And it begins again

I find myself having to come to terms with likely fighting round two of "Lisa versus Cancer." I had a CT scan late in December 2011 that showed some enlarged lymph nodes in my groin. This led to my oncologist ordering a PET scan which took place in January and showed some new, active lymph nodes next to my iliac artery - pretty much the same area as my original cancer. While the nodes in my groin were enlarged they weren't "hot" on the PET scan. Maybe the cancer is limited to the one area. Here's the rub... Because of the location of the suspicious nodes the only way to get at them for a biopsy is excisional surgery. Oh joy! I meet with the surgeon, Dr. Richard Rau this Monday, March 12, 2012 at noon. We will schedule my surgery then and find out how much this is going to disrupt our lives and my classes. This will be surgery number six. I wonder how many of my former students I'll see this time at the hospital? :)