Surgery Follow Up

What was supposed to be a quick trip into BI for Dr. K to say "hey Colleen, lookin' good" turned into a very long, painful day.

Well I will start by enlightening you with my ingenious suggestion to the world; I believe that patients should be able to rent hovercrafts after having surgeries and such -- car rides are The Worst!!!

Our first stop of the morning was a 9:45am trip to radiology for a routine chest x-ray. I was smart enough to wear absolutely no metal, so that I didn't have to change. After the x-ray we made our way up five floors to the oncology department, checked in and waited to be called.
Once in with doctor is where we will acknowledge the "hey Colleen, you're looking good" along with, "we have good news". Those are things we love to hear!

The good news: All of the cancer is gone!!! A good portion of the mass they took out was dead (thank you chemo and radiation); however some of it was still positive for cancer (thank you surgery). It is a good feeling to know that everything we went through was worth it.

The fact that I'm still having difficulty breathing after two weeks concerns the doctors a bit. They conducted a (what felt like a) power walking test around the oncology area. Dr. K was most concerned with a Pulmonary Embolism (blood clot in the lung), which I do have a history of and is very dangerous.

After meeting with Dr. K he sent me to have my blood drawn and then for a CT-A (special type of ct scan that checks for blood clots, fluid in the lung, collapsed lung, etc). Back down the five floors we go.... smart me, I escape the changing process again! This particular scan doesn't require drinking the highlighter fluid, just receiving it through an IV -- which posed to be a problem. After spending approximately an hour and a half/two hours in radiology they sent me back to the oncology office because they couldn't place an IV. I was sent to the chemo area where my chemo nurses placed the IV (first stab!).... so back down to radiology we go. We wait a while, finally I'm called, am brought into the scan room, they have to give me oxygen and carefully position me so that I can breath. (side note: I was given very strict discharge instructions, including limited movements and no lifting, etc... they nurses/techs/docs spent the entire day breaking their own rules) The tech then brings my arms over my head (OUCH!), or at least attempted to... I was able to slowly (and painfully) move my arms a little at a time so they ended up behind my head. More pain of flowing the contrast too quickly through the IV, holding my breath a few times, and we're done.

I instruct them not to remove the IV, and we head back up to oncology to wait for the results. (positive = admittance to the hospital, negative = more testing). The results..... Negative for everything (more good news!). The next step is an echo cardiogram. The scan showed fluid around my heart. A little fluid of normal consistency is normal after a surgery like mine; but too much or too thick could be a problem. The first opening for the cardiac testings was at 6p, which was about two hours from this point. We grabbed a little something to eat, hung around and then went to the testing area. After the echo we headed back up to the oncology office to wait for the results. (too much = admittance, normal = going home!!).. after what felt like forever, we were finally given a normal result. Our new options wer to be admitted, if that's what made us more comfortable, or they would set up a service to deliver Oxygen to the house in order to help with the breathing... Oxygen it is!

I received a phone call when we were about ten minutes from our house, the oxygen delivery person was waiting outside our house --- oooookay. After a very long, painful, stressful day there is some man waiting to give me a lesson about breathing air - awesome. The process of filling the tanks, setting them up in the house and the lesson took a good hour, maybe a little more.

Finally I was able to relax!!! I was so sore and exhausted I didn't even attempt to change my routine. I didn't use the oxygen, I just passed out sitting upright in the chair like I have been the past two weeks.

All in all, we got a lot of good news yesterday.
I will have to go back for an additional follow-up in another couple of weeks.

It just clicked that all of that good news means that I am now -- CANCER FREE!!!

5 days home

Well I've been home for five days.

There aren't many updates...
My body still looks like a cutting board; though slowly healing.
My breathing is still labored and shallow. I still am forced to sleep upright in our living room chair (with my Love only steps away on the couch - it really doesn't get any better than him!).
I can not move my upper body or arms certain ways, lift or carry anything. At this point it's still a lot of can not's, but with each day that passes, a gaping whole in my skin might get a millimeter smaller, or I am able to walk for a minute more.. these are things things that I have to keep my eyes on. More importantly, I have to keep in mind that the cancerous mass is no longer there and each cell that is created in my body is now healthy and strong. Of course I have not been back for this to be confirmed by the experts; but I know it to be true.

We go back for a follow-up on Thursday, where I will have a lot of questions as to how my recovery is progressing. I feel like I should be bouncing back quicker than I am (even though they told me 2 months before I'll be able to do anything)... I like specifics.
I'm not sure exactly what Thursday will entail, but I'm sure they will do blood work, seeing I have been on a few supplements that I was lacking post-op. I know at some point a scan of the area will be done - the results to this not yet scheduled scan is what I look forward to most.

Home Sweet Home

It is Monday afternoon and I am home!

The first thing I want to say is what a fantastic job John did of updating the blog for you all! There was a lot going on for him and a lot to take care of, but he still managed to update all of you as much as he could and still be there for me... So a special thank you my love, for absolutely everything you do and are.
And then of course a thank you to all of you for looking here for updates, it helped us out a lot, and gave us the ability to give you more details than we would have been able to otherwise!

There is no reason to go back through everything that John has already written. So as of today, I am home! I am in a Whole lot of pain, have very limited movements, and have a lot of difficulty breathing a lot of the time. My hands, arms and feet are still swollen, and I have incisions galore! So it's not pretty to say the least; but I'm sure that it's going to get better from here on out!

We have a follow-up with Dr. K on Thr. 10/29

4/5th Day After the Surgery

Sorry for the lack of updates but my computer was not working at the hospital and I haven’t been home Since Friday morning.

Well Colleen is still advancing at a excellent rate

Currently Status as of 10/18/09 (12 pm):

• Normal diet
• Chest tube out
• 1 IV left
• Pretty much off the Oxygen
• Extreme Pain (but meds are somewhat helping…. I know easy for me to say)

This afternoon:

12 pm Ultrasound

1 pm x-ray

If the 2 test, numbers (heart rate, etc.), and breathing are good the doctors say she will probably released by Monday.

2nd day after surgey

My computer is not working at the moment so im going to be real short seeing I am doing this on my phone.

Colleen did awesome today. She got rid of all Iv's but 2 and one chest tube. She got up from bed to a chair and then walked. Biggest acheivment is she is out of Icu and moved to a regular room.

Well I can't type anymore so I will update more tomorrow

Day 1 after surgery (10/15/09)

Doctor’s plan/ Goal for today:

• Remove breathing tube by the end of the day.
• Get out of bed.

Colleen’s plan/Goal for today:

• Remove the breathing tube before noon (really First thing).
• Be able to start to be alert and talk.
• Get out of bed (not really colleens but I threw it in there)
• To be pretty close to breathing without any oxygen help.
• To continue being positive

Well I am happy to report Colleen accomplished all of the Goals.

She was able to do limited movement in bed, talk and give me commands all day. (Thank God I was beginning to be completely lost). Besides all these great things she got plenty of rest and once again impressed the doctors.

Currently she still has 5 Iv’s, 2 ‘lung drains” for lack of words to come out. She is still in a lot of pain (as you could imagine) and very thirsty because she is only allowed ice chips (SHE IS NOT HAPPY ABOUT).

Tomorrows Plan/Goal:

• Take out 3 of the 5 Iv’s
• Start the process of taken out “lung drains” which could be a few days.
• Move from ICU to Surgical room.

I have told her about all the prayers and thoughts people have expressed to me. She smiled and said I love them all and aren’t they so great. So from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank all of you for the help in both prayers/thoughts and in keeping her spirits up.

Seeing it will now be little steps daily the BLOG probably will be a little shorter but the steps to Colleens recovery will be huge. I am so proud of all her hard work, which I have watched not only today but also throughout the whole process.

Surgery Day

Warning all entries to the BLOG will possibly have misspelled, bad grammar and not even achieve the great writing skills of Colleen.

Tuesday night:

Colleen packs her clothes and a bag of entertainment to keep me busy. Of course she is having major surgery the next day but like always she always has time to make sure she makes me happy.

Wednesday the day of the surgery 10/14/09

We leave at 5:30 to miss traffic, which we were successful because we get there at around 6:30. We check in the front office and they actually have a pager that you see in a restaurant. Of course me being me I go we better get a good table hehe. We then begin the wait in which we call Emile to wish her Happy birthday. Shortly after 7:00 we go to the next waiting room and then colleen goes into the Pre- operation room to get ready. I get called in to see her and of course she is still upbeat and ready to go. The Doctors come in and explain again what their plan is for the day. This is the first we hear she is booked for ICU “just in case”. Then it time for anesthesia people to come in and do their job. After they are done I say my byes and she is off to surgery.

Surgery results:

Started 9:45 and went to around 4:30.

They “believe” they completely removed the thymic mass, which is the most amazing news possible.

During surgery the discover the a small part of the cancer was on a part of the Vena Cava, which was a possibility mentioned before, because it was only on a small part to be removed they did not put her on bypass machine (outstanding because this could of lead to many possible complications). They did clamp off the vein briefly, repaired the vein. One side effect of this was swelling of the head and feet. Doctors explained this was expected and way less of a risk then by-pass. Also mentioned before there are two nerves that are in charge of raising your diaphram when you breathe. Well one of them was really close but not affected by the cancer but because of the radiation and surgery it was very swollen and very tender.

Due to both the repair to the vein and nerve they decided to keep her in sedation with a breathing tube as precocious measures.

The doctors are very happy with the whole operation and are hoping for a quick but safe recovery. So right now she is in the ICU while her breathing is getting better and swelling is going down by the hour. The doctor’s hopes are for the breathing tube to be out by sometime tomorrow and her to be awake. Which I hope to God happens I miss her smile, her eyes and her voice.

Well hopefully I gave all the information and will be fired as the BLOGS editor very soon so my love of my life, my everything, and my wife can take over as the editor for a short time. My hopes is that she can write very soon in her last post: I HAVE Kicked CANCERS ASS!!!.

Last Post Before Surgery!

As I pack for my hopefully short stay at B.I., I realized that I never let you know how Saturday went.

Well, as everything else in our lives, complicated would explain it best.

We arrived right on time and no one was in the office; so after hunting someone down, filling out the forms (that I've filled out at least 150 times), the radiology tech said that she would be right back for me, so we sat down and waited. Approximately 40 minutes later I asked if the Tech had forgotten about me, she said no, but called out to make sure. A different Tech came out shortly after and said that it is not just a CT Scan that my surgeons want, but a complex scan that is not ordinarily performed. With all I've been through, I'm somehow not surprised! The tech explained that they were trying to get a hold of the doctors to figure it all out.

So again, we waited -- with the entertainment of a lady reading a restaurant menu for the half hour she waited and the man wearing the "old guys rule" t-shirt speaking openly about everything.

After a while a Tech came out to assure me that they were still working on it; they were figuring out if they will need one IV or two. So I immediately told them that it is always difficult to place an IV in me and that they might want to get started on one asap, just in case.
Nope, they didn't believe me. When I was finally taken back into the scan room, they had me lay down on the scan table and told me that they were placing two IVs, one in each arm -- AT THE SAME TIME!!! Seriously!! So I took a deep breath and went along with the craziness.

Right arm man succeeded with one stick, some fishing and floating. Left arm woman, not so lucky. Instead of going through all of the details of the left arm, I will just tell you that after 2 Tech's and an IV nurse -- which accumulated to 9 sticks (each with a lot of fishing and floating), I did not end up with an IV in my left arm.

The test was to check the veins in my chest. The contrast was supposed to be pumped through both arms (at the same time) and the scan would highlight all of the blood vessels that would be available in case I had to be put on bypass during surgery. So, with only one IV they would pump the contrast and scan, then wait just about 3 minutes (for the contrast to circulate) and then scan again. They chose not to tell me this option when 3 or 4 times I asked if the second IV was actually necessary.

We finally were able to leave B.I. at 5:25pm.

So Wednesday is the day. I ask you all to please be patient; with the understanding that I appreciate all of your love and concern. I am to arrive at 8:00am; however, my OR time isn't until 9:30am. The surgery is to last approximately 5hrs. John will update the website, but if I had to guess it won't be until evening.

I love you all! Let's hope this goes smoothly and that the surgery will rid me of all cancer Forever!!

Last Minute CT Scan

Well it's Friday at 1:25 in the afternoon and I get a call from Dr. K's office.
Evidently, "the doctors have been talking and want you to have a CT Scan before the surgery, and the only available appointment is tomorrow at 2:15pm".

I am not happy about this fact.
My last pre-surgery weekend and I have to spend Saturday from 2:00-4:30p (ish) in radiology drinking liquid highlighters!?

Pre-Op

Pre-Op was very long!

But just the gist of it:
Paperwork
Wait
Brought to a room
Wait
8 viles of Blood
Blood Pressure, etc.
Wait
EKG
Wait
Anesthesia Physical/medical history
Wait
Nurse: medical history, pre-op instructions
Wait
Sent to Radiology
Wait with a bunch of sick hacking people
Chest X-Ray
Make a run for the elevator and get out of there!

6 days until surgery...

Surgery Date

10/7/09
Pre-Op
7:45am-8:45am
* Review of Medical History
* Blood work
* Meet Anesthesia Team, they must okay surgery
* West Campus


10/14/09
Surgery
8:00am Arrival
9:30am Surgery time
* Estimated surgery time is 4 to 5 hrs
* Will remain in B.I. 3 to 7 days
* West Campus




John and I have had several people ask us what we need and what they can send us. We are grateful everyday for the extraordinary support system that we are so lucky to have. I modestly reply this request only for those who seek the answer. This entire process has been a financial burden, not to mention John was recently laid-off, which has undoubtedly added a signifcant amount of stress. Monetary donations and gift cards to places such as Hannaford supermarket or local gas stations are what we find to be most useful. Please do not feel this message is here because we are asking for gifts; it is just a simple reply to those who are looking for a way to help.

Much Love,
Colleen