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!!!