Friday, May 30, 2014

Letter to Friend

Dear Sarah,

Dad & I talked about your generous offer. I think it will be awesome if you can come and help us out when I have the surgery.   I have no idea what to expect or how it will be or can be. I think (or expect) to be in the hospital for maybe a few days and then I guess I will be able to go home.  It was my hope to start recovering when the school is in full swing.  I hope to put as little stress on the household as possible. 

We are however,  concerned about the summer plans and do not want  to spend all my time recovering during the time when the kids are off and we as a family want to do some exciting things together unless we are dealing with a CRITICAL issue. In a similar way, I want to be fair to both our summer plans and my own health.  At this time the doctor believe I am at stage ___ period 3  It is just before the next stage.  However when it moves over to that Stage  it becomes serious life threatening and invasive - I don’t really want to wait too long.  No one can tell for sure how fast the cancer grows. 

When I come back from XX  I will see the surgeon and then the week after the plastic surgeon.  I will try to schedule my surgery as close as possible to that time so that you can come in after you are done there.  We will definitely appreciate it if you can make this happen from your end - every little bit will help us during this time.  In all of this, I will need different surgeons to schedule their time so they work together in one location – Bottom line; they will have to tell us when that can work out for all of them.


1. Local growth and damage to nearby tissues
Cancer cells multiply quickly. A cancerous (malignant) tumour is a lump or growth of tissue made up from cancer cells. Cancerous tumours normally first develop in one site - the primary tumour. However, to get larger, a tumour has to develop a blood supply to obtain oxygen and nourishment for the new and dividing cells. In fact, a tumour would not grow bigger than the size of a pinhead if it did not also develop a blood supply. Cancer cells make chemicals that stimulate tiny blood vessels to grow around them which branch off from the existing blood vessels. This ability for cancer cells to stimulate blood vessels to grow is called angiogenesis.

Cancer cells also have the ability to push through or between normal cells. So, as they divide and multiply, cancer cells invade and damage the local surrounding tissue.

Related articles q
2. Spread to lymph channels and lymph nodes

Some cancer cells may get into local lymph channels. (The body contains a network of lymph channels which drains the fluid called lymph which bathes and surrounds the body's cells.) The lymph channels drain lymph into lymph nodes (sometimes called lymph glands). There are many lymph nodes all over the body. A cancer cell may be carried to a lymph node and there it may become trapped. However, it may multiply and develop into a tumour. This is why lymph nodes that are near to a tumour may enlarge and contain cancer cells.

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