9toes's blog

They released me from the hospital for a few days since all they would do until Wednesday’s surgery is monitor me. I hsould get a call tomorrow letting me know what time they want me back on Wednesday morning.

We talked to the doctor this afternoon, and the surgery is now scheduled for this Wednesday. He says it should be 10-15 hours and I’ll be in something like critical care on Thursday. After that, I’ll be in hospital for about 4 weeks. It will likely be up to 3 months till feeling somewhat normal.

Had my first visit to MD Anderson on Monday.  Talked to the physician’s assistant and got some more info on the surgery. It’s going to involve a 3 week hospital stay and 6-8 weeks total recovery time. OUCH! After that went on to give blood, get a chest x-ray and a CT scan. I’ll talk to the doctor next Monday. In the mean time, I got a call from the P.A. this morning saying that they may be able to squeeze me in on the 6th for the surgery. If not, it would be on the 27th.

Today I got drained again. They got 7 liters this time.

Went today and got drained. They only got 6 liters out this time. Hopefully this is a sign that things are getting better in there.

I had two appointments this past Monday, 12/14. First I went to get my port flushed and then to get the fluid drained from my abdomen again. The port flush was surprisingly quick. It only took about 2 minutes. As for the fluid draining, the procedure is called paracentesis, they got 7 liters this time.
Someone had suggested to me that I weigh myself before and after that gets done. Well, I kid of did this week. They weighed me at the oncologist’s office and I got on a scale on the way out of the hospital after the paracentesis. The morning number was 241 and the afternoon was 227. This is a 14 pound difference. More importantly to me, it means that aside from the fluid, I’ve lost about 20 pounds since early November because I was weighing around 250 at my first visit to my current oncologist.

I finally heard something positive from M.D. Anderson. They told me today that the doctor will see me on Monday January 4th. This is a huge weight off of my mind because we finally know something.

I just got off the phone with Anderson’s imaging department. I asked about the CD’s to see if all 3 of them needed replacing. Fortunately, the guy I spoke with was able to check, and only one of them didn’t work. So, I called that hospital and they are making a new disk in the format that Anderson uses. So, it should be in their hands by the end of the day.