Back to a Second Surgery to Complete Staging

Hi Rebecca,

Will be praying for your mother and her surgeon, and will probably ask for some others tonight to do the same. Hoping that all is done with skill and care and that the surgery will yield the best possible outcome. Wishing peace and stamina in the upcoming weeks as she begins the other treatments.

hugs to you,

jane

Prayers for your moms successful surgery!

I am so sorry this happened to you. They absolutely should have let you know as soon as they knew.  I can totally identify with your mom not wanting to go through the whole fasting/magnesium citrate thing.  I am petite, too, and it's so hard to gain back weight once it's lost.

Hope things go better on Saturday.

So very sorry that they didn't do a better job of letting you know what had happened

Prayers for you and your mom as you gather your courage around you and take another run at the hill   (((HUGS)))

I understand why you both would be upset.  Unless the surgeon was walking out the back door as you,were walking in the front, they should have let you know before you got there and if possible before the bowel prep.  That is so miserable.  So sorry that your mom has to go through it another time.

Hugs and prayers for both of you, Lou Ann

rcdeman said:

So sorry to hear that it came

So sorry to hear that it came back. Praying that the radiation and chemo will get rid of the cancer for good this time!

Love,
Rebecca

Hi Jerri

My cancer has returned in the same way.  I was NED for about a year when suddenly my CA 125 was elevated to 107.  Just today it was 506 after discovering 3 lymph nodes were affected.  I have a scan on Thursday and expect to go back on chemo right afterwards.  I am done with radiation.  I pray for all of us here, including this mother and daughter.  My daughter is beside herself.  God bless her surgery.

henhill said:

Me2

Hi Jerri

My cancer has returned in the same way.  I was NED for about a year when suddenly my CA 125 was elevated to 107.  Just today it was 506 after discovering 3 lymph nodes were affected.  I have a scan on Thursday and expect to go back on chemo right afterwards.  I am done with radiation.  I pray for all of us here, including this mother and daughter.  My daughter is beside herself.  God bless her surgery.

 

henhill so glad you posted to help Jerri with her news... but so very sorry to hear that you are having problems  

Prayers for you and your daughter as well as your care team as you go in on Thursday for your scan... (((HUGS)))

rcdeman said:

Update after Second Surgery (10/17/16)

Thanks for inquiring Kim. It's been quite hectic this past weekend, so I didn't really have the energy to update.

My mom's surgery was on Saturday (10/15/16) and ended up starting later than scheduled. Due to it being the weekend, the staffing seemed to be short and we had to check in through ER. We ended having to stand about 45 minutes in the ER before being issued a room. There were a bunch of mix-ups and miscommunication among the limited staff, which really didn't bode well for the rest of the day.

Surgery took about 2 hours. Although the surgeon told us that the surgery went well (which I am grateful for), he had to reopen all the laparoscopic incisions from the first surgery and actually had to enlarge one of the incisions to remove her lesser omentum. I mentioned previously that her PET/CT scans showed that there was hypermetabolic fluid in my mom's pelvic area. The surgeron apparently found abdominal adhesions and scar tissue that formed from the first surgery which trapped this fluid in a pocket. He had to remove the scar tissue to get around and remove the fluid. I did ask about sentinel lymph node mapping before the surgery before surgery, but he said that only MSK only performed this for endometrial/uterine cancers and it's investigational. He ended up clearing the whole para-aortic area of lymph nodes... how many he removed, we have yet to know until pathology reports come out.

So what went wrong? Usually the nurses are supposed to put you on pain meds via IV after surgery , but apparently they were too slow and the general anaethesia wore off. My mom ended up screaming in utmost pain begging for pain medication before they even did anything. Pain medication is supposed to be applied beforehand to counter the pain more effectively. My mom later told me (after she was a bit more lucid) that it felt like someone had stabbed her multiple times in the gut while being ran over by a car. Her pain was a full 12 out of 10. The nurses ended up having to give her triple the dose of medication due to their mistake. Even after the triple dose, she was still experiencing intense pain. She was dizzy for a long period afterwards as well.

Can I just mention that one of the worst things in the world is having to watch a loved one experiencing intense pain while being helpless to help her? It's pretty horrible, and I was pretty upset with the nurses' incompetence. I advicse to never schedule a surgical procedure during the weekend when nurses are short-staffed and lax. There also seems to be minimal communication and a lot of confusion between the departments, something we didn't experience the last time we were here (on a Thursday in the weekday).

I have to mention that before surgery my mom was pretty calm because she thought this time around would be quicker and even less painful. She didn't experience any intense pain during the first surgery so she went into this second surgery thinking it would be similar. Little did we know...

Although Saturday and Sunday was really bad, fortunately things seem to be improving slightly today. My mom's doing a bit better in terms of pain although she still has to take hydrocodone every 4 hours. She doesn't have much of an appetite because of stomach pains and bloatedness. Unfortunately, both of her legs have started swelling up, something that didn't happen last time. We're afraid that this may be the start of lymphadema.

Her pathology reports have not been released yet and should be available sometime this week. The surgeon did a second peritoneal wash, removed her lesser omentum, as well as the general para-aortic area. We will see what the results are. With all the pain she had to go through this time and the swelling, it would be a double-blow if the results are bleak. I am praying 24/7 right now for good results, and as you know the wait is quite excruciating.

Please continue to pray for my mom! Thank you so much!

Love,
Rebecca

That is just awful- really really awful and I am so very sorry!!!!  You need to file a complaint with the hospital but I know you have your hands full right now- that should have NEVER happened - your poor mama and poor you my heart is breaking

Sending prayers for pain relief- quick recovery- rest and healing for your mom and for you too! 

I hope you are taking care of yourself- it is in times of extreme stress when things get turned on in the body that aren't supposed to and you need to guard against getting run down or overly stuck in the sympathetic nervous system.  Make sure you are getting as much rest, water, good food, exercise as you can.

Also sending prayers for good results- you are not alone and I hope you can feel the love and prayers- do you have other family/friends supporting you both?

(((HUGS)))