Power Port

Because my cancer had spread to one lymph node, I was advised to take chemotherapy.  The first step was to have a port placed in my chest below my collar bone.  So back to the operating room I go.  It was done as an outpatient procedure, so I went home later that day.  When the pain meds I received in the hospital wore off,  oh my goodness, I was in pain!  I don't know what they do to you to put this little device in, but I hurt from my neck to my shoulder.  I'm not usually one to take pain pills, but I was sure taking them then.  I made the mistake of taking one on an empty stomach and became very nauseous - right at the time my husband was bringing supper home.  Sorry family!!!

A port is a handy little thing.  No searching for veins when I went for an infusion or blood work.  The poor soles that choose not to get a port!  Their arms looked terrible from months of sticking. 

    http://powerportadvantage.com/clinicians.html

The Wound Vac is an amazing invention.

A week after my surgery,  I got to go home.  I couldn't wait to get a shower because my hair was greasy and plastered to my head.  I hadn't been able to wash it for a week.  My legs were so swollen, I could barely bend them enough to step into the tub.  But I wasn't going to let this beat me.  I was going to get through this.  The next day, I got up several times to walk up and down the hall.  Then I noticed I was leaving a trail.  The thing they had warned me might happen, had happened.  My incision was infected and draining.  The nurse practitioner had warned me that this might happen because of my colon leaking out during the resection.  Back to the doctor I went.

My incision was opened back up and a huge bandage covered my whole stomach. My daughter described this like a huge baked potato opened up.  I was assigned a home nurse and a wound vac was ordered. 

The wound vac is an amazing invention.  It works by applying negative pressure, like a vacuum, to the wound area.  A sponge is inserted into the wound and covered with a plastic bandage, with a tube attached to a pump. The pump is in a little bag that you carry around with you. 
http://www.kci1.com/KCI1/vactherapy  The nurse came out every 3 days to re-dress the wound. After 6 weeks of treatment, the insision was almost completely closed and healed.

 

"Let's get this party started!"

Surgery didn't go as expected.  It was supposed to be done as an endoscopic procedure.  I would have 4 little incisions, Dr. Millican would remove the tumor and I would go home in a couple of days.  No problem.  I was not worried at all in pre-op.  I was laughing and talking to my family.  I remember saying to the nurses as they pushed me down to hall to the operating room, "let's get this party started!"

 But no.  I ended up being cut from my belly button down.  Because the prep hadn't worked to clean out my colon,  waste poured out when they removed a section of my colon.  What was supposed to be a short surgery, took hours.  My husband and my daughter were starting to worry in the waiting room.  The sigmoid mass, 12 inches of colon and 14 lymph nodes were removed.

For the next few days,  I could have nothing to drink or eat.  I had a little sponge on a stick that I could wet my lips with.  I have little memory of those days,  which is probably a good thing.  I do however remember when I could finally have some crushed ice with a little apple juice poured on it.  I cried.  It was so good.  I don't even like apple juice.

Finding Out The Bad News

Prep day was May 20, 2013.  I had been experiencing IBS symptoms for a couple of months, then some bleeding, and my doctor decided it was time for a colonoscopy.  I think deep down I knew it was something worse.  But you never want to believe that could happen to you.  I started the prep that afternoon.  Moviprep was going in, but nothing much was coming out.  By 11 o'clock that night, I was throwing up.  OK, this is not now this is supposed to work.  My husband and I got up early and headed out for the procedure.  An IV was started and then I was wheeled back to the room.  In what seemed like 2 minutes, I was waking up.  The doctor came in and told us that I had a blockage and he was pretty sure it was cancer.  Which hospital did I want to go to? 

We left the gastroenterologist and headed for St. Francis and the surgeons office.  My daughter met us at the hospital.  In a few hours, I was having a CT scan.  Surgery was scheduled for the next morning.  I still could have nothing to eat. Thankful that it was happening fast without much wait time,  we headed home.  I felt relieved that something was being done.  A kind of peace came over me.  That kind of peace that happens when you know that there is nothing you can do and you have to hand it over to God.

Let's get started

On May 21, 2013, I was diagnosed with colon cancer.  I never could have imagined the journey that lay ahead for me.  I didn't even like to say the word "cancer."  And now I had it.  It changes you forever.  I've finished my chemo and I'm on the road to getting life back to normal.  Although I'm not really sure what normal is now. 

I'm writing this blog hoping that it will help someone that is going through cancer.   I know it was a help to me to read about what other people went through.  And if someone you know is going through this, maybe it will help you understand some of what they are going through.  But I'm also writing this for me.  Life has certainly changed over the past year and I think this will be a type of therapy for me.  So at times I may be angry, teary, sad, silly, happy, upset, thankful, blessed.  Cancer is just a cornucopia of emotions!