Quote:
Originally Posted by KathyV
I have an appointment this Wednesday with a surgeon to discuss possible thymectomy.
He is a cardio thoracic surgeon and the director of the robotics program at one of our local hospitals and I am hoping he can do it this way.
My CT scan report says: "4cm anterior mediastinal soft tissue mass. The differential includes thymoma and lymphoma."
What kind of questions should I be asking him? I've read on some threads the word hyperplastic in reference to thymoma. What's that?
I was diagnosed with MG in July 09 and currently it is just ocular. My neuro started me out on prednisone and mestinon, but now I am just taking mestinon (30mg X 3) which is controlling the double vision and eyelid droop.
Thanks in advance.
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Hi Kathy,
Hyperplastic Thymus is simply over-active thymus tissue. The thymoma is a cancer of the thymus - they are two different things.
There are pros of going with the robotic surgery (less invasive, shorter recovery time, etc.) There are cons (chance of not getting all of the tissue, apparently it is quite a bit more painful in the short term than transternal based on what my sister in law tells me (she's a nursing instructor)).
There are pros of going with transternal (better visibility to the area, surgeon can get all of the thymus when he's in there etc.) There are cons ...
I'd be asking about the thymoma - can he be sure to get it all with the plan of attack? what are the chances you're going to need radiation therapy for it (probably pretty small, yours sounds like it is fairly small.) Are there other concerns about the lymphoma? or is this the same object that they're talking about and they're not sure if it is a lymphnode or thymoma until they get in there?
Best of luck
Cheers!
Brian.