The Big Surgery has happened!

Ten days ago, on September 21, I had the big one. The best news to share is that although there was a possibility of a sigmoid colon resection, the surgeon didn’t end up needing to do that. YAY! There was a large walnut-sized cluster in that area that was able to be “peeled off”. Five tumors ended up being cut out of my liver: one the size of an acorn, one the size of a chickpea, and three the size of peas (these are the size analogies my surgeon gave me). They did a lot of exploration to find and cut out A LOT of little sesame-seed-size tumors out of the tissues of my abdomen. My omentum and gallbladder were removed. And of course, my uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes were removed. I’m told that during surgery my body did go into carcinoid crisis a couple of times, but the care team was on the lookout, and brought me through it.

My incision is 9.5″ long, stretching vertically all the way from my breast bone to my pelvic bone. I have 32 staples holding me together right now.

Click here to see the full surgical pathology report, with all the raw data. There will also be an oncological report that is released soon, which will have detailed info about the cancer they found.

I spent seven nights in the hospital. Seven nights which are becoming a blur to me now, looking back through a fog of drugs and pain. A few things I remember: 1) The first day post-surgery I remember thinking that the pain I was in was equal to childbirth. 2) I was surprised to wake up to find I had many tubes, drains, and IVs all over my body, from which I still have plenty of bruising. The nurses removed them one by one as the days went forward; the line in my neck to my artery was particularly intense to get out. 3) The day before I was to go home I vomited from nausea, which was so incredibly painful, with my core muscles spasming over and over with no control. I ended up spending an extra day in the hospital because of that. I was told my nausea was probably caused because the surgical staff handled all my organs extensively while looking them over for tumors. Yikes! 4) Most of the nurses were amazing, kind, and attentive, but a couple were brusque and didn’t seem to believe me when I told them how much pain I was in.

THE COVID PART OF THIS STORY

Yes, unfortunately covid comes into this. While we were at Disneyland the week before my surgery, My husband caught covid in a bad way on Tuesday, and was in the hotel bed terribly sick for the rest of the trip. Such a bummer! Our daughter and I were still feeling fine, so we continued on with our trip plans. She started having a runny nose on our last day in LA and two days later tested positive, although her symptoms stayed mild. At that point we were three days away from my surgery. I had no symptoms and was testing negative, even with a PCR, so we decided to go forward as planned. However, the day the surgery they gave me another covid test just as standard operating procedure, and this time… I was positive. Thank GOODNESS I was asymptomatic!! My recovery journey would be much painful if I was coughing as well! At this point everyone is testing negative. I still don’t have any symptoms, our daughter has fully recovered, and my husband only has a lingering cough.

THE PATH FORWARD

I’ve been home for several days now. I’ve been slowly tapering off my Dilaudid prescription, as directed, and am down to just alternating Tylenol and Advil on a continuous basis. They say Dilaudid is addictive, but I just felt loopy as all heck and in a brain fog when I was on it (which is why it’s taken me so long to write this post-surgery blog post). My brother has been staying with us to help with things, and we’ve had several delicious meals come through on the train. Friends have stopped by to visit and distract me, which has been incredibly refreshing and healing.

I have follow-up appointments with my two oncologists on the 10th (Dr. Pommier) and 12th (Dr. Kohn). We’ll be discussing my healing, the oncology report, giving me another Sandostatin shot, and also removing my staples. Here’s hoping no surprises come out of those conversations!

I’m still in a lot of pain, and tired. Taking a shower exhausts me! However, I need to trust that with rest, good nutrition, and patience, in a few months I’ll be back to my old energetic self. I am incredibly grateful that I have a good support network, paid time off from work, and a comfortable house to convalesce in.

In other news, I just realized that this is my theme song now!