August 15, 2023
After a long and nearly sleepless night, we arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am. We checked in and sat down to wait. We had already been told that I would not be able to go with him to the prep area, so the waiting room was the last stop for me. The nurse came for him and let us grab a quick hug and say our I love yous. The nurse told me she would bring out his clothes and glasses once he went back for surgery. At 7:15 a patient representative started circulating throughout the waiting room explaining that we could see the patient’s status on the screen on the wall. Sort of like looking at flight at the airport. She gave me a card with a unique number that was for David. I got up and looked and at that time, it showed it was in the prep area. Around 8:00 the nurse brought out a bag with his clothes and glasses as promised. She said he was doing well and on his way to surgery. Dr. C has told us surgery could last around 1.5-2 hours. So I settled in to be anxious and write. I figured that would be a good way to get my thoughts down and pass the time. I checked the screen a few times and it showed him in surgery. Dr. C appeared in front of me around 9:55. He immediately said David was fine and would be fine and asked that we go into a room to speak. Of course, I felt the panic start to rise at this point. Something was wrong. We went into a small room near the waiting room and he explained that once he got to the tumor, he saw that the tumor had pushed thorough the colon wall and was touching his bladder. The MRI did not clearly show an involvement with another organ, so it was unexpected. He said he was not sure if it was just touching the bladder or if the tumor was attached to the peritoneum membrane surrounding the bladder. Either way, he decided it was best to stop the surgery and refer David to a radiology oncologist. He told me he recommends radiation therapy to shrink the tumor away from the bladder so that he would not have to take so much of David’s bladder trying to ensure he got all chances of the disease. He said treatments would most likely be done for 5-6 weeks 5 days per week and he would put us in touch with an oncologist. He said David’s liver looked good, but he would also like a PET scan to show us any further spread. Dr. C told me he put in metal clip in the area of the tumor for radiation targeting. He noted again that there still would be no need for an ostomy. He told me to take whatever time I needed to make phones calls and then they would call me to come see him in recovery.
They called for me to come to recovery around 11:00. David looked good considering and was still a little groggy. Did I mention he is irritable after anesthesia.? 🙂 Dr. C had stopped to speak with him after he spoke with me so David was aware of the issue. We decided we would go back to the hotel and stay the night just in case he needed to go back to the hospital. We left the hospital around 12:45 and went to the pharmacy nearby to pick up his pain medication. I got him some soup and juices and we went back to the hotel. He was sent home with a spirometer with strict instructions to use it every hour. He was in some pain but we managed to watch some tele and sleep a while.
KINDA SOME SURGERY (-d)
Going into surgery I was obviously nervous but couldn’t have asked for better double-checking and reassurance. The warming machine was a nice touch. I got an extra fall risk bracelet after explaining my IV passing out situation. I got a nice hair net and more importantly a similar beard net just to keep everything together. I’m sure I looked awesome. Lots of waiting as everything was prepared and checked again. Then it was time to make the trip into the cold bright operating room. Oddly enough, the cold brightness of operating rooms has always made me feel more comfortable than not. A few general questions and a little counting backwards from 100 and then I woke up in the recovery room.
Waking up in the recovery room the first thing I felt was the calf squeezing things working to push my blood around and was oddly irritated every single time. I was very happy when they were taken off. In and out for a bit until I finally recognized my name from the nurse watching over me. Then not too long after that I received a similar update from Dr. C. Good news the surgery had gone fine. Less good news, he couldn’t remove anything and there were questions about how and what it could be attached to. But soon after that I was reassured that we have a plan of how to deal with it and would be making progress as soon as possible. He wasn’t sure I’d remember how much he said so was sure to mention that he had said the same to DeeGee and that we were free to follow-up with any questions or concerns as soon as we had them. I was disappointed but not too bad. I really wanted it out, but more than that I wanted to do what was right to make sure we got as much of the cancer out of my system the best way possible. As it turns out, I’d need a team of people and a lot of decisions made over several months for that to be the case, but it was what I wanted way back then and still what I want now.
Back to the hotel to recover for the evening before going home. The pain got worse as various drugs wore off but was held at bay by the drugs given to me after surgery. I’m sure it was better than large cuts across my abdomen, but the best way I could describe it would be like being stabbed a few times around my abdomen. Certainly less than ideal, but they do make for kinda impressive and expensive tattoos that build up over time I suppose.
