ANTHONY R. VIZZARI | ARCHTOGRAPHIST

I'm not a religious person (at all).... but I love folk art and iconography. I hung these pieces at the highland house this weekend. Both are from thrift stores, of course! We had some workers take up some of the flooring to do a plumbing repair, before we came up (long story). We found out that the main part of the house is one of the oldest homes built in Highland. There are layers of flooring built up, for which this was one... I wish it wasn't covered. I love this design! (Also, part of the house is built on unmilled log timber joists... very cool.) UPDATE: The results of my recent MRI were not exactly what I wanted... it was what I had expected, but hoped would not be the case. My liver seems to be stable, which is the good news (i.e. tumors same size). However, the epicardial lymph node tumor, which became cause for concern in December, is very much progressive. From December to March, the tumor has increased in size from 0.9 x 1.6 to 2.4 x 2.9cm. Therefore, the node ha...

After many months, we have the pathology results from Germany. The following was found after analysis of the tumor tissue post-surgery. It's somewhat involved, but it explains why we saw such strange results with FDG and Ga-68 PET scans: " Immunohistochemistry  has been performed and revealed the following: Proliferation rate (Ki-67 measured using MIB1 antibody) was 10-20% in both tumors (liver metastasis and primary tumor)." "The liver metastasis  did not express SSTR 2a (Somatostatin receptor Subtype 2a), and in 20 % of the cells a weak expression of SSTR 5." "There was a strong expression of TKTL1 (the marker which is correlated with FDG uptake and aggressive behavior of tumors)." "The primary tumor  showed moderate expression of SSTR 2a and SSTR 5 in 80% of the cells and strong expression of TKTL1 in 70% of the cells." "What is really remarkable in this case is the different expression of the neuroendocrine markers in the prim...

Oh that? That's just a quarter inch hole in my right side where I had one of my drainage bags (drains excess fluid from the cavity around the wound). The hose going into it was about 14"-16" long, nasty. It's still leaking, but should stop by Sunday (hence my leak towels). If not, they will sitch it up. There is one on the other side that has healed well. My first day in the hotel... Morning view from the hotel window... I love it. -smoke stack. This is my first official blog entry post-surgery. I’m on meds, so excuse any typos in advance. It feels like a decade, or, maybe just a few days since I’ve taken the time to write? The last few weeks have been brutally intense. It seems that I may have lost track of the days and sequence of things, even prior to surgery. Now, as I start the recovery process, I am starting to come back to life, albeit, in a fog and fighting abdominal pain. I don’t walk fast and can’t move anything of consequence. I try to perform simple ro...

Dr. Botha's office received my recent scans and reports today and reviewed them in a matter of hours. (If you are familiar with the medical system, this is an amazing response time - usually it takes days to get answers. The folks at UNMC are on top of their game!) The (new) plan, per Dr. Botha is to perform a right hepatic lobectomy. This is similar to what was discussed with the staged resection, but instead, we would be skipping to the 2nd stage of the procedure. The goal is to get rid of these hybrid lesions ASAP, especially the largest tumor. So, we scrap the staged resection. Any remaining tumors (in the right lobe) would be treated by PRRT or other liver directed therapies. To perform this lobecotmy, they first have to do a "portal vein embolization". -Blood flow is cut to the left lobe in order to grow the right lobe. This is generally an out-patient procedure. After 6 weeks, if the liver grows as desired, they will proceed with removing the left lobe entirely. At...