So my body is really trying to kill me! Seriously though, the surgery results are good (details below), but 7 hours is a long time to be in surgery 🙂
oh, and I don’t have a bag LOL
I woke up from surgery to my left arm in a lot of pain. I’ve had lymphedema for the last 9 years in this arm and apparently it was not happy. The nurses gave me a pillow for my arm (that helped) and my next questions was “do I have a bag?”, I was so relieved when they said no 🙂
I was out of it from the anesthesia, but I tried to stay lucid enough to get the OK to go home. They wheeled me into a recovery room where William could see me and while I was waiting for him, I could hear the nurses talking about how busy they were. The ‘call’ buttons kept getting pressed by other patients so I was hoping William would get there quickly so that he could take care of me. When he got there, we talked for a moment (don’t ask me what he said) and then I told him that I wanted to throw up. Nausea was hitting hard, and he told me to push the call button, but I didn’t want to bother the nurse. Eventually I pushed the button and was told by someone over the speaker that they would have to find my nurse.
It was probably 10 minutes before someone brought me a barf bag. By then I was using every mental trick I could to keep from throwing up. After what felt like forever, my nurse finally showed up apologizing and gave me some Zofran. Before she left the room William asked her what I needed to do to go home. She said if I was able to walk and could go pee, I could go home. Challenge accepted. I told her I had to go pee and I did my best to ‘be ok’ as I sat up, got out of the bed and made my way to the bathroom. Yes, I was pretending to NOT be dizzy or nauseous. But I really didn’t want to stay the night in the hospital. After that the discharge process was very quick, and we were on our way home.
After surgery my doctor wanted me up and walking right away. I had to continue to drink the gross Ensure drinks for 5 days along with a vitamin/orange drink for 14 days. I was on Gabapentin (a nerve blocking drug) for the first 3 days, and this really helped with the pain, but it made me feel a little out of it. I also had to start taking Lovenox shots in my stomach (a blood thinner) to reduce the risk of blood clots post-surgery. One of the side effects is nausea, so I’ve been nauseous every day since surgery. Some days are better than others, but I’m trying to get out of the house and walk more each day and I’m only taking Tylenol for pain.
There are all these aches & pains that you don’t see, but I try to put on a good face and have a great attitude. I get told often that I look really good for having just had a major surgery, and honestly inside it’s a challenge. I think there have been only a few days where I’ve actually cried (because I’m a baby, LOL). It’s not because of pain, I just don’t want to be a burden to anyone around me. These last 10 days have been challenging because I can’t do simple things. No one wants me to pop a stich and end up back in the hospital. I want to focus on the good things and the days ahead.
Surgery Results | 3-5% residual viable tumor
Going back to ‘my body is trying to kill me’, we found out that the cancer was a little more involved in other parts of my body. The good news is that pathology shows very little viable tumor material is left, but it took the surgeon a couple of extra hours to carefully remove the tumor from my colon and clean out other pieces of tissue/tumor they found. Overall, my surgeon is very happy with the results, and it appears that the chemo is working very well. I am very grateful that my surgeon took the time to get the tumors out of my body with minimal impact to my other organs.
I am so thankful that my body is doing all that it needs to do to fight this cancer and kill it!
Thank you again to everyone who has supported me through this, for the meals you bring to my family, for your financial support and for your encouragement and love.
-Tamika
Surgery Day Recap
- 5:00am – Arrive at the hospital and begin surgery prep.
- 7:00am – Wheeled into the surgery center room.
- 10:40am – Nurse calls to tell William I’m ok, but they need 1-2 hours more.
- 12:30am – Nurse calls again to tell William they need another 1-2.
- 2:02pm – The surgeon calls William to tell him that everything went well.
- 3:20pm – Nurse calls to say I’m awake and William can see me in an hour.
- 6:11pm – On our way home.
Other Post Surgery Things To Laugh At
- ‘What is this bump on my head?’ – Apparently, I hit my head on something while out.
- ‘Why do my eyes get stuck shut?’ – They taped my eyes closed and it left residue.
- ‘What is this glue I keep finding on me?’ – Yep, more tape residue in strange places 🙂
- ‘Where the heck is my eyebrow?!’ –Â It’s stuck to the tape back at the hospital, LOL!
- ‘Where did that layer of skin go?’ – Right, it too was left stuck to tape at the hospital.
- ‘Dang it, my bum leg is back!’ – Currently having strange nerve leg & foot pain.
