Surgery Update
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Okay, so for those of you that read the surgery #2 page for updates on the surgery I have to say so sorry. I was under a lot of drugs and apparently that effected everything I did. I would be in the middle of a conversation and then all of a sudden be asleep. I think that drugs are great for pain control, but they make you feel loopy and out of it for the most part.
Here let me give the full update on the surgery and my two satys at the hospital:
The total surgery time was about 7 hours. The liver surgery was first. The doctor used a scope first to check everything out and then opened me up. I now have an incision that goes from my chest to my pelvic bone, it looks really nice :) He was able to get in and the great news is that there was no additional disease on my left lobe of my liver, everything was on the right side…Great News. He took out about 60% of the liver (right lobe), the gallbladder, lymph notes, and more margine than he thought he’d be able to get out. The colon suregery was next. He got in there and found another 30 polyps, none appared to be cancerous. He removed the whole colon and pulled my small intesine over to the left side of my body and put the illestomy in the same spot that my colostomy was…one less inicision on my belly, which right now my not matter all that much but in the long run it will.
Okay, so I was up and moving around the day after surgery, Wed, and seemed to be doing pretty well. I was quickly moving towards a normal diet again and getting ready to come home. On Thursday, my hemoglobin dropped very low, 6.1, so after scans proved there was no bleeding internally I got a blood transfusion. I got 6 bags of platelets and 2 units of blood,. I seemed to quickly reboud from all of this because I was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
However, on Monday I started to feel like something wasn’t right and we were back in the ER by 4pm and I was readmitted by 10pm. (They think they might have been a little too premature on sending me home so soon) Tuesday they spent the day doing testing to make sure that there wasn’t an infection or that my liver wasn’t leaking bile. Good News…everything was okay with the liver. The only thing we were still having issues with was back pain and spams that I was having. We finally got everything under control with them on Wednesday. I was releases yesterrday afternoon. I feel so much better than before and am so glad to be home.
So total days spent in the hospital…8 days.
Update
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Sorry for the delay in writting!! :( I have been going through a worldwind of emotions these past few weeks and I just really haven’t felt up to doing much of anything. Here is all the good things that have been going on the past few weeks:
Treatment #4 take 2: I went to the doctor on 4/15 a ball of nerves. I had this feeling that I might have treatment and I also had a felling that I wasn’t going to have treatment. Getting ready for this appointment was extremelly hard because I didn’t know what was happening. I had my lab work done and stayed connected for treatment, just in case. We sat down with Dr. Seng and he started to go over the tests and my blood work. Everything looked really good. My scans came back really good. The uptake on the PET Scan was 2.9 when normal liver uptake is 2.5, meaning that the cancer on the liver is slightly active now. The MRI showed that the tumors are only on the right side, which is great. My disease marker is way down too, everything is working. That news was a huge weight off my shoulders…it means that going through all this may actually be worth it. After all the good news, Dr. Seng said that the next step was going to be surgery, which means that treatment is over for now.
The next day, 4/16, I met with the liver surgeon again and went over everything and planned on surgery being anytime after 5/6.
Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday May 19th at 7:30am. Thats good because it will be earlier in the day and I should be in my room by mid-afternoon. The liver surgery will happen first…he will remove the right 60-70% of my liver and gallbladder. Once he is done with that, the colon procedure will happen. He will remove the remainder of my colon. He will then do a “J-pouch” prcedure with my small intestine, so we can reconnect later. I will keep everyone updated as it quickly approaches and once I am up to it in the hosptial. Let’s hope its only 5-7 days this time, 10 days just plain sucks. Wish me luck!!!
2/2 Apointment
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Okay, so I had an appointment with the oncologist to go over scans, see how everything is going, and get the next step of my treatment plan. I had my lab work run at the appointment to see how everything is since the hopsital. Every count looks good and well within normal ranges. We talked over the treatment plan quite a bit. My oncologist had the discussion on what and how we should proceed from this point with a large number of other doctors and specialists due to what has happened with the first round of chemo and the surgery. After all the discussion with them, he has decided that I should recieve the same chemo cocktail, seeing how well it workrd the first time. It’s kind of the why change it if it works. Anyways, after talking it over it looks like we can’t do chemo for a couple cycles and stop again to have surgery, because the chances of the chemo working after that again wouldn’t be that good. When looking at the scans it looks like the tumors on my liver are active and growing yet again. It’s not all bad though. They are much, much smaller than when this all originally started. Which is actually good news in the regard that I have less to tackle this tme around. So, where does that leave us now. Well, chemo will start on 2/18 again and it will go for 8 cycles (4 months) this time. After 4 cycles, I will get scanned again to see how everything is going. The idea is to get as much chemo in me and working as possible before they stop again for surgery. After 8 cycles, I will have liver reccession to remove the right lobe and the cancer, which puts us at roughly June or July for surgery. The good news is that with the chemo following surgery, I should be completely done with all and cancer free sometime in Sept or Oct, which puts us at one year from diganosis. I am getting closer and closer to that halfway mark and then I’ll be working my way to that done marker. I can not wait until that day comes when I am told that my body is cancer free and I am in remission. That day can not come soon enough if you ask me. I’m a little freaked out about having to start this chemo again, seeing how bad it was last time. I can only hope that the weeks fly by. Here’s to hoping. :) More later.
Just Checking In
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Sorry for the delay in posting, but I’ve been oh soooo busy. Just sitting around knitting, reading, doing puzzles, and playing Wii. I know, where do I find all the time for that. Well, let me tell you, it’s not easy, but I somehow fit it all in.
Anyway, I went to see the neurologiston Thursday 1/22 for the nerve damage in my left leg from surgery. My advice, don’t ever get testing done on your nerves. The shock transmission testing wasn’t too bad, but still sucked. The electrical conduction testing was the one I would adivce against. They actually take a needle and stick it into each muscle (one at a time), move it around (fells like digging), and then ask you to move your leg around. It hurts sooooo bad, that I actually starting crying. Good news….the actual nerve itself wasn’t damaged, it was the surrounding insulation that was damaged. That means that full function and strength will return, it will just take some time. How long???…no one knows, it could be a few weeks or a few months. I have already gotten back quite a bit since the surgery and continue to push through daily. I walk more an more without the cane around the house everyday, so I think thats good. I can’t wait until the day that I can get rid of that damn cane.
I also had a PET scan and a CT scan done on Monday 1/26. Nothing eventful to report from these, except some fuild showed up where the rectum shold be in the CT scan. Not to worry though, they think this is probably just part of the healing process since I have no other symptoms that would point to nothing being wrong.
Anyway, I see the oncologist on Monday 2/2 to get the results fo the scans and go over my treatment plan. I’m actually looking forward to seeing Dr. Seng, because it’s been almost a month now since I saw him. When you get use to seeing someone evry other week, it’s a little weird when you don’t see them for awhile. Then on Tuesday 2/3 I see the rectal surgeon for a post-op checkup. I’m excited for this one for two reasons: (1) I get to go by myself to an appointment and (2) I can’t wait to show him how well I’m doing. Don’t get me wrong, I love having my family going with me, because then I know just how much support I have and have many extra ears to listen. But going by myself is nice too.
12/12 Appointment
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
I had a PET scan and a CAP CT Scan on Wed 12/10. I was so hungry and tired from the low blood sugar, I won’t recommend that anyone try to do both in the same day.
This appointment was to go over the results of the scans and go over the general surgery and post-op treatment. Good News…..the treatment so far has been extremely successful. My tumors have shrunk a little bit more and they are now dormant. YEAH!!!! This is a great thing because it means that my prognosis for cancer to come back has gotten better, I actually was able to move to a higher percentage because of how great the treatment has worked so well. Apparently, my body hates this as much as I do and is kicking cancer’s ass!!!!!!
11/24 Appointment
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Today we meant with the fertility doctor to go over options and learn more about what we can do. After everything we discussed, I think we have two options to pick from once I get my treatment plan figured out.
Option #1: IVF
Option #2: Donor Egg
Depending on whether or not treatment post-surgery can be pushed back or not, will determine what we do. I’ll talk with my oncologist on Wed at my last chemo to see what he thinks and we’ll go from there. At least we still have these options available, which definitely helps us deal with everything.
11/17 Appt
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Meet with the Radiologist. I have to admit that this doctor’s stuff is getting to be a bit overwhelming…I can’t handle much more of this. My doctor’s are not on the same page, which is the most frustrating thing ever. I hate this!!!!!! One wants pre-op radiation and the other two want post-op radiation, I just want a set plan so I can focus on something good and set. Other than that, no new information.
Oh wait, I got a referral to meet with a fertility doctor. This is probably going to be the hardest part of the whole thing for us. Since we were trying to get pregnant before we got the diagnosis, it’s something that has been on my mind constantly since then. I know that I have to focus on getting better and I have to be the priority right now, but we’ve planned for this for so long and we want it so bad that it hurts now to have to think it might not happen. But, we never know and if we can’t get pregnant, there’s always adaption right??? I guess I know that no matter what, the baby we have, no matter how we get it, will be a blessing and we’ll love it more because of this. It’s just hard to get my mind around it right now.
11/10 Appointment
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
I got the results of my CAT scan at this appointment. Great News!!!!!!!!
My liver tumors have decreased quite a bit. The biggest one, which was originally 4.1 cm, is now between 3.7 & 3.5 cm. The second one, which was originally 3.5 cm, is now around 2.1 cm.
Even though a CAT scan can’t tell them the size of my rectal tumor, it can tell them the thickness of the rectal tumor. Comparing it to the original scans, the thickness of the tumor has gone down too.
Dr. Seng is very excited about the news!!!
Other news: My oncologist had agreed with my rectal surgeon that radiation needs to happen before surgery. So, I get to go through that, but a very short and aggressive form of that.
My Doctors
Posted by chrissy | Filed under Doctor Updates
Everyone asks me constantly about my doctors. They want to know who they are and what there function are, if they are good doctors, and if I have googled them yet. I have to admit that I giggle when asked if I’ve googled them because I have (I did the minute I knew who they were and where they worked :) ). Here is the list of my doctors and what they are doing…
Dr. Seng–my general oncologist: He is a little different, but is great! He tells me how is it and doesn’t sugar coat anything, which is exactly what I need. He is great explaining everything to my family too, those who don’t understand all the medical terms and meanings. He makes me comfortable that he’s fighting for me and there with me the whole way.
Dr. Mellgren–my rectal surgeon: He is definitely different. He is originally from Sweden and had all his education and training there, which is actually a good thing. He is trained in more advanced techniques and his prospective on everything is different then the others. He has been fighting for things he knows to be effective and is doing it for me. I have complete faith in him and his abilities…I know he wants me to be cancer free and enjoying my life.
Dr. Sielaff–my liver surgeon: I like him a lot. You can just tell he is good at what he does and he has a passion for it. He is so positive and he makes me believe that he can get in and out easily. The cancer that has spread to my liver will be no more after surgery because I have complete faith in him. (I have been told that he is the best in the state!)
The best part of all my doctors is that they are treating to CURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
