Cody Updates by Mom

Today we met with Dr. Kendrick and his staff. While it was good to see him after 9 years, I would have preferred just a bump into him in a restaurant instead of Cody’s cancer. He did, however, give us his thoughts on the diagnosis, cure options and chances and a start of a plan.

The great news is that he believes, similar to the endoscopy docs, that we have caught this very early. He mentioned that he feels this is early detected cancer and very curable with surgery. He even mentioned that catching this as early as we did, puts us almost to a 100% cure rate. While there is the unknown of if the cancer has moved to the lymph nodes, if it hasn’t, there will likely not be a need for chemo or any other treatment after the surgery. We do the surgery, recover, learn to eat and are done.

While my brain, emotions and mental state is very tired and stressed, I am relieved with this. After much fear, there is good news and hope.

We do have a last test for any indication of colon cancer on Monday (4/8). Cody is thrilled to do the prep for the colonoscopy.

The surgery is scheduled for Thursday 4/18. We had an option to do it this Friday, but that was a bit too soon for all of us. After surgery, there will be 4-6 weeks of recovery. We are still working through the specifics of recovery and other things, but having a date for the surgery is huge.

The surgery is a Total Gastrectomy. This is to ensure that all stomach tissue is removed from the body and with it the cancer and the possibility of the cancer returning. Basically, they will remove the stomach at the esophagus, pull the small intestine up to the esophagus, and reconnect the system so it can start the journey of digesting the food. This is the same surgery that I got 9 years ago, and my brother also had to prevent this cancer.

Cody is a little overwhelmed with all of the information today. To get the cancer out of him is the number one priority for us and the doctors. Thank you all for your prayers and support. If you have Cody’s number, feel free to reach out if you want. I am sure he would be happy to have someone other than me to talk to.

This mom is still nervous but hopeful that Kendrick is right, and we are close to getting the cancer out and moving forward with life after cancer.