The Cancer Story Part 2

Before I continue with the story I just want to say I notice many are reading but I am curious who you are so please don't be afraid to leave a comment.  I'd love to know who's reading.  Plus I need to decide if this blog will remain public or if I will make it private.

Anyways, after my 2nd surgery (the right hemicolectomy) I was told by the surgeon that I would need to meet with an oncologist and consider systemic chemo.  After watching my Father-in-law deal with cancers, surgeries and chemo for 10 years I was not eager to take chemo.  I had a number of friends send me links to a certain blog about one man who claimed he beat Cancer without chemo, eating naturally, being on a strict diet and taking certain supplements, etc.  I had friends calling me trying to tell me about people in their lives who just had surgery and no chemo and that they lived.  I felt pressured.  I had friends who wanted me to take chemo and didn't like that I was wrestling with what was best for me and my family.  If I only had a few years to live I wanted quality of life and to be able to enjoy what was left rather than live with the side effects of chemo and have little quality of life till the end. I had contacted my family doctor back in Canada to ask what his suggestions would be.  He informed me that in 35 years of his practise he had only met one one other person who had this type of cancer.  The hospital where I had my surgery done had only seen 2 other cases of my cancer before me.

On top of this we went to the recommended oncologist.  I had a number of questions for him.  He hadn't seen my type of cancer and had not done any research.  His recommendation was to put me on 6 months of IV chemo but it was the kind that was recommended to give to colon cancer patients.  He seemed VERY annoyed at my questions.  And at one point told me that if I had more questions I should book another appointment with him as he had other patients waiting.  I knew at that point hat I wasn't going to use him as my oncologist.  The more research I did on my cancer the more I realized how rare this was.  There are a few different type of appendix cancers but Goblet Cell is pretty rare.   

I mentioned in my last post that we were blessed with a landlord who understood pathology reports, etc.  He did a lot of research on my type of cancer and was actually pushing me to do HIPEC (Click on this link to see a neat video explaining Hipec).  He went with us to a few doctors to ask their opinions, being willing to translate for us if needed.  I had sent my pathology report to the doctor who delivered my daughter a few years prior.  She spoke great English and helped me to translate my pathology report as well.  She started working at a high class hospital where some of the top doctors were working. She had taken my report and sent it to the surgeon and an oncologist at her hospital.

We saw another doctor who suggested we didn't need HIPEC but that I take systemic chemo that is used in Lung cancer patients.  Because of the rarity of my cancer there isn't as many studies or research done to know life expectancy or what chemos work best, etc.  Again I felt uneasy because I knew I didn't have lung cancer.  By the end of the week I was tired from all the different doctor and hospital visits and I was warming up to the idea of HIPEC.  In the end I saw the surgeon that Doctor Deniz (the one who delivered my daughter) recommended.  He informed me that he had seen one other case of Goblet Cell in his life and that person seemed to be more advanced that what we assumed I was and after surgery this person was still living.   He highly recommended doing HIPEC.  I knew that worst case scenario I would lose some organs but we had all hoped that wouldn't be the case and just a bit more of my intestines would need to go.

So there I was, already under 100 lbs, my surgery wounds were not healed yet and we were talking about the next surgery.  We planned it for February 28th.  At first I was told I would be in the hospital for a week and the surgery should last only about 5 hrs.  Well I ended up in there for 8 hrs.  My surgeon was gifted in that he felt around my organs and was able to feel and removed 15-20 "lesions" (small tumors) as he called it that were all 5mm or less. Later I learned that usually tumors under a CM do not show up on Petscans, MRI's etc.   This meant I lost all of my large intestine, I had a complete hysterectomy, the rest of my omentum was taken and my peritoneal wall (the balloon that holds all your organs inside your abdomen.  It was an 8 hr surgery.  I remember waking up in ICU in so much pain.  I didn't know what had all happened.  I had a tube down my nose into my stomach to pump out the gross stuff that was in there from surgery.  I wanted to see my husband.  He was eventually allowed to only see me for 5 minutes.  Enough for him to break the news to me of how extensive this all was.  Prior to surgery I wasn't given a choice if I wanted a bag or a resection of my bowels.  I just woke up with a resection which, at first I thought was the better option, but later I discovered that the large intestine is the part that absorbs the liquid from foods and without that it now meant I would be dealing with chronic runs.

It was after the surgeon informed my husband of the extent of my cancer that my husband felt the Holy Spirit speaking to him and giving him peace and in a sense a release from our work overseas and a blessing to move back to Canada.  Though my hubby didn't tell me this for about a week.   The oncologist over there told us that we needed to be in a place where there would be limited stress, where I could get good sleep, exercise and eat well.  We knew living in a mega city of 22 million people where there was political unrest and terrorist attacks happening that perhaps staying there wasn't the best option.  That said, it was a hard decision to actually move back to Canada.

The day after surgery we got an email from dear friends of ours.  This email continues to be an encouragement to me and I actually shared it with friends just this week. 

Here it is: "So you woke up this morning sick as all hell.  You might be thinking about recovery, what you have lost, fears of what may or may not happen, sad about the course of the surgery, wondering and  maybe worrying and thinking about any number of different things.  Your cut up and have intentionally had poison put in your body and your tired and all kinds of crap.  i DON'T EVEN KNOW!  I can't even imagine!  

You're sick as all hell.  But you won't always be.  Tomorrow you will be better, albeit very, very slightly.  And if tomorrow is too far away.  In an hour you will be slightly better.  Minute by excrutiating minute the Ld is working a miracle through you - in your healing, in your heart, in your marriage and family.  His name will be glorified and he has chosen you guys to channel it through in an extraordinary day.

I read something today that made me think of you guys and your determination and faith.  It's not terribly religious, but I'm going to write it for you anyway because as I read it I thought to myself, "the enemy is trying to shut them down."  

Here it is:

"Be the person that when you wake up and your feet hit the floor, the devil says, "Ah, Shit.  They're up."  Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

So.  Pray.  Lean on each other.  Take a nap.  And when you wake up?  

Go kick cancer's ass.

There were days I had little strength left and days I was ready to meet my Savior in heaven and days I didn't know if I could get out of bed.  But then I would remember this email and knew that I needed to get my feet on the floor!  I wasn't gonna let the enemy win this battle!  

I was in the hospital for 2 weeks.  Oh that was hard.  I started out with 8 different tubes coming out of my body and each day I would beg the surgeon to remove a tube.  In hindsight I see I rushed the healing process which only caused more setbacks.  It was so hard for my kids.  One didn't want to see me with tubes and didn't want to even touch me.  The other would cry every time they had to say good-bye.  I was BLESSED to have my dear friends over there surround me with love, support, meals, taking me kids for sleep overs or play dates, visiting me in the hospital, helping out whoever they could.  I miss those friends who because like family as they helped during such a dark season in our lives.  A dear friend from BC flew out to help during those 2 weeks.  She swapped off with my husband to take turns staying with the kids or staying with me at the hospital as I needed a lot of help to get up to use the washroom which at that point initially was almost every 20 to 40 minutes.  What a gift to be loved and cared for in such practical ways.

This is getting long so I'll continue with Part 3 later....