[nfb-talk] Asking for prayers

T. Joseph Carter carter.tjoseph at gmail.com
Sat Jul 17 14:45:13 UTC 2010


Sarah,

Word got to you at the right time, I had my surgery on the 8th.  They 
lobbed a big chunk of my insides out, somehow put me back together 
without making me look too lopsided unless you look very closely 
*laugh*, and the pathology report has since come back indicating the 
margins are clear.

I don't know if they check all of the margins at the microscopic 
level—if they do, that's a lot of tissue to look through—but it's 
either pretty good news or the greatest possible news.  I'll see my 
doctor on the 4th to find out more.

Thanks again for all the prayers and support,

Joseph

On Thu, Jul 08, 2010 at 10:34:38AM -0700,  Sarah Baughn wrote:
>Joseph, I am so sorry to hear this, and I'm also very sorry that I 
>have been delayed in my response to this, but you can count on my 
>prayers.  I was down in Louisiana at that time, but now am home 
>catching up on email, and will include you in my rosary today.
>Sarah
>----- Original Message ----- From: "T. Joseph Carter" 
><carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
>To: "NFB of Oregon mailing list" <nfb-or at nfbnet.org>; <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 2:00 AM
>Subject: [nfb-talk] Asking for prayers
>
>
>>Hi everyone,
>>
>>Word's already circulating to some extent, but I wanted to wait 
>>until they had done some tests so we know what we're dealing with.
>>
>>I won't be attending national convention this year, because I found 
>>out on 6/21 that I have an unusual cancer called a sarcoma.  Being 
>>me, it would figure that this particular cancer is quite rare, even 
>>among other sarcomas.  The good news is that there is no metastasis 
>>(spreading to other organs) which is one of those things that cause 
>>them to start giving you survival statistics.
>>
>>The other bit of good news is that being the rare sort of cancer 
>>that it is, it's located in fat tissue.  Even though it's a 7 cm 
>>tumor of what they call intermediate grade, because it hasn't 
>>spread it's not the kind of thing that would become 
>>life-threatening with modern cancer treatment.
>>
>>Being in fat tissue, obviously there will be surgery to remove the 
>>tumor and some surrounding healthy fat tissue.  There will probably 
>>be radiation and a pretty good chance of chemotherapy as well.  
>>People react to these differently, but aside from my weight I'm 
>>actually very healthy, which works in my favor.  (I did of course 
>>suggest that the doctors could remove extra fat tissue during the 
>>surgery, you know, just to make sure they got it all!)
>>
>>The question remaining is what order do we do the things that we 
>>are likely to do?  Emerging research says that chemo before surgery 
>>might give me a lower chance of recurrence in the future, but the 
>>chance might already be so low that giving me some relief might be 
>>in order.
>>
>>I see a medical oncologist tomorrow after OHSU's sarcoma conference 
>>meets to discuss cases like mine.  My surgical oncologist has 
>>already consulted at least one other sarcoma specialist from 
>>Baltimore.  So really, I have a team of experts in this kind of 
>>cancer treating me, and they are consulting with other teams.
>>
>>Even so, this is pretty serious, so I welcome your prayers.  I'll 
>>miss you guys (and the wardrobe update of blindness-related 
>>T-shirts of course! *grin*
>>
>>Joseph
>>
>>
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>
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