Surgery Update and Good News!

Surgery Update & Good News

I finally was able to talk with my surgeon yesterday afternoon, and get more information on why she changed her mind and decided to try the surgery with the robot. The really good news was that the CT scan showed that there was no mass outside the uterus. My uterus is enlarged, so something extra is inside it, perhaps related to my cancer, perhaps not. There was also no visible enlargement of the lymph nodes. So she wants to try it laparascopically. I’m all for it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have a couple of extra small incisions to heal. If it does, my time in hospital and recovery afterwards are both cut in half.

The surgery itself will be long, and will happen on the afternoon of the 7th. It apparently takes about an hour to set the robot up, and then another 3 hours to do the surgery. That time will be extended if they have to change course and revert to an abdominal incision. I’m feeling really good about the approach and what the scan showed. Click here to look at the Da Vinci robot, my surgery expert.

I got started this week on my Chinese medicine (a ground-up powder of herbs that you dissolve in hot water and try to bolt down as quickly as possible, because it’s quite bitter) and a rack of supplementary vitamins that my naturopath prescribed for me. I should be healthy as a horse! I am having some trouble trying to get myself to take the various vitamins and concoctions, steering around 3x a day with meals, a couple taken before bed, and one that wants to be taken on an empty stomach (so none of the above times). I miss one set every once in a while, but that’s just the way it goes.

I also met with the anesthesiologist and got some orientation there. That meeting also occasioned my first little tussle between western and eastern approaches. He knows about vitamins, so could be quite precise about telling me which ones he wanted me to stop when. But he was very concerned about the herbal medicines since he doesn’t know what’s in them and wanted me to stop them immediately. I demurred, and said I’d consider stopping them a week before the surgery. Then I talked with my Chinese medicine specialist, who said there’s nothing there that will interfere with the anesthesiology, but I could stop them two days beforehand if I want and there won’t be anything left in my system by surgery. I rather figured that even if he doesn’t know what she does, SHE would know about his procedures. And I was right.

I’m also slowly trying to ferret out information about the best course of action should I need additional treatment after surgery. Sounds like my core medical cooperative may have the best options for me if I need radiation or chemo, so I am gathering information to help me in the battle I may need to fight. They are conservative and cost-conscious, a combination that might keep me from some of the newer (and possibly more expensive) regimes that might be available. Will have to keep thinking about that one. Fortunately I turn out to have a number of friends connected in various ways to the medical establishment, who can help me figure that out.

So next week is gathering myself together time, getting my work and life wrapped up so I can focus on healing and relaxing for the several weeks after my surgery. Right, Kae! I should know myself better than that. But I’m going to give it a go…and I suspect my body will make me do it for at least a week or so.