Friday, December 28, 2007

Surgery + 2 days

Today my biggest accomplishment was walking around the 32-room hospital unit without an iv-pole to lean on. Of course I walked slowly, but several nurses said I was walking better than yesterday.

The surgery was actually very brief, 45 minutes instead of the 14 hours it might have taken. That's good news and bad news. It really was just exploratory surgery, and the surgeons found that it wasn't feasible to remove the cancer because it's scattered all around. So my next option is chemotherapy using 5 drugs intravenously, one of them experimental.


Surgery + 3 days

I started adding to to the blog, but got interrupted by a nurse or doctors, the staff here is huge and I see people all day long.

As for the operation, it was brief, but traumatic for my system because of a large incision and having organs moved around. My biggest problem now is that since the night before last, I can't have anything but sips of water and iv fluids. I have a distended belly, look like malnourished children that you see on the news. And after 5 days of nothing solid to eat, I don't look like I've lost an ounce, there is a possibility that I'll get solid food tonight, but I'll believe that when I see it.

I'm walking around but now I'm attached to the iv pole again. And I'm sitting in a chair more, they want me out of the bed more than I am in it. All things considered, I feel pretty good. Last night I had a good night's sleep, well, as good as can be when you're awakened at midnight, 4 a.m., and 5:30 a.m., to check vital signs, draw blood and given medication. This morning I had a big adventure, a trip 2 floors down, by chauffered wheelchair to radiology for a chest x-ray. It's not a pleasant experience, but the staff here is almost uniformly good. It's probably the best hospital I could be in to treat a rare cancer.

Now I have to get out of here, probably in another 3 days or so, then I have to recuperate for up to 2 weeks, so I can come back here and get sick again, with 4-day cycles of chemotherapy followed by 3 weeks off.

Thanks for all the messages of support, but this is not the kind of illness that will respond to get well soon messages, I may feel all right, but I know the cancer cells will multiply and spread, and the best I can hope for is a few more good years. But I appreciate all good thoughts and prayers.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Hospital admission minus 1 day

Today is Monday, 12/24/07, Christmas Eve. I am getting ready to enter the hospital to prepare for surgery on Wednesday. I feel like I am in perfect health, just as I have felt for almost all of my life. In fact I'm about to go to the gym, actually in the mood for it, and those of you who know me, will know that mood doesn't strike very often. It must be the knowledge that I will have an excuse for not going for some time after surgery.

I think it helps to enter the hospital feeling healthy, as I have for four previous surgeries. Never mind that I am not healthy as my recent history proves. In July I had an adrenal tumor removed, it had taken over the left adrenal gland, and both tumor and gland came out. The surgeon saw the cancer when he operated, the biopsy confirmed the finding of adrenocortical cancer, and subsequent scans have shown the spread of cancer. It is hard to conceive, but all the while I have felt perfectly fine, probably as well as anybody reading this.
Since July I have been to four oncologists, including those at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City and the National Institute of Health (National Cancer Institute within NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Opinions of treatment have varied, and I had to choose who and what to believe and choose the treatment that would give me the best option for stopping or at least slowing down the spread of cancer. The surgery scheduled for Wednesday, December 26 at NIH includes removal of 1 kidney, spleen, parts of pancreas, colon and diaphragm. It sounds like a major part of my body, but I am assured that I can live normally without all these organs or parts of organs. It is an aggressive option but maybe my best chance to have more years of life with the quality of life I have been accustomed to.

This is my first attempt at a blog, I thought it would be difficult, but my niece Paula did the work for me, e-mailing the set-up from Taiwan where she and her husband Ted are living and working for 2 years. I resisted the idea, but it turns out that Paula was right, it is easy, and it seems to be a good way to speak my mind. I've never been accused of being shy, and this seems like a good way to share information, feelings, fears.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Test post

Just to see what this blog looks like!