Post surgery update - Day 12

I am doing pretty well today. My pain is under control and energy is coming back...slowly! I've had so many of you texting and sending messages to check on me. Thank you so much for caring...and taking the time. Especially during the very busy holiday craze! I am still on partial bed rest because of the stint I am wearing to ensure proper healing this time. It is aggravating! So much easier to do nothing when I am not at home with everything that needs done all around me! My parents are still here and came to do tons of dishes and fix a beautiful dinner last night. Billy has been a real chef (which he loves being) and we have enjoyed eating whatever he comes up with as well. Tonight I get to go to my sister, Amy's, house have a little family Christmas party before we all go our separate ways for the holiday. Her house is so warm and full of Christmas cheer everywhere you turn! I got a sneak peak when we stopped in on our drive home from Houston last Friday.
I took advantage of a few hours up and about on Saturday while attending my son's basketball games, which he won! On Sunday my break was going to church where they had an amazing Christmas Choir program. My favorite was Seth Primm singing Hallelujah Christmas version......gave me chills. I posted a link to the song by someone else below. Still very good!

For the 3rd year in a row I got to take pictures with the majority of my "childhood" family in front of the beautiful trees at church. Its crazy they have all really sacrificed because of 3 Christmas seasons dealing with Cancer, cancer, cancer. This will be the last year, because now I'm cancer free!

HALLALUJAH, indeed!

....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pQVRyPGTEc (Hallelujah song)

My own family, back together again!
Makes my heart glad!

My "childhood" family, minus the eldest sister, Danina.
I miss you Nina!

 

Help for someone else having this surgery....

Hi.  This post is specially written for the person that posted they wanted to talk to me about having a Total Pelvic Exenteration surgery. I cannot find where you wrote your comment or how to get in touch with you. I would love to help answer any and all of your questions!  I had SO MANY before my surgery and nobody to talk to. 

Please reach out again.  You can email me privately at gowrights@hotmail.com

God bless you.

Kristi

This is a picture today of Kristi and her friends Jodi and Kara. They have all three had similar Cancer journeys, surgeries, etc. Great support system they have formed! AND this is DR. Levenback with them!! I feel like he's my real life Hero! He helped save my sisters life. His decision making and enormous amount of knowledge and skills have brought her to the other side of this medically. I couldn't ever thank him enough! And I know he truly cares about my Sister as well and that means a lot to her and the rest of us. It never feels good to just be a number and he definitely doesn't treat her like that! 
Thank you Dr. L!!! I think you ROCK! --Katy

Headed Home!

Kristi and our Parents are on their way home from Houston. It will take a few days. I can't say how relieved I am to know that they are coming home. I was hoping that she would stay there for a week after surgery but definitely ready to see all three of them. The emotional side of this trip took me by surprise. I knew that I hated for her to go and endure all of that again but the fear/sadness that crept back in I actually had to focus on shutting that down. I flew into Houston for a trip to CA in September and I started crying as we landed, unexpectedly of course! I think that there is so much wrapped up into Houston/MD Anderson and the emotions that go with it that it will always be a hard place for my family. I was nervous for Mom, Dad and Billy to return there with her because I cried just landing there! There will always be this love/hate relationship because on one hand Houston represents sadness, fear, grief, tests and surgeries, disappointments, survival....I could go on and on. But on the other hand it represents LIFE! It represents a chance at life and surviving Cancer and also has great doctors and a wonderful hospital that took such good care of her. And continues to do so! We walked away from there and all the hardship that went along with it WITH our loved one!! We took her home! Not everyone gets to leave that place with the one they love and that was VERY apparent visiting there. Thankful for the outcome of this surgery and that she may have pain free days (hopefully several in a row or maybe not any...!) and grateful that she is feeling better than a few days ago. To God be the Glory.

They are about 4 hours from home tonight and just stopped at a Hotel.  Kristi slept on the drive and said she has been having a little upper abdominal pain but improving. That her energy is still low and cannot wait to get home! Mom told me that she has had little outings but gets worn out easily and needs to rest or nap. It's important for her to walk as well. Thank you for your continued support and prayer, Katy.

Finally got to leave the hospital late this afternoon!  Our exit was celebrated with long time  family friends, Kim & Nancy Cook.  They are here for Nancy's treatment.  We ask that you join us in praying for God to heal Nancy fully and make her brand new again.  We know that God is always faithful to his children. 
Billy, mom, dad and I are all settled back at our hotel and everything is going well so far.  I have great "nurses"! We even had Papa's BBQ for dinner and I am sure it was the best I've had!  Perhaps compared to days of hospital food, but I will stand by my recommendation regardless!  :)

Billy is here with us until tomorrow afternoon.  He is flying into Tulsa if the weather doesn't impact his travel.  Pray that it does not!

Mom and Dad will stay here with me until I see my plastic surgeon on Tuesday to learn when we can come home.

My meds are kicking in, so I must close my eyes.....

Goodnight.

1 Day post op update

Good morning everyone! Thank you so much for praying us all through yesterday! What a long day. Surgery was much later than anticipated. I'm not sure if it was the lack of food or laying on a hard pre-op gurney-like bed for hours, but I ...got the biggest headache. It even hurt in my entire face and I just wanted to go to sleep. The anesthesiologist mixed me a 3 part potion and it made it go away finally. I think it made me go to sleep too bc I don't remember much after that. I was so thankful! Surgery is thought to be a big success. There was a lot of scar tissue and granulations tissue that they cleaned up. Where they had put what they call "flaps" from my leg muscles up into the pelvis the skin had not stayed healthy and lost at least one layer if not all. This allowed the two "flaps" to grow together with scar tissue. That tension and pain inside of me will now be gone once recovered. The granulation tissue on the outside is all gone and will heal as well. Funny thing is that they recoated those "flap" muscles with fetal cow collagen. It is stripped of cell, bacteria, blood vessels, nerves, etc and send in a hard form, but sterile. They add moisture back to it and sew it to me as needed, then my cells and nerves, etc will grow into it and make it part of me. Modern medicine is amazing! The Dr said a small piece of this calf collagen can cost up to $10,000! So I am thanking Jesus for my insurance right now too! As you can imagine these medical procedures of 2013 have done us in financially! Even with all the EXTREME generosity of everyone through the church, wepay account and directly. I want to say thank you for that once more bc I just can't say how much it has helped us this year! I have been so blessed and humbled that we know so many generous and many anonymous people willing to help this way! We will pay this forward as soon as we can, and however we can!

Anyway, we had thought I'd get to go back to the hotel last night, but because they did more extensive work revising the reconstruction (flaps) and they inserted a stint to keep this from scarring together again, I have been put on bed rest and submitted to the hospital once again. The stint is painful and uncomfortable, but where they stitched the collagen is painful as well right now. They are doing the best they can to keep pain at bay while I'm stuck laying here for now. The nurses here are awesome! I got to see 4 that I know from before so far and they have gone out of their way to come see me. Such an amazing bunch of women that I thank God for as well.

Mom, Dad & Billy went to the hotel last night for a better nights sleep and will head back to see me soon. I'm so grateful to my parents who care for me as if I am still a toddler. They are fully devoted to my well-being and comfort. I'm thrilled that my husband got to come and be here to finish this process with me. I can hold his hand and feel safe and loved.

I love that my kids are having snow days with their cousins right now. That means they are so happy and the time will go by so fast for them.

God is good, all the time!

Oh, P.S. ~ Dad did ask the doctor what breed of cow the collagen comes from. They don't know, but I'm pretty sure it is a very high end breed! As you can imagine we got the doctors laughing with this line of questioning!See More

Surgery Day

Good morning friends!  Mom, Dad & I are in Houston once again.  We've had two days of pre-op appointments, CT scans and bloodwork.  I even got to spend a few hours with new survivor friends.  What an encouragement it is to see these ladies years out from their surgery and living life well!

 

We are currently waiting to be called back to the operating rooms. We checked in at 10:00, but surgery isn't until around 12:30.  I'm hungry!

 

Today's surgery will be a bit "exploratory" as they will not know everything they will need to do until they've done an exam.  It is believed to be an out-patient surgery so I will get to go back to the hotel to recover.

I came down here with dread, but am feeling very hopeful that they can get rid of the ongoing pain I've had.  I'm actually a bit excited about that part!