The swollen lymph nodes that I mentioned in my previous post had not done much besides get bigger since my visit to the clinic on Monday. I emailed Van Tine to see if he could set up another appointment for me tomorrow to have them looked at. Being a stereotypical assistant professor, he was still in his office working, so he asked if I was still on campus too. I live about 8 blocks from school, so it is very easy for me to come in on short notice. I wasn't surprised that the first thing he did was pinch my lumps and ask me if it hurt since Brian likes to poke and jab at any and every body part that is currently afflicting me. Then he stuck a large gauge needle in my bigger lump, and surprisingly only blood came out. We were both a bit worried until he poked the other one and saw a bunch of pus come out. Brian figured he went too shallow with the big one and got pus to come out when he drove it deeper. Morale of the story is my lumps were just boils and not more cancer (which was on the table but unlikely). Hopefully the newest antibiotic he just put me on works to clear the rest that remains.
Van Tine also listened to my breathing to get an approximate measurement of my chest tumor. It is extending out of my ribs and on top of my lungs, so he just has to listen to see how far up my lungs go to see how big the tumor is. By his ear, it has shrunk considerably from its former hugeness. He poked me in the top part of my back and proclaimed that's how big it is now.
We also talked about my upcoming surgery a bit. They will take scans the week before to see where everything is and plan out what they'll take out from there. The when, where, and who is all set in stone. Now we just have to wait to find out what they're actually going to do.
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