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.

The First Time I Realized God was with Me on this Ride

 April 24 (Friday)... I was sent in alone again (I actually drove myself to this appointment) but was met by a friendly cowboy with bandanna and all. He greeted me with a Howdy and God bless you!  I told him it was a serious place if he could get away with blessing people as they entered the building. He told me that if people did not like it, then they would need to tell him to his face (pulling down his bandanna for emphasis). He made me laugh as he checked my temperature. I have never seen this man since that first day. 

I proceeded to the appointment to have lab work done and then a visit with  Dr. Drengler. I was told I could have someone on the phone to listen and ask questions, so I asked a good friend who knew about cancer join me. We were prepared for a doctor speaking above our knowledge base and needed someone to help us weed through it all. Angie Artho was so kind to be that person. I so appreciate her giving her time that day. 

However, it turns out  Dr. Drengler knew how to talk on our level. Gave us the information we needed. Checked my organs externally. Told me that he knew he needed to see me right away because I appeared to have a rare liver cancer. We would need to to do some follow up testing to verify what he suspected. He was great!  He had a plan of action right from the start. I felt comfortable talking to him. A great start to begin the battle at hand.

I knew then that God was directing this roller coaster ride and I would ride it out until the end.  God would have a good ending for this story, which ever direction I was taken. 

I Need to Stop Making Assumptions

 April 22 (Wednesday). I wanted to meet with a priest so I made an appointment with the secretary and got in right away. I was a little leery but knew it was the right choice to visit the priest who I worked for even though we did not part on the best of terms. He is still an amazing priest and I wanted his prayers and experience. 

I guess I need to stop making assumptions. I assumed the secretary would tell the priest why I wanted to visit with him. Looking back now I think he might have got the impression I wanted my job back. I had not spoken to him in three months. I also started our conversation with a talk about how I know that God’s plan is not the same as ours. Everything happens for a reason. 

When I realized he had know idea what I was trying to say, it dawned on me that he really had no idea why I was there. So I told him straight out that I most likely had some form of cancer and I wanted him to pray for me. He was quite surprised and said he was shocked. I told him we were all shocked but this was the path I was on now. 

We spoke for quite some time about God’s will and prayer. He promised to pray a St. Jude novena for me. We left each other with little fanfare. No welcoming me back to the parish. No anointing. I felt a little let down but satisfied that God is bigger than us all. I was still being taken care of regardless.

Later in the day I was called by the oncologist liaison. She took my general information and insurance. She verified that all the reports were turned in for her to review from the ER and primary doctor. She then told me she would present my case to the oncologist. If he chose to take my case an appointment would be made with him. 

That was probably the only time I felt a little stressed. Can doctors refuse to provide care?  Would there be enough information provided for him to make this choice?

In the end, I gave this over to God. Prayed the right doctor would be there for me. My God did not fail me!  He is so good!  I was at peace again. 

The next afternoon the liaison called and  Dr. Dr was now my oncologist and he wanted to see me as soon as possible. 

 Praise God!!