Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Post Surgery

Today I had my 2nd surgery in 5 weeks and I have to say I got out of bed frustrated.  I didn't want to put on my purple "cancer fighter" shirt.  I didn't want to go under anesthesia and sleep the next couple days away.  I didn't want to pay for the treatment.  I just didn't want to have this done. 

I had shared a song with Brian and Traci the other day and the long chorus goes like this.

So lets go dancing in the minefields
Lets go sailing in the storms
Oh, lets go dancing in the minefields
And kicking down the doors
Oh, lets go dancing in the minefields
And sailing in the storms
Oh, this is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for
That's what the promise is for
What came to my mind today was not dancing or sailing, but I was focused on the line "Kicking down some doors".  This entire process since diagnosis has drug on for 6 weeks.  Nov 9th I had my first surgery and since then I've seen 5 doctors with 9 visits, Had two scans and now another surgery.  I feel like the diagnosis and treatment planning process is taking forever and I'm ready to move on.  However, we want to know 100% where the cancer is and  100% what the correct treatment should be so we're kicking down some doors to figure it out and its not always an easy or fun process.

Yesterday at about 11:30 am my Gyn-Onc from Oklahoma City called me and said they really believe this cancer began with an endometriosis implant into my episiotomy scare tissue.  This caused her concern that if I had some endo that would act like this I could have more elsewhere.  They also said that they don't get another chance to radiate this part of my body because the tissue will be damaged and my organs will be very fragile.  In the event that they had found something today they would have needed to do a radical hysterectomy, meaning they'll remove parts of the rectum, bladder, vagina, cervix, uterus, ovaries.  Then they would need to rebuild some things obviously.  Our prayer was that they didn't see anything new and to the naked eye the doctor said he saw no endometriosis or additional lesions.  They would want to do the radical hysterectomy before they radiated because a simple brush against my bladder or another organ now would leave me a little bruised, but fine.  After radiating the organs are so fragile a simple brush across the bladder could put a hole in the bladder and cause a lot more trouble.  My local doctor agreed with the new recommendations and by 1:30 I was on my way to give blood and do my pre-op stuff. 

So, today they visually checked the ovaries and uterus.  They washed out this entire area, but only after taking some fluid samples to send to the pathologist.What we know now is that the radiation and chemo treatments are what is needed for me.

I got my ECC and Pap results back and they were benign so we know there is nothing hiding there eitehr.  They also stained the tissue they took out 5 weeks ago to see if it would shows estrogen or progestrone in it. If so, this is confirmed a hormonally driven cancer and they will want to go in afterwards and just remove the ovaries. 

We will know results on the stained tissue and the fluid testing in about 1 week  In the mean time, I will go have another CAT scan done this Firday afternoon so that they can begin buildig my unique radiation path.

I am doing pretty good right now as I'm on a pain medication.  They also gave me a little patch that goes behind my ear so that I don't have any nausea like I usually get with anesthesia.  My throat is very sore from the tube they used to breath for me during surgery today.  My ribcage and shoulders are also sore because they blew me up with air to see better during surgery; this always gravitates up under the ribcage an the right shoulder.  The  pain meds don't really help this because it is pressure from the air they didn't get out.   To alleviate some pressure I'm supposed dto walk 400 yards each day, which is truly a chore right now as I'm so week and it hurts through my entire abdomen. 

Tonight we are still celebrating that the location of the cancer is as we expected and we can move forward with treatments now  The ease of mind for Billy & I and for the doctors is very important. 

Thank you for your prayers and concern. 

I also wanted to say thank you for some others I asked you to pray for.
My nephew Taylor got to come home this week afte 7 days in the hospital  His Staph is responding to the antibiotics and his bloodwork started coming back normal.  His heart is not impacted eitehr based on the tests they ran.   Please pray for Taylor and his parents though because the doctor say it will be 120 days before he feels 100%.  He will do physical therapy to get his strength back an the mobility in his leg and foot back to normal.  He has port in his neck where Home healthcare is teaching Danina dn Worley (his parents) to give him four antibiotic treatments at home.  I think they are actually doing this twice per day for about 6 weeks. 
We are still waiting on results for my sister, Katy, and my brother, Josh.
Billy's brother, Mike, does have to go in and have open heart surgery next week because the stint didn't work
Billy took his last final today so he is feeling a lot of relief now and is a HUGE help tome.

I appreciate your prayers for these other family members as well.

3 comments:

  1. Kristi, that is a lot of information! I'm glad the doctors know more now so they can know exactly how to proceed with treatment.

    I am really praying today that the pain you have from yesterday's surgery will go away and you'll start to feel normal. That peace of mind you now have is priceless, and I'm praying that it continues!

    So glad to hear Taylor is ok!

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  2. Praying now and I will get more people praying too. I know you are probably going through a lot of emotions right now and I keep thinking about Billy too because I know its hard on him too. Keep pushing on and fightin'!!! BD

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  3. Saying praises to God for all the good things that happened... for you and for Taylor! Such blessings! I am also praying for the days ahead... the hard days and the good days! I know you won't, but PLEASE let us know how we can help or how you are feeling! We would really love to have you to the house & visit some more!
    Much love!

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