I just got home from my post-op follow up with Dr. Scherr where I got some really great news: I am now officially cancer-free. They took out 43 lymph nodes total, all of which came back negative for metastatic carcinoma. I need to follow up with Dr. Scherr in 3 months for continued monitoring, but as of now I am completely done with treatment!
I also had the 54 staples removed; it was unpleasant but not terribly painful, except for the one troublemaker that they had to call in reinforcements to get out. That said, getting the good news first definitely made this process a little easier!
So, now I just need to focus on recovering from the surgery and hopefully life can get back to normal soon.