The Biopsy

This last Thursday Andrew went under anesthesia again so that the surgeon could remove a piece of his tumor for biopsy. The actual surgery took about 20 minutes. He made an incision in the outside corner of his eye, pulled the skin back a little, and debulked a decent bit of the tumor. He said that there was very little bleeding, which means that there was not a whole lot of vasculature around the tumor (most cancers are covered with vasculature). He also told us that the tumor was whitish-yellow, firm and well-defined. Just by physical observation, the surgeon said that the tumor did not look like a normal cancer and that histiocytosis may be a more likely option.

Normally the surgeon sends the sample down to pathology during the surgery and they send back a preliminary assessment within the hour and a full diagnosis within a few days. Unfortunately, pathology had shut down their equipment for the night. Our surgeon was told that they would not analyze the sample until at least Monday, if not later. So we are just waiting and reading about what each possibility involves.

We have appreciated your prayers and support in our behalf. We’ll try to post the diagnosis as soon as we know.