collecting myself for an upcoming voyage, and then…

So I’ll keep this brief and factual as I have a plane to catch in bit.

Current State of Play

As most of you are aware, I underwent a surgical procedure two weeks ago (EAC sleeve resection) to remove a carcinoma from my right ear canal. Immediately after the procedure, the surgeon let me know that the growth was larger and more involved than they anticipated and set an expectation that a follow-on procedure would likely be indicated.

The post-op pathology results were posted two weeks ago and last week I had three separate consults with my oncologists and with the surgical team. What follows is the outcome from all of that:

• As expected, the pathology results indicated that the surgeons were unable to get clean margins around the tumor which means that cancerous tissue remains at the site.

• Based on those findings, the recommendation is for a second surgical procedure: a temporal bone resection.

• A temporal bone resection (TBR) is more involved and aggressive compared to the EAC sleeve resection. The surgeon walked through the steps with me. It’s a lot… a lot of resection and a lot of reconstruction in a very small space.

• I was told to expect the procedure to last 6-8 hours, that it will involve 2 possibly 3 surgeons, and that I will be admitted for 2-5 days. The hospital stay is primarily to balance out pain management and to keep a close watch on the surgical site to ensure that it is draining properly and beginning to heal.

• The procedure is being scheduled for 2/28 at the Emory Midtown facility.

• The TBR will leave me functionally deaf in my right ear. But to put that into context, I've been functionally deaf in my right ear since mid-December. There are a couple of options to augment/restore some level of hearing function in that ear, but all of that will be sorted out post-surgery.

• In the meeting with my radiation oncologist, he stated that he will be recommending follow-on radiation therapy once I'm stable and healing from the surgery. The regimen would be similar to what I underwent last time with the exception that they will attempt to slot me in for the proton therapy vs the standard photon accelerators. That makes a little difference, but the implications are essentially the same.

Yeah… it’s a lot.

In The Meantime…

And as there shouldn’t be much happening medically between now the the Big Show on the 28th, I’m hopping a flight to Miami and climbing aboard a big boat for a week of music and love and friends and sun and memories.

More to be revealed, no doubt.

Looking forward to spending some quality time with Mr Bird in a day or so. And yeah… I’m really feeling this one.