Surgery Scheduled

It took forever to find out, but my surgery is now scheduled for Monday April 7. Last week I waited day to day to find out. I finally checked in with my surgeon’s nurse on Thursday, since I was leaving for California on Friday morning, to see if there was an inkling. She said they had a tentative reservation for the following Wednesday (March 26), but wouldn’t know until they heard back from the hospital. So I left for California with that plan, and asked our buddy Dusty Rhodes (who was also running us to the airport) to pick up the requisite Fleet’s enemas for me, because if that schedule held, I would need to be administering those immediately on my return Monday evening.
What are friends for if you can’t ask them to do such things!

Late Friday afternoon, my surgeon’s nurse called to tell me that surgery was scheduled for April 7, because Dr. D had decided to try to do it with the robot (i.e., laparoscopically). Apparently after reviewing the CT scan I had, she thought that it was worth trying for the less invasive procedure. If it doesn’t appear to be working once they start the surgery, they can revert to Plan B (formerly, Plan A).

I’m delighted. Can’t think of anything more fun than being operated on by a robot named DaVinci. And if it works, the time in hospital is reduced from 2-3 days to 1, the need for a blood transfusion is minimized, and predicted recovery time shrinks from 4-5 weeks to 2 (or so, I presume). I will hope for the best. And of course I won’t know until I come out of the anesthesia which way they were able to go.

At first I was unhappy that the surgery was suddenly two weeks away. Now that I’m back in Seattle and working through the things I’d like to get done beforehand, I am grateful for that extra time. I now have my “alternative” team in place—the Chinese medicine specialist and the naturopath. The former will focus on using Chinese herbs in carefully measured doses and combinations, along with acupuncture; the latter will help me wade my way through all the options for diet and vitamin supplements. The two of them were considerably in synch on some basics: cut down on the wine (2-3 glasses/week—it spikes both estrogen and blood sugar), refined sugars (but don’t abandon natural sugars altogether), and some supplementary vitamins I should be taking. Right now both are focused on helping me through the surgery in the best way, since we still don’t know just what kind of cancer I have.

So the waiting game begins. Post-surgery we may know a little more, but it won’t be until the pathology reports are back 7-10 days or so after the surgery that we actually know what we’re dealing with. Then the medical community and my alternative team can both swing into action to help me work on the cancer.

I’m pretty comfortable right now, sleeping better, and tucking the activities I normally do (exercise, tango lessons, Spanish studies, plus volunteer work for the drug, alcohol & mental agency where I’m on the board, and attending to my leadership program activities) in between numerous doctors appointments. That’s why this blog keeps getting put off—I’m really busy. And happily so. I can’t think of anything worse than having nothing else to focus on except the fact that I have cancer.