Oma's Preliminary Biopsy is Benign!

Mom went for her endoscopic ultrasound today.  The preliminary biopsy is benign!  They took tissue samples from two spots on her pancreas and pathology folks looked at them right then and there.  From what they saw, they were NOT cancerous!  Now, those samples have to grow in the petri dishes or whatever for a few days, and final results won't be back for 3 or 4 days, but this is some pretty great news.  (We actually aren't expecting to hear the final results until after Tuesday, with Christmas and all.)

So, what happens now?  We have no idea.  Obviously, she has this 4 cm THING in her pancreas that shouldn't be there.  Does it come out?  Do they just watch it?  We're not sure.

And then there is still the issue of the mass on her ovary.  We still haven't seen that last doctor, the OB/GYN.  We've begun to question if he is real.  Haha.  We've joked that he's just an imaginary doctor.  They keep telling us that he'll be in to see us.  He's pretty much the only reason mom is still in the hospital.  She'll get released tomorrow no matter what I think and the nurse just said that if we don't see the OB/GYN before she gets released, we can make an appointment to see him in his office.  Uhg.  I'm really hoping he makes an appearance.  That was the whole point of getting admitted ... to get as much of this stuff done as quick as possible and not have to make appointments two months out.

Things are looking a little more manageable than they were two days ago.  We still have things that need to be addressed, but as we tentatively cross the big looming pancreatic cancer off the top of the list, the rest seems like smaller workable chunks.  Right now though, Queen Mom is demanding coffee and pie.  Unless I head to the cafeteria and make a delivery immediately, there will be hell to pay.  Her wish is my command.  At least for the moment.

S.

Edited to add:  The elusive OB/GYN came by at about 7:30 p.m.  Now, to his credit, he's not just a run of the mill OB/GYN, he's an OB/GYN oncologist, and a very busy one at that.  He's not really sure what the mass is on mom's ovary, but it doesn't matter, it needs to come out.  He'd like to take out both ovaries and the mass all at the same time via a laparoscopic procedure.  Then, as part of the procedure, the mass would go through some sort of freezing process and then be examined through a microscope.  They would be able to tell right then and there if it was malignant or benign.  Based on what they found, that would determine if the surgery was over or not.  If it was benign, mom would be all done.  She'd stay in the hospital one or two days and have about a week long recovery period.  If they found cancerous cells though, they would slice her abdomen open and remove lining, lymph nodes and whatever else they needed to.  She'd be in the hospital a week to ten days and her recovery time would be MUCH longer.  There would also be a discussion of potential chemotherapy and/or radiation post-surgery.  He wouldn't know until he got in there though.  The OB/GYN would like to schedule surgery as early as next week.  He also mentioned that he'd like to coordinate with the thoracic/abdominal surgeon to possibly do both surgeries (the ovarian surgery as well as the pancreatic surgery) within the same time period although he and I both realized this is a remote possibility.  We are to call his office on Wednesday to see where things stand.  (I'm guessing that realistically, things won't happen next week, but probably the week after.)  In the meantime, Mom is all set to be released tomorrow.