Now for the Liver!!!

June 11 (Thursday)... I was feeling great and glad i waited to see radiologist. My mother was able to go to doctor appointment with me. He was very personable and easy to talk to about my situation. He had the results from the colon biopsy and said it was benign. Good news!  

So he showed the scans from MRI and PET scan so I could see the cancer and size. Amazing what technology provides us!  He decided we were going to try the least aggressive treatment. This known as a dry embolization in which the beads blocking the artery flow into tumors does not have chemo or radiation. 

The procedure would take place the following Wednesday.  No prep just be ready on the day of surgery. I was ready to go!  

A simple consult and drive to and from the clinic wore me out but we had a plan.

June 12 (Friday)...late in the evening, I got a call my radiologist. He wasted no time. He wanted me to know that he had consulted with Dr. Drengler and they changed the plan. The radiologist will now meet with me next Wednesday to have a dry run to internally measure the tumors and see how my body would react to radiation. Then two weeks later I will have the embolization procedure with radiation beads. The plan is to heal from that and then proceed to the second lobe a month later. 

I asked why the change in plans and he told me Dr. Drengler feels that with all the information available I have the rarest form of liver cancer that is fast growing and needs full aggressive treatment to shrink the tumors. 

Wow!  I guess I am once again going full throttle into this phase!

Going Home? Yes!!!

June 8 (Monday)... I woke up early as usual. 4am was my norm and the nurses were glad to talk in the early hours before the other patients were awake. I was given permission to walk around the hallways on my own. I got back to the room just in time for my surgeon to make an early visit. He again assured me the surgery went well and my recovery was going well. I would be going home as soon as arrangements could be made. Yay!  

He told me I could progress to soft food and while at home eat as I feel comfortable. Yay!  So I asked the nurse if she thought i would be given a full breakfast and she thought I would. Finally a meal and the breakfast on the menu looked like it would be in the soft side so all was good. Then the tray came and i was sad to see just a lump of scrambled eggs, a banana and cheerios. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I was going home. 

And that is exactly what happened. By 11am I was in my get away car thanks to my friend Brenda Mark. Michael was able to work and I was able to surprise the children with an early homecoming!  

I was given a few surprises too!  Michael had set up my sun room with a new chair. I would have a comfortable quiet spot to continue my recovery at home. He also was almost finished with a small home improvement. He said he would have had it done if I had stayed in hospital longer. I told him I didn’t mind seeing it half finished. Better for me to be home.

 I forgot to mention that I got a phone call an hour after I was settled at home. The radiologist wanted me to meet him the next day for a consultation. I was so overwhelmed with the thought of going anywhere that I told his nurse it would have to be later in the week. So an appointment was made for Thursday. 

Things are happening fast now. I am still just taking this one day at a time. One foot in front of the other. I remind myself that the doctors are the experts and see cancer every day. I am learning each day how this is all going to work for my life. Although I am glad they keep my path moving forward I can slow down if needed.

Surgery Day is Here! And Recovery!

June 5 (Friday)... the day had come for surgery. I thought it was amazing to be with the nurses and doctors pre-op. It was like they were all hand picked for me. We talked about large families, home schooling and essential oils. I was felling great and took my little pre-anesthesia cocktail and did not remember a thing until I was nicely tucked into my hospital bed on North 5 wing. 

I would find out later that the procedure was delayed an hour but once started all went well. All was as planned and biopsy results would be available by the end of next week. 

Now I just needed to lay in bed and recover. Baby steps so I could return home. 

I had two of the best nurses taking care of me day and night. They are my superheroes because they knew I needed to rest but i also needed to progress so did not stay in hospital. A good combination that led to my speedy release. God id good.

June 6 (Saturday)...  nurses got me walking the halls. And my bodily functions were doing what they were supposed to be doing. I was off pain meds. And hoping to have a meal for the first time in four days. Turned out a meal meant clear flavorless chicken broth. I imagined it was something else and hoped for something better by dinner time. 

More walking and spent my down time writing in my journal and praying. I got to talk to the family and all was good on the home front. Rest and recovery. 

Dinner brought beef broth with a little more flavor thanks to the nurse. I would hope for better food the next day. 

A visit from a doctor to let me know I was progressing well. Maybe I could go home tomorrow.  I was all for going home if they thought I was ready.

June 7 (Sunday)... up early and hungry. The nurse thought I should stay with liquid diet but she had some vegetable soup with more flavor. I just could not eat the veggies. 

The nurse shift change brought a new nurse on board. My regular night nurse introduced me as one tough lady who refused pain meds and did not watch tv. I laughed because it did not even cross my mind to turn on the television. I do have a high tolerance to pain. I consider the pressure in my abdomen as discomfort not pain. If i can avoid pain medicine I am going to press on without it. Besides it was only painful when I got out of my chair (no bed for me because i hated the roll technique to get up) or when I coughed. 

I had a robotic surgery which means five incisions along my right side and then one along the lower abdomen for removal of the portion of my colon. A lot of healing to happen but not really a lot of pain. 

I met with the associate doctor for my surgeon (he had the weekend off). He told me all looked great. But i would not be able to go home until my actual surgeon had a look at me the next day. He did move me up to a soft diet. What would lunch bring?

Lunch. Not so nice as i was given tomato soup and pudding. Both of these were not on my diet plan. By the time it was worked out it was time for dinner. Then i was brought a full meal that was just a regular meal. Not on my diet plan. So my nurses got involved and i had the amazing dinner of mashed potatoes. Haha!  I took the meal and determined it was time to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. I am not picky and I don’t like to complain but it had now been five days without food. I was hungry!

A Man of Action

June 1(Monday)... I got a phone call from oncologist first thing in the morning. He is concerned about my treatment because radiologist is on vacation and won’t be able to treat my liver as planned this week. So change of plans. He doesn’t want me waiting around for two weeks. We need to bump up the colon procedure. He wants it done by the end of the week. 

I am to wait for a call from the Dr. Kardys. Of course, I have not met him so I will need to have a consult with him before scheduling procedure. 

Dr. Drengler is all about action. I have the right man on the job because I want to move forward also. Let’s do this!!!

June 2 (Tuesday)... consult with Dr. Kardys was short and sweet. All is set for surgery to happen Thursday or Friday. Scheduling will call me. 

From the consult I found out that it is not just removing the large polyp. I will also need to remove portion of my colon. A little bigger deal than I originally thought. But once it is gone they can biopsy all of the pieces and determine if there is cancer deep within the polyp or surrounding area.

June 3 (Wednesday)... the call came in from scheduling. The colon surgery is set for Friday as long as they can find an anesthesiologist. 

So we wait and plan knowing that God has this covered. Prayer warriors in action. Let’s see what God has planned for this journey.

June 4 (Thursday). I got the call that the surgery was a go. Anesthesiologist found. Prayers answered. 

Now to start the pre-surgery antibiotics and the second purge in less than a month. I had my last true meal on Tuesday night because i was very nauseous on Wednesday. Also this morning I woke up vomiting. Not a good way to start this purge but i took as a need for rest and mental prep along with the physical prep. 

It was a long day of yuckiness. I was thankful for my friends who continued to bring food because it was the last thing on my mind.

And the Results are In!

May 28 (Thursday)...all tests and procedures complete. Now for another visit with my oncologist. I knew he would have all the results and put it all together in one big package for me to understand. 

He told me that the PET scan results came back the previous Saturday and the radiologist called on his day off to discuss my case. My body lit up with the cancer in my liver but then surprised him when it also lit up in my bones. We now know that the cancer has spread to my skull and right femur. I would later find out that a possible spot on my back  also. All of these spots are small at this time and I will need radiation.  This was unexpected and verifies that I have stage 4 cancer. However, our primary concern remains the liver tumors and the large polyp in my colon. 

The plan is to treat the liver with a method called embolization (glass beads placed in the arteries feeding the liver tumors to help shrink). This would take two procedures going from one lobe to the next. This process would include chemo or radiation to be determined by the radiologist. Then I would have the colon polyp removed and biopsied. Once these procedures were complete we would complete radiation to the cancer in bone. Then reevaluate the situation. This would like take most of the summer.

 

When he finished his evaluation, he asked if I had questions. My response was to know when we could get started. That was all he needed to hear to set everything in motion. He would call me back after scheduling the first procedure.

More Testing But Moving in the Right Direction

 May 13 (Wednesday)...the next step in the process was to rule out all other cancer origins. So I would need to have a colonoscopy. Turns out you don’t just have a colonoscopy without meeting the doctor first so I had to set that up. 

I met with the GI specialist (Dr. Bullock) by telemed. I felt like this was more of a formality. Yes, I am a living breathing person. Yes, the doctor had read my file case and agreed i needed to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy done as soon as it could be scheduled. 

Box checked and procedures scheduled for later in the month.

May 20(Wednesday)... a scheduled PET scan took place today. This scan would tell us if there was active cancer cells in my body. It was painless. It was a time for prayer. I felt confident that we were making progress to determine the extent of the cancer. 

I thought I was told to fast for this procedure. So i did not eat that morning. I figured I was going to be starting prep for the colonoscopy the next day so I was just getting a head start. My last meal was the night before. Turns out I could have eaten that day. Oh well...a little less food would not hurt me.

May 21 (Thursday). I had been warned that the colonoscopy purge was worse than the treatment. I believe that to be a true statement. Not a fun experience but after that it was not so bad.  Thankful for the meal provided that night by friends. I would not have been able to prepare a meal and of course could not eat it.

May 22 (Friday). Arrived two hours early to sit in waiting room. I slept most of that time. The colonoscopy and endoscopy were a breeze. No adverse side effects. Ready to go home but was told I had to wait for doctor. Since I was seeing others leave quickly from recovery I knew my procedure did not have good results. 

My mom was even allowed to come in and wait with me. And we waited for almost two hours. I guess the specialist had to finish all other procedures before he would have time to talk to us. We were the last ones to leave except a poor woman who needed to be admitted to hospital. Bless her heart. I spent a lot of my waiting time praying for her. 

The doctor finally got out to tell me that i had several polyps in the my stomach and colon. All were removed and would be biopsied except one very large (peach sized) polyp that would need to be removed surgically. And along with the polyps I had erosive gastritis which is a inflammation of the stomach lining. 

This meant more waiting for results before we could progress to treatment. I hoped to have results when i met with  Dr. Drengler the following week.

The Test of Patience

May 4 (Monday)... in the grand scheme of things ten days is not a long time but even my oncologist had hoped this first test would happen earlier. I just looked at it as a time to gather my prayer warriors. Also get used to the idea that i was now going to spend more time in a doctor’s office than any other time in my life (other than routine prenatal care). 

Now the day had come for my biopsy. Maybe those liver masses would be benign. This is what we wanted to find out. 

I arrived early for a full panel of blood work. I had never seen so many vials for me to fill with my precious blood!  But i got it done. Then off to the biopsy procedure. 

I was told that after the procedure it would feel like I had done a crunch work out. He lied!  Wow!  That was painful!  I did not even know how painful until I was back home and the pain meds wore off. I could barely move it hurt so much. That pain lasted three days. But I got through it. Lots of talking to God during that time. 

My crew were so good. They let me rest. All of this time (from the initial nausea in April) I woke up each morning feeling nausea. The crew took over all chores so they knew the routine well. School continued also and it was quickly going to come to an end thanks to their diligence. 

The biopsy results came in by the end of the week and definitely cancer. Up until this point, I kept it low key with the children. Also did not talk much about it with my college student. He had finals to worry about. 

By this time, all were ready to hear the full news and what was to come. Everyone was home except the two oldest girls. I got one on the phone and the other I prayed would find out some way. 

They all took it well. We prayed for the doctors and that was the extent of the results revealed. I think the crew just fed off the peaceful message I gave them. That is how I wanted it to be. Have faith and see what is to come. It is still early and much to discover.