From:
Stephanie
Date: 2001-05-26 18:05:00 UTC
Subject: Icobod is home!!
Yay!! I'm so happy to see him and have him home. He is
resting fine and actually eating on his own.
Here's his prognosis. He was under for 1 hour. They removed a
pea sized tumor from the left arm of his pancreas. The growth
was attached to the pancreatic (I think that's what he said)
vein and they had to slowly peel it away from there. He only
had the one nodule, but because of it's size and location the
doctor thought he probably would get another again soon. We
will do the prednisone at that point.
As for the adrenal, it is HUGE. Because they took so much time
trying to get the insulinoma tumor they felt that it would be
too much on Icabod to also remove the adrenal, not to mention
the fact that it was connected to the vena cava and wrapped
behind it then went across the back to the other side. He
showed me how big it was by holding up his pinky and pointing
to the second knuckle. He also talked about the 20% chance of
fatality when they remove that section of the vena cava and
felt that it was too high a risk when he could have some
quality of life for awhile. If he starts having the clinical
signs of adrenal (which he doesn't have any so far - the
urinating pain was a UTI) we will give him the lupron.
So, that is where we are. I hope all of your fuzzies are doing
well and my condolences go out to the family of Griz.
With a happy dook,
Stephanie
& Maggie, Bullwinkle, Shasta, Emeline and Icabod