April 8th
Happy Easter! I’m in Winston-Salem in a hotel near the hospital, prepping for my CRS with IPHC surgery. Time to get to bed, gotta get up at 4:45am, ugg. Andrea will have my cell phone if you want to get an update. Most of me will see you later!
April 9th
A day of sleep for me, and a long day of work for my surgeons.
April 10th
Looks like we made it! All the goo is gone! Here’s me cancer free:
Everything has been cleared out and the doctors were happy with the results. They had to resect some of my lower bowel and a good chunk of diaphragm, but I didn’t lose my spleen or any other full organ.
I woke up with an oxygen line, the world-infamous NG tube, a lung drain, two IV’s, and a catheter line, and it has been fun watching them come out one by one – like a series of little goals that keep you in the race. First out was the IV in my hand – that one I managed to yank out on my own – leaving only the central line in my neck for my meds. That one’s kind of annoying – I can’t see it and it is loosely stitched into my skin so I have to work hard to not think about it. The lung drain was a bit weird – a big fat garden hose that was pushed right through my side into my lung cavity. A lot of blood drained out through it at first, but eventually it settled down and was ready to come out on the third day after surgery. Here’s how we did it.
April 11th
There is a roving pack of bright young minds that make the rounds, that includes Dr. Levine (occassionally at least), several other experienced docs (including Dr. Isaacs, who usually did the talking when Dr. Levine wasn’t there), and some interns and docs in residence. They burst into the room and fill it with their white robes, intensity of concentration, and good nature. I was pretty scared when they came to remove the lung tube. There’s nothing holding the tube in place, and nothing to plug the hole after removal. They told me their plan: I was supposed to keep pressure on my chest cavity by blowing on the back of my hand; I was to do this on each number as Doctor Henshaw (the one that Andrea thinks looks like Rick Astley) counted to three, and on three, Doctor Carter would do the yanking. Well, when he yanked, I felt like an extra in 300, and goo shot out of me across the room – he hit one of the interns with my guts. :> But it was a short moment of pain, and the morphine was soon back in control.
That night, Andrea was at a point of exhaustion, having not slept in any real sense in the last week. I was ordered to hunker down and hit the morphine button a lot, and deep-breath through the night. I needed it too.
April 12th
I’ve had great nurses and really really slow-to-respond nurses, and this was the night and day where the latter ones all converged, sigh. Oh well, I’m doing fine, sitting up, walking some, and seeing off my brother. It was so good to have him here – my favorite part of this whole episode was watching he and Andrea enter 6-hour stream-of consciousness sessions about every topic under the sun. I don’t know what gets them going (other than a large Dr. Pepper), but it was great to watch them go. No chance of me keeping up. :>
WARNING: THE NEXT LINK IS ONLY FOR THE STRONG-STOMACHED (oh the irony)… click here to play the “count the staples” game!
All for now, I will try to keep this updated with any big new news, and I hope everyone else is doing well. Thank you all for the support and prayers!
If you haven’t seen “The Bodies” exhibit, a display of perfectly preserved cadavers in all kinds of poses and showing all internal systems, I would recommend it – it’s creepy (Dan had to talk me into going), but fascinating, and very educational. I remember seeing the airtight muscle wall that wraps around the ribcage and allows you to breathe – amazing stuff.
Unfortunately my nice lung wrap has had a big fat hole poked in it. :> The hole has given me its share of pain. When I try to deep-breathe (the number-one recommendation, along with walking, for staying healthy through all this), the hole gurgles as if air is flowing through it, and pops as if the air is making little bubblewraps inside me. Fun stuff! :> And for some unlucky reason, the start of the pain coincided with the decision to switch to oral pain meds, which have been harder to manage. Ouch. But it’s best to get away from “morphine mind”. Plus, oral pain medication is one requirement for getting out of here. Onward!
April 14th
Things are improving, deep-breathing and walking as much as possible with my own TWO personal trainers, Andrea and my mum. Thanks guys! You guys are angels. Seriously. All I’m saying is, who looks like they’re moving faster?
And Doctor Isaaks actually recommended I drink a coffee – happy day – say no more! Ahh, life’s little pleasures…
April 15th
A lot of pain and discomfort today. I’m glad Dr. Henshaw doubled my pain meds after I complained yesterday. I hope he finishes his residency soon – he is a great doctor.
I got into a little tiff at 4am with the nursing assistant. She brought me my pain meds (2 percoset tablets) and stood waiting for me to take them. She knew the rule that she wasn’t allowed to leave me with narcotics lying around. But I have a strict policy of never taking more pain meds than I think I need, and I just wasn’t in need of two tablets. So we ended our standoff with me asking her to take them away, and me asking again for them at 5am. Oh well, I guess it wasn’t that bad. But I still have an image of my mom popping up from her “bed” (a sorry excuse of a lopsided reclined chair) to say “Michael take those!” Oh well, if that’s the worst of the hospital visit I can deal with it.
Andrea and my mom headed back midday to check in with the girls and get them set for the next week. We were on the fence about them sticking around longer or heading back – even with my pain the doctors were still saying it might be tomorrow that I am released – but we figured that it was best if we didn’t wait around for something that was unsure.
I managed to eat some fruit, a smoothie, and some yogurt throughout the day. I felt like Dan must feel with his stomach belt – just a little food fills me up. It was enough to make me very bloated by 7pm, which was PAINFUL. I started popping the percoset. I could feel huge “continental drift” going on inside my belly. By 8pm, the celebratory first gas was passed, and I made one of the nursing assistants have a party with me in the hall.
April 16th
Docs visited first thing in the morning, and Dr. Isaacks could see right away that there was a problem in my belly suture. He poked around a red area and drew out a huge amount of nasty liquid – I had to get my sheets changed afterwards. He instructed Dr. Henshaw that he should take my staples out, butterfly-taping together all of it except the red swollen area – that would have to be “opened up”. I thought “no big deal” until a few minutes later when Dr. Henshaw was unzipping my staples. He pulled staples out one by one, replacing them with tape, until he got to the bad part. There, instead of keeping the wound together, he began systematically pulling it apart. Underneath the staples, there are silk sutures that prevent your whole belly from popping open, but the wound itself ended up being about 3 inches long and 3/4 inch deep. I am told I have to spend the next 8 weeks stuffing gauze into it then pulling it out, getting everything out that sticks to the gauze, to basically keep it as raw as I can. It heals from the inside out, as the V shape fills in from the bottom. So that is hopefully my final challenge in this chapter of the race. Time to check out of here!!
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