This really ought to be a blog, but I dont have anything recent posted, so status it is! Here is the latest health update! Mom and I are headed back up to Chicago (Zion), IL to Cancer Treatment Centers of America tomorrow late afternoon. Wednesday at 11 am I will have patient registration, nurse assessment, spirometry teaching (lol what a joke! They dont know me apparently...), and blood work done. Then Thursday I will be having a thoracotomy on my left lung. This will be my 3rd thoracotomy on that lung, my 5th thoracotomy total, and my 6th lung surgery period. Despite having my 5th and 6th ribs resected and my 4th and 7th ribs fractured, they are going to proceed normally and use a rib spreader on me for the surgery. This will most likely cause my ribs to fracture even more. The thoracic surgeon up there has practiced at M.D. Anderson and Mayo and he has removed many osteosarcoma tumors. However, he is going in my lung blind as far as what to expect since the resected ribs are being separated from my scapula with some polyurethane mesh. If he has to remove the mesh, he said he will use a bio prosthetic AKA tissue or muscle from MY BACK...talk about ouchies. :-/ Lets definitely pray that he wont have to do that and if he does, that it wont be too painful. The only good news in all of this is that when they perform surgeries up there, they give the patients an epidural, so I shouldnt feel too much pain for 2-3 days max. Plus, they will extubate me after the surgery and not keep me on a vent and make me wean off of it like they did down here the last 2 thoracotomies--that was awful and I would truly rather die than be intubated and conscious for 3-8 hours like I did the last 2 surgeries. The thoracotomy is one of the MOST PAINFUL surgeries a person can endure. You can keep your leg up, or not move your arm--but you cant stop using your lungs. After this surgery, I will have 4-6 days to recover, then mom and I will fly back home. That will be most uncomfortable after surgery, let me tell ya! Once Im back home, I will have a couple of weeks to recover, then my local oncologist will start me on a couple of new chemotherapies--Gemcitabine and Docetaxel. According to the oncologist at CTCA, they have a 30% chance of helping me. I cant believe I am having to go through all of this again...and that the doctors seem to think my outcome is bleak. Regardless--I do not believe in statistics. I believe in the power of God and whether I live or die, He will be with me and take care of me no matter what happens. Thank you all for your support, love, and most importantly--your prayers. God bless you.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 23:40:51 +0000