The highlight of today was an appointment with my surgeon. To understand this story I need to give you a little back story for context.
On Jan. 5 I went under the knife for what we thought would be a laparoscopic procedure to remove the tumor that is creating a blockage in my transverse large intestine. I was of course unconscious for the duration of the procedure, so my story is second hand. As it was reported to me, during the surgery, the surgeon encountered a scenario different from what was expected. When he encountered this situation, he surveyed the area and wisely chose to not pursue the en block resection that would be required since it was not planned and would have introduced great risk. He then performed the loop ileostomy to remove the pressure on the tumor and to allow me to have the best chance for the chemotherapy. This is of course an optimistic casting of the story. Unknown to me until days later, after the procedure, he called my brother to explain what was going on. In that call, he managed to convey to my family that things were dire and that as I have heard it, prayer was in order. This of course caused my family to fear the worst and created a large amount of stress. When I eventually woke up, I saw him for a few minutes (I was still groggy at the time) and he described what had occurred more analytically.
Today when I was in his office he shared with me that when he went home after that surgery, he was very upset that it had not gone well. I chose to not explain how upset my family had been, instead simply saying that “yes, I was a bit put out myself”.
Other than that meeting with the surgeon, today was generally a normal work day. Tomorrow is my third treatment and my first meeting with the oncologist since we started the process. I am hoping to find out from her what she sees as the hoped for outcome of the chemotherapy to compare it to the surgeons current view. Since we have not had a CT scan to assess the progress yet, I don’t expect to learn too much. The fact that we don’t have any new data tracking the progress of the battle also makes me not too concerned with the surgeons current thinking on what may be required for my post chemotherapy surgery. I fully expect to need a surgery, but until we see how the cancer responds to the chemo, it is premature to ponder what may be required over 6 months from now.