Liver resection surgery tomorrow - 2nd surgery for recurrent met

sdp
sdp Member Posts: 181
in Colorectal Cancer #1

Hi,

am having the second liver resection surgery tomorrow - rather in 10 hours from now - can't sleep.

the first surgery was pretty bad and it took me atleast a month and a half to be 50 % normal and over 3 months to be 80%.

i was hoping for a microwave ablation for the recurrent single met - but the surgeon says there is a good scope for surgery as the metastasis is superficial and on the periphery. He says recovery time in hospital shall be a week or 10 days and a total recovery before I can travel would be 25 days from tomorrow - if nothing goes wrong.

i don't know if he is just fibbing to keep me from not  getting too worried at  the moment or he actually means it.

he says this time he may not even cut much - just a vertical incision . 

I am again very worried as now I recall all the painful times I went through after the first liver resection . 

I hope it is smoother then the first time - I so very much was hoping that it would be taken care if with just an ablation - and the radiologist also confirmed it could - I wonder why the surgeon thinks that resection is better .

the argument he gave me is that with the ablation they would damage more tissue as they would ablate more or twice the area necessary - current met sizero is approx 2.5 cm - and so what if they ablate a 3.5 cm dia area - doesn't the tissue regenerate ? He says that during regeneration the process may also activate more tumour cells ? as more cells are generating and even tumour cells would - he never gave this argument when he cut 50 % of my liver the first time ? And then the liver regenerated in the first few months but I didn't have any recurrence for a year ? 

Maybe be it is to suit their purpose but I will never know - thought I would share this with all in case anyone has heard such an argument in favour of resection over an ablation for a solitary met less than 3 cm .

 

Comments

  • janderson1964
    janderson1964 Member Posts: 2,215 Member
    #2
    I have always been told by

    I have always been told by radiologist and surgeons that surgery is the best option for a possibl see cure.

  • Lisa2012
    Lisa2012 Member Posts: 142
    #3
    Thinking of you

    I do not have an answer to your question, but I have been done the resection path and I wanted you to know I read your post and am thinking of you.   Hang in there and trust in your doctors.

  • sdp
    sdp Member Posts: 181
    #4
    Lisa2012 said:

    Thinking of you

    I do not have an answer to your question, but I have been done the resection path and I wanted you to know I read your post and am thinking of you.   Hang in there and trust in your doctors.

    The surgery could happen and

    The surgery could happen and has been postponed by a day ...

    am so worried now thinking of the painful recovery - I wonder how i managed this the last time 

    it was pretty painful and awful - and now to go through it all - all over again.

     

    this time the doc tells me that recovery will be faster - approx a week in hospital and a week nearby before I can take a flight back home to india from Germany! 

  • annalexandria
    annalexandria Member Posts: 2,571 Member
    #5
    sdp said:

    The surgery could happen and

    The surgery could happen and has been postponed by a day ...

    am so worried now thinking of the painful recovery - I wonder how i managed this the last time 

    it was pretty painful and awful - and now to go through it all - all over again.

     

    this time the doc tells me that recovery will be faster - approx a week in hospital and a week nearby before I can take a flight back home to india from Germany! 

    Good luck tomorrow (if I've got that right, not sure)

    hope the surgery goes smoothly for you, and that the recovery is swift.  I personally would be glad to be getting surgery rather than ablation, no matter how long the recovery period.  Same reason I always wanted a full open abdominal surgery (vs laparoscopic)...more pain, longer healing time, bigger scar, but also a better shot at getting everything out.  Our best shot at a cure, imo.

    Keep us posted how it goes!

  • sdp
    sdp Member Posts: 181
    #6
    annalexandria said:

    Good luck tomorrow (if I've got that right, not sure)

    hope the surgery goes smoothly for you, and that the recovery is swift.  I personally would be glad to be getting surgery rather than ablation, no matter how long the recovery period.  Same reason I always wanted a full open abdominal surgery (vs laparoscopic)...more pain, longer healing time, bigger scar, but also a better shot at getting everything out.  Our best shot at a cure, imo.

    Keep us posted how it goes!

    Surgery postponed
    The surgery was postponed as the dr had emergencies tom deal with and left for japan the day after - he scheduled itmto a week later - but rather than hang around in Germany for another week - we decide to come back to india and tentatively rescheduled it to 17th April.

    The drs don't feel that The tu our ( single met in liver) would grow much in 15 days neither they thought thatni could get multiple mets - so let's hope that is the case. They wsnt me back in hospital a day prior to the surgery so they can redo the tests prior tothe surgery.

    Lets hope the met doesn't grow ,much bigger and neither there will be additional metastasis.

    Am still worried about the recovery after the surgerynthough I have been thru it once
  • sdp
    sdp Member Posts: 181
    #7
    sdp said:

    Surgery postponed
    The surgery was postponed as the dr had emergencies tom deal with and left for japan the day after - he scheduled itmto a week later - but rather than hang around in Germany for another week - we decide to come back to india and tentatively rescheduled it to 17th April.

    The drs don't feel that The tu our ( single met in liver) would grow much in 15 days neither they thought thatni could get multiple mets - so let's hope that is the case. They wsnt me back in hospital a day prior to the surgery so they can redo the tests prior tothe surgery.

    Lets hope the met doesn't grow ,much bigger and neither there will be additional metastasis.

    Am still worried about the recovery after the surgerynthough I have been thru it once

    Surgery in few hours

    The surgery is scheduled tomorrow - approximately 8 hours from now.

    am back in germany for it. 

    Met the surgeon today and he said that he will resect the one met which lit up in the PET and suspects that there may be some viable cells in the area which was ablated with IRE in ictober and some where else he believes thre may be another met which they maay do a  RFA on. However, it will depend on wht the infra operative ultrasound shows.

    i have asked him to keep a good margin when he resects - last time the margins he kept were in mm and not cm . So that may be the reason for recurrence In the area which he resected last time.

    he says I will take approx 7 days in hospital and 7 more to heal and take a flight back home - I think may be he is trying to appease me - from what I read and what I experienced last time I think it will take more than 3 weeks from the surgery to be able to fly back.

     

    i hope that the incision is not as large as last time and I don't have any issues or infection on the incision and the drain is less painful .

    will try to give an update when I can - probably after two days from now .

    hope all goes well ! 

  • UncleBuddy
    UncleBuddy Member Posts: 1,019 Member
    #8
    sdp said:

    Surgery in few hours

    The surgery is scheduled tomorrow - approximately 8 hours from now.

    am back in germany for it. 

    Met the surgeon today and he said that he will resect the one met which lit up in the PET and suspects that there may be some viable cells in the area which was ablated with IRE in ictober and some where else he believes thre may be another met which they maay do a  RFA on. However, it will depend on wht the infra operative ultrasound shows.

    i have asked him to keep a good margin when he resects - last time the margins he kept were in mm and not cm . So that may be the reason for recurrence In the area which he resected last time.

    he says I will take approx 7 days in hospital and 7 more to heal and take a flight back home - I think may be he is trying to appease me - from what I read and what I experienced last time I think it will take more than 3 weeks from the surgery to be able to fly back.

     

    i hope that the incision is not as large as last time and I don't have any issues or infection on the incision and the drain is less painful .

    will try to give an update when I can - probably after two days from now .

    hope all goes well ! 

    Good luck!

    I hope you heal quickly and it's easy peasy!

    Lin

  • sdp
    sdp Member Posts: 181
    #9
    UncleBuddy said:

    Good luck!

    I hope you heal quickly and it's easy peasy!

    Lin

    Surgery done

    Well - the surgery was done on Thursday , 17th April. Was in ICU that day and moved to the normal room on 18th afternoon.

    no drains were put - just a epidural and catheter , and some oxygen monitoring and heart rate monitoring. Feel much better than the previous surgery - walked for half an hour on 18th and again today morning for another half hour - planning another half an hour walk in the evening. Met the surgeon today morning - he said he removed wo mets - one that lit on the PET and another which showed some viable cells where an IRE was performed .

    he said a biopsy was performed and the second met did show few viable cells and others were necrotic - I hope that this is the last of it and this surgery is truly "curative".

    i don't know what else to do after the surgery to ensure there is no recurrence - maybe chemo.? Maybe some other treatment that would keep recurrence at bay for a ling long time  - suggestions from fellow board members welcome

  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #10
    sdp said:

    Surgery done

    Well - the surgery was done on Thursday , 17th April. Was in ICU that day and moved to the normal room on 18th afternoon.

    no drains were put - just a epidural and catheter , and some oxygen monitoring and heart rate monitoring. Feel much better than the previous surgery - walked for half an hour on 18th and again today morning for another half hour - planning another half an hour walk in the evening. Met the surgeon today morning - he said he removed wo mets - one that lit on the PET and another which showed some viable cells where an IRE was performed .

    he said a biopsy was performed and the second met did show few viable cells and others were necrotic - I hope that this is the last of it and this surgery is truly "curative".

    i don't know what else to do after the surgery to ensure there is no recurrence - maybe chemo.? Maybe some other treatment that would keep recurrence at bay for a ling long time  - suggestions from fellow board members welcome

    CIM-CEL

    You have/had cimetidine and celecoxib post- or perioperatively?

  • Trubrit
    Trubrit Member Posts: 5,804 Member
    #11
    sdp said:

    Surgery done

    Well - the surgery was done on Thursday , 17th April. Was in ICU that day and moved to the normal room on 18th afternoon.

    no drains were put - just a epidural and catheter , and some oxygen monitoring and heart rate monitoring. Feel much better than the previous surgery - walked for half an hour on 18th and again today morning for another half hour - planning another half an hour walk in the evening. Met the surgeon today morning - he said he removed wo mets - one that lit on the PET and another which showed some viable cells where an IRE was performed .

    he said a biopsy was performed and the second met did show few viable cells and others were necrotic - I hope that this is the last of it and this surgery is truly "curative".

    i don't know what else to do after the surgery to ensure there is no recurrence - maybe chemo.? Maybe some other treatment that would keep recurrence at bay for a ling long time  - suggestions from fellow board members welcome

    Happy news indeed!

    I am glad to hear that you are out and about after your surgery. Obviously, we don't want to hear about extra mets, but it sounds as if he cleaned them out. 

    I am glad that you feel better than you did on your last resection. Keep up that walking, it makes all of the difference. 

    I am facing my first (and hopefully last) liver resection, and your post has made me feel better, especially knowing that I can get up and go (walk. I love walking) soon after the surgery. 

    Keep up the good work. I hope you can go home soon. 

  • sdp
    sdp Member Posts: 181
    #12
    tanstaafl said:

    CIM-CEL

    You have/had cimetidine and celecoxib post- or perioperatively?

    No to cimetidine

    We don't get cemitidine in india anymore - so I haven't had that - but I do take pantaprazole 40 mg regularly - if that is any help - since they are similar .

  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #13
    sdp said:

    No to cimetidine

    We don't get cemitidine in india anymore - so I haven't had that - but I do take pantaprazole 40 mg regularly - if that is any help - since they are similar .

    CIM city

    Cimetidine is unique performance wise.      Cimetidine brands in India.   The others, "modern" proton pump inhibitors, interfere with CIM and just don't do the anticancer job, they are a different class of inhibitors.

  • sdp
    sdp Member Posts: 181
    #14
    annalexandria said:

    Good luck tomorrow (if I've got that right, not sure)

    hope the surgery goes smoothly for you, and that the recovery is swift.  I personally would be glad to be getting surgery rather than ablation, no matter how long the recovery period.  Same reason I always wanted a full open abdominal surgery (vs laparoscopic)...more pain, longer healing time, bigger scar, but also a better shot at getting everything out.  Our best shot at a cure, imo.

    Keep us posted how it goes!

    Updates

    recovery is coming along fine - much much better than what I expected - but no bowel movement yet

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