March 16th was my surgery day! Now that things have calmed down, I can tell the story with some more detail. I was kind of excited and kind of scared shitless :) They would be removing the Tumor, and some surrounding tissue and organs.
My sister Janet had come in to town to give me support from PA, her plan was to stay while I was in the Hospital 7-10 Days and then stay in the city till the end of the month to nurse me through rehab.
The side effects of the Chemotherapy were finally starting to wear away, but I was still quite exhausted and drained, I hated the 9 weeks of Chemo Yikes! But I made it through.
The operation I was having is called the Whipple, the surgeons office prepared me for the good the bad and the ugly of it all, including the wake up in the dark ICU with many tubes in many places etc.
I went in to Memorial Hospital bright and early that morning armed with my sedatives and the support of Peter, Wayne & Janet.......What more could a guy ask for?
I had a sort of horrible experience in the get-ready room with a young nurse who had some "trouble" accessing the port in my chest. Thankfully another Nurse came by and ended the carnage.
But thanks to lots of sedatives while I was being made ready I was asleep BEFORE i saw the inside of the operating room, which makes me happy, I don't really enjoy being awake in those super bright, super chilled rooms while the OR staff does their set up.
So off I went to the 4-5 hour operation!
And then ........I Woke up.........
Surprised I woke up in a very cheery environment, not at all the high-tech dungeon i expected! I had trouble shaking off all the drugs but the room gradually came into focus, I was sitting quite upright in a rolling bed, a nurse was at a desk to my left and a few empty beds were on either side of me. The room was bright and i felt surprisingly well! No breathing tube! And it sure didn't seem like there were other "tubes" in my nether regions...... I could hear the nurse on the phone telling someone that I was awake. I asked her what was up and she said "Your surgeon is on his way to speak with you"
It wasn't long, or didn't seem long before I saw the Surgeon was on his way down the hall followed by Wayne, Peter & Janet. I was happy to see friendly faces although I'm not quite sure the look on their face was happy.
Bottom line was that prior to the big surgery they do laposcopic surgery, while exploring the Dr discovered previously unseen Cancer cells were in my liver. With the cancer spreading to the Liver a decision was made that the Whipple operation was no longer viable.
So now I was feeling better than I thought physically but not so great emotionally. My Abdomen started to hurt from the incisions.........
I was still remarkably hanging in there, I guess I had become used to the ups & downs and twists & turns of this cancer battle, I knew there were more battles to come and I would get my wins :)
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