Week Fourteen and Fifteen

The “header” picture is from the 1970’s at Harrah’s at South Shore Lake Tahoe. On the right is Norine and Cotton, two friends from grammar school.  In the middle is Chris and Carol, on the left is Gary, husband of Norine, and Lynn, wife of Cotton.  The headliner was ELVIS PRESLEY.  Wow, what a show he put on!!

 

This is Friday of Week Fourteen. I am in the Surgery ICU on the second day after surgery, and I thought I’d try to to get started on my blog from here. I do not have the normal stats to share, but I can tell you my weight going into surgery was 141.8 lbs.

This surgery is the culmination of fourteen weeks of preparation and anticipation. My diagnosis was June 1st, and it seems like I’ve been on a fast track (albeit one with many twists and turns) ever since.

I wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate your comments, cards, thoughts, and prayers–and just the fact that you’re reading the blog. You have given me the strength to carry on when things got a little tough.  And they did get a little tough.

Carol and I bounded out of bed at 3:50 am on Wednesday for a 5:15 surgery check-in at Mercy San Juan. Some of the pre-op activities included an EKG, meds for pain/anxiety, a blood thinner med, and two separate vials of blood from two different sites, drawn by two different personnel, all to be doubly sure of my blood type should I need a transfusion during/after the procedure. We also met with the anesthesiologist, the two surgeons, and two surgical nurses.  All this activity took until 7:29 am.

 

Chris is prepped and ready for surgery

 

Then I  was wheeled into the operating room at 7:30, exactly on time, and they lifted me from pre-op bed to the operating table.  Thirty seconds later I was unconscious, and did not wake up until six hours later in ICU. This was actually kind of disappointing…four months of preparation/anticipation and then not being able to experience the actual operation!

My surgeon, Dr DiPerna, came to the waiting room about 11 am to tell Carol that all went well. I didn’t feel too bad after the surgery, but I was still pretty doped up.  Carol, Andrew, and Mel stayed and visited with me until about 7:30 pm. So here I was, in ICU for the next five days, with a nasal-gastro tube running from my nose to the bottom of my re-configured stomach, to flush out any fluids that accumulated in my stomach. I was also on a Foley Pee tube (catheter) and a chest-draining tube to eliminate any excess fluids in my chest cavity. The surgeons also removed my stomach peg, and replaced it with a j-tube in my small intestine. So there was a lot of stuff going on in this rather complicated procedure.

After the surgery, either Dr DiPerna or Dr Williams came by every day I was in ICU, and often they both stopped by, but at different times.  I was very well attended to while there, but the stay was not without a few difficulties, often caused by the numerous attachments, tubes, and electric power needs that had to be plugged into something behind me.

The first couple of nights the nurses plugged my tubes, IV’s, and electrical needs into outlets on opposite sides of the bed.  So if I got up in the middle of the night I was basically trapped and could not move to the left or the right.  Finally the old USF and State Government ingenuity was able to get everything squared away on the tube attachments.

My daytime walks, which were HIGHLY recommended, came with mixed emotions from the nurses.  Some thought I needed to stay attached to my pole/station and would not disconnect certain tubes, nor did they think it appropriate for me to go for walks outside.  Other nurses had no problem disconnecting me from the tubes and letting me go for walks outside.  Those were my favorites (as you might have guessed)! On the whole, the care in ICU was quite satisfactory.

 

Things were pretty busy in ICU.  I had blood drawn daily, usually around 3 or 4 am.  Then chest x-rays to watch for pneumonia, usually about 5 am.  They checked my vitals regularly, and of course asked about any bowel movements. On the second day after surgery they asked about my catheter. I said it was doing fine.  They asked to see it, and the next thing I knew…zippppp…they pulled it out. Enough of that, I guess.

I would have much preferred it if they would have pulled out my nasal-gastro tube…that was driving me crazy.  But no, that didn’t come out until 5 days after surgery.  Dr. Williams was inspecting the situation and then asked if I would cough a long cough.  At which time he pulled a two foot long gunky-looking tube out of my stomach.  Now the nasal-gastro tube was gone!

After five days in ICU, they moved me out of there, into the ‘surgical’ recovery area. I had been getting nourishment either through IV’s or the J-Tube. And now they wanted me to try to eat orally. They decided to try to only have the J-Tube as backup, and to see if I could go to a liquid diet for a few days, and then gradually work in some solids.

Two days in the surgery recovery area, and then I was released on October 4th.

 

Chris’ scar

 

And now I guess this is where the hard work starts.  Oh, Brother. But the worst is behind, now just a long slog to recovery.  Dr. DiPerna said that the pathology report was a clean one…no cancer left behind in any of the tissues or the lymph nodes.  We will go over the report in more detail in our appointment with him on October 10, 2017.

So that’s about it for now.  I have a new regimen of meds to take.  Some once a day, some twice, some every 6 hours, some every 8 hours.  Keeping track of all that will be difficult, particularly in my slightly brain pain-addled condition. Figuring out just some basic activities has become complicated.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers.  This has not been easy, but you all have certainly smoothed the way for me.

Oh, my weight this morning was 142.9 lbs.  Now I’ve got to go have some meds.  I’ll try to post something in a week when I’m feeling a little better!

Chris