Update on Mom's Surgery-6 hours

Lisa13Q

Ok, she made it through. They decided to do it despite the stress test and will be watching her closely. Apparently, she had to have her rectum removed, but he was able to use the intestine to create enough of a new one so that she does not have to have a bag. Also, there was a great deal of disease on her omentum (?) I have no idea what that is, but I will look it up. He scraped something (I think the peritoneum) and he said there are just very small nodules of cancer left that he expects will respond very well to a port he placed in her abdomen!! I feel like crying for joy, how stupid is that? She will be in the hospital at least a week and I will fly out to take her home and stay with her in her recovery so that she can be in her won apt'. My brother and sister have kids. She restarts chemo in one month. Egads, no break. She was apparently quite anemic and needed lots of blood.

Questions for you all: How long will it take her to recover?
How do I act around her?
Has anyone else lost a rectum? how is that?
Is this as good news as I think?

BonnieR

Crying and Singing for Joy with you
Dear Lisa, that is wonderful news .. thank you for sharing. The omentum is the fat wall that lays over our abdomen and this is a pretty common thing for the cancer to attach too adn for them to remove. I think crying for joy is a good stress reliever and very very normal ~ I do it all the time. Recovery for everyone is different but I think it was 6 weeks before I started feeling more normal and by 3 months it was mostly the chemo side affects that were knocking me down. YES this is good news. Praise the Lord

Hugs ♥ Prayers Bonnie

Lisa13Q

BonnieR said:

Crying and Singing for Joy with you
Dear Lisa, that is wonderful news .. thank you for sharing. The omentum is the fat wall that lays over our abdomen and this is a pretty common thing for the cancer to attach too adn for them to remove. I think crying for joy is a good stress reliever and very very normal ~ I do it all the time. Recovery for everyone is different but I think it was 6 weeks before I started feeling more normal and by 3 months it was mostly the chemo side affects that were knocking me down. YES this is good news. Praise the Lord

Hugs ♥ Prayers Bonnie

Praise the Lord too Bonnie!!
By the way, where in MN are you? Do you ever do coffee with a fellow Teal warrior? jack@augsburg.edu

seably

First step is over
Hi Lisa,

Glad to hear that your mom had a successful surgery and yes, this is good news!

Recovery time is different for everyone. It sounds like your mom's surgery was similiar to mine as I also had the omentum & 9 inches of my large intestine removed along with my spleen. My doctor is very skilled and was able to to complete the successful resectioning of my large intestine so that I also do not require a bag. He had less than one inch (basically no rectum tissue left) to make this reconnection and so far the healing is going well ( I had surgery in April 2009). I take Miralax averyday (sometimes 2 times) along with a daily Senna-S pill or sometimes 2 a day. You want to be very careful of a bowel obstruction. Not only is it painful but your mom has stiches that have to heal.

I also have an IP port (in the abdomin). In September I completed 6 rounds of chemo, IV taxol with IP cisplatin & IP taxol and with God's grace, I am now cancer free!. Make sure your mom takes her anti-nausea meds as nausea was a very bad side effect for me.

Your mom is lucky that you will be there for her. Do your best to make her comfortable during the healing process, but remember, there maybe times that nothing will make her feel better as this chemo treatment can be tough.

My prayers are with you both.
God Bless
Stacey

saundra

Praises to God
Lisa, I was so happy to read your post this morning. Now, that worry is over. I stayed 8 days at Baylor, had one transfusion. I did force my self to walk from the second day with the bags and 14 inch incision. I believe that helped my recover and got the bowels moving after no food and in bed so long. It is a forceful thing to walk as it is painful. I did have a morphine pump the whole time and that did help. I healed pretty fast after I came home as soon as the staples came out but I did not have a IP port. Started chemo three weeks after the surgery and that was possibly the hardest one of all. I did not have bowel resection, they just removed tumors from the outside of the bowel, so that may cause more problems with your mother.
Just act normal around your mother. Yes, I think you got very good news. I had five more chemos after surgery and then 11 months of low dose maintenance. Way NED for most of that. Tell your mother we are all rooting for her. Saundra

Lisa13Q

seably said:

First step is over
Hi Lisa,

Glad to hear that your mom had a successful surgery and yes, this is good news!

Recovery time is different for everyone. It sounds like your mom's surgery was similiar to mine as I also had the omentum & 9 inches of my large intestine removed along with my spleen. My doctor is very skilled and was able to to complete the successful resectioning of my large intestine so that I also do not require a bag. He had less than one inch (basically no rectum tissue left) to make this reconnection and so far the healing is going well ( I had surgery in April 2009). I take Miralax averyday (sometimes 2 times) along with a daily Senna-S pill or sometimes 2 a day. You want to be very careful of a bowel obstruction. Not only is it painful but your mom has stiches that have to heal.

I also have an IP port (in the abdomin). In September I completed 6 rounds of chemo, IV taxol with IP cisplatin & IP taxol and with God's grace, I am now cancer free!. Make sure your mom takes her anti-nausea meds as nausea was a very bad side effect for me.

Your mom is lucky that you will be there for her. Do your best to make her comfortable during the healing process, but remember, there maybe times that nothing will make her feel better as this chemo treatment can be tough.

My prayers are with you both.
God Bless
Stacey

Thanks Stacy
This is very helpful. First, we have to get her through the next week I think. Egads, she is 70 pounds..and needed a blood transfusion today because she is anemic yet again. Doctor said it was expected, but this is brutal. It does sound like your surgery was quite similar and I don't know how in the world you all have survived these. WHat an absolutely horrible process.

Lisa13Q

saundra said:

Praises to God
Lisa, I was so happy to read your post this morning. Now, that worry is over. I stayed 8 days at Baylor, had one transfusion. I did force my self to walk from the second day with the bags and 14 inch incision. I believe that helped my recover and got the bowels moving after no food and in bed so long. It is a forceful thing to walk as it is painful. I did have a morphine pump the whole time and that did help. I healed pretty fast after I came home as soon as the staples came out but I did not have a IP port. Started chemo three weeks after the surgery and that was possibly the hardest one of all. I did not have bowel resection, they just removed tumors from the outside of the bowel, so that may cause more problems with your mother.
Just act normal around your mother. Yes, I think you got very good news. I had five more chemos after surgery and then 11 months of low dose maintenance. Way NED for most of that. Tell your mother we are all rooting for her. Saundra

Thanks SAundra
I will keep you all posted. She had a transfusion this morning. What I find odd is she won't sleep. we are going to try to get her a single room to see if that helps, but she's on a special monitoring floor because of her heart. There is always something. She did get up today and she sat up yesterday, but she is in more pain today and I truly am wondering how in the heck she is going to be able to tolerate chemo in 4 weeks. But for now, I am taking one day at a time. Thanks again. Your words are truly always helpful and calming.