Surgery Tomorrow!

[Heady]

A true blessing. Glad all went well. Good thoughts for a speedy recovery!

[tex]

Linda,

Wow! You did indeed have an experienced surgeon alright — no question about that.

It's great to hear that it went so smoothly.

Your prior comment that you may not have food sensitivity issues following the surgery may be accurate. The thymus is where T cells are trained and selected for service. Quoting from the book:

The critical role played by the thymus
To prevent the immune system from attacking the body’s own cells, immune cells are trained to recognize self. The thymus is a very specialized organ in charge of producing and selecting T lymphocytes, (T cells). In the thymus, progenitor cells known as thymocytes are converted into T cells, and by a random generation process, they are each designed to attack a unique antigen. This conversion and training process is known as thymopoiesis.

In order to preserve recognition of self, epithelial cells in the thymus produce major proteins that mimic proteins from various organs from all over the body and the new T cells are exposed to these proteins. Any T cells that are found to attack the body’s own proteins, are eliminated in the thymus, by means of a programmed method of cell death (apoptosis).

It’s known that the function of the thymus peaks about the time of puberty, and as we age, its function continues to diminish and the organ tends to lose robustness. Research has shown that in conjunction with ageing, and particularly in conjunction with stress, various neuropeptides, hormones, and growth factors can influence the process of thymopoeisis.20

And here is reference 20 from that quote:

20. Patel, K., & Taub, D. D. (2009). Role of neuropeptides, hormones, and growth factors in regulating thymopoiesis in middle to old age. F1000 Biology Reports, 1(1), 42. doi:10.3410/B1-42

Obviously, a tumor would tend to corrupt the proper functioning of the thymus, and this could result in corrupt training, and/or failure to reject corrupt T cells (that might lead to autoimmunity). Now that the problem has been removed, your thymus should now turn out trustworthy T cells.

Thanks for the update, and I hope you recover quickly.

Tex

[nerdhume]

Glad to hear you made it through surgery ok. Hoping for a speedy recovery.

[LindyLou]

Thank you again to everyone for the kind words. Recovery is going as expected. Feeling like I've been hit by a Mack truck but I expected that. Tex, thank you for the reference to thymus and t-cells. I'm starting to believe my problem is genetic and I may have passed it down to my kids. My son was born with a pharengyl fistula and I'm not completely sure but I do believe it originated in the thymus. My daughter has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease but I don't really think that is what she has as I too was originally diagnosed with Crohn's. I'm meeting again with the surgeon tomorrow to remove the stitches and am going to bring it up to him. Time for ice and a nap :). I'm glad I was able to come home instead of spending the night in a hospital.

Linda

[CathyMe.]

Thanks for the update. Continued positive thoughts for a good recovery!