Cancer sucks: part deux of the cancer journey

Today we met with Kasey's cancer specialist, and after about an hour and a half of discussing options with him we have scheduled a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection operation for next wednesday, the 22nd at Good Sam in Portland.
With Kasey's type of cancer there are 6 risk factors that indicate the risk for recurrence of another tumor. The pathology that came back from his tumor that was removed 2 weeks ago indicated that Kasey's tumor had 3 out of 6 risk factors which is not good. This means that Kasey is at "High Risk" for recurrence, and if gone untreated there is a 70% chance in the next 2 years that we would find another tumor. The tumor that was removed 2 weeks ago was 7.5cm in size. Obviously we chose to treat now...
Like I said previously chemo was one option for treatment. It would run about 12 weeks and would start ASAP, but the chances for recurrence within the next 4 years years is still a possibility and chemo is not an easy thing to go through for 3 months. The other option presented was the laparoscopic RPLND surgery, and if cancer is found in his lymph nodes after removal, than 6 weeks of chemo would follow; but if they are clean we will bypass chemo altogether. We are praying that the nodes will be clean, and that the cancer hasn't spread any farther.
We are expecting Kasey to stay in the hospital for 3-7 days, and his recovery period will be about 2 weeks after he comes home. Full recovery will be 4-6 weeks. The operation itself will last about 4 hours.
All of this is so surreal to us, and it is hard to talk about it because it just seems to consume everything in our lives right now when we explain everything over and over. It is cancerous in speech too I am finding, and we are trying so hard to be positive and have a good outlook on everything and how much it is affecting us. We feel so happy to have many of our questions answered today, and we feel very confident in our decision to go with the surgery at this point. We want to get through the next step, and will be praying and looking forward to the end result with Kasey being cancer-free.
It is such a profound thing to happen, but obviously it is happening for a reason.

That being said, we are trying to live life as normal as possible until wednesday...praying for a clean pathology...successful surgery...speedy recovery...a positive outcome...patience...praising God that we have an amazing surgeon and that everything has been scheduled so quickly.
At this time there will be no more news until after wednesday, and I am hoping to get on here to post some new pics of Kenzie's Easter and some other fun things before then. It will be refreshing to put up some fun news, but no guarantees I will get it done this week...we'll see:).