Update - Heard from Doctor

kimmygarland
kimmygarland Member Posts: 312
edited March 2014 in Caregivers #1
Heard from doctor today and the great news just keeps on coming.... of course the biopsy was positive for cancer, we found that out yesterday. Today's good news is that he will have to have the "big" surgery. He will have modified neck dissection surgery where they will take out a couple of lymph nodes on one side. He will also have the cancer cut out of his throat, through his mouth, and his throat will have to be reconstructed with the "flap" of tissue, veins, muscle taken from his arm. There will be two surgeons, the ENT Oncologist and an ENT Reconstruction specialist. All this will take about 8 hours. He will likely have to have a tracheotomy placed during surgery, as the throat will swell and block the airway. Surgery will be in 3 weeks or less.

Prior to that fun though, there will be placement of the feeding tube, which is scheduled for Thursday morning. That will be a one night hospital stay.

He won't be able to swallow for at least a week or two, and maybe never after surgery. His voice should not be affected.

The good news is that the doctor says he thinks, looking at all the scans, MRI, etc. they can get it out and come away with "clean margins" .

Bob was a bit shakey after receiving this news (duh). I could tell in his voice over the phone that he was struggling, so I came home immediately from work and we talked about it for a long time. He says as long as they have plenty of good drugs, he's really not THAT concerned about pain, what he's afraid of I think is not ever being able to talk or swallow again. He's worried about me and thinks I need some xanax! Really, I am ok... just so tired of all this waiting. But if this will get this awful cancer beast out of our lives I am ready to take it on. Brian is still at work, am kind of dreading looking into those brown eyes and seeing the sadness and fear - that will probably bring me to tears.

No date on the surgery yet, but I expect it to move pretty quickly since they already called about the feeding tube and the appt with the ENT Reconstruction Specialist (I had no idea there was such a thing...)
Thanks for the continued good thoughts and prayers, we appreciate it very much.

Time to put on my big girl panties and deal with it!

QUESTIONS -
Feeding tube - I've heard the first few days is painful??? Any suggestions on the dang thing? He avoided it the first time around... we are really dreading the thing.

Surgery - anybody have this flap surgery on the throat? Recovery info?? Long recovery? painful?? Any advice?

Comments

  • Pennymac02
    Pennymac02 Member Posts: 332 Member
    #2
    Feeding tube
    My mom had a feeding tube and she didn't complain about pain. It was relatively easy to deal with and kept her from losing too much weight. It really sounds scarier than it is, I think.
  • Noellesmom
    Noellesmom Member Posts: 1,859 Member
    #3
    feeding tube
    Kimmy,

    Jim had absolutely no pain with his feeding tube which was put in place during outpatient surgery. They did go put Jim's in endoscopically but he had no pain following the procedure.

    I hope for the same success with your husband's.
  • kimmygarland
    kimmygarland Member Posts: 312
    #4
    Noellesmom said:

    feeding tube
    Kimmy,

    Jim had absolutely no pain with his feeding tube which was put in place during outpatient surgery. They did go put Jim's in endoscopically but he had no pain following the procedure.

    I hope for the same success with your husband's.

    Surgery Scheduled
    The surgery is scheduled for 9/15. MORE WAITING... argh. I understand though, he has to have the feeding tube put in, plus they want one more MRI done before the operation.

    For some reason I am really dreading that feeding tube. Just the whole thought of him not being able to swallow and getting all his nutrition and hydration through a tube just skeeves me out! But we will adjust. When he was in chemo/rads last fall, I had to hydrate him at home through his port and that was nerve wracking but we got through it.

    He's very irritable today. I told him he needed to start taking a 1/2 a xanax in the mornings between now and surgery.

    Noellesmom - he'll be having his put in endoscopically too, but for some reason they keep them overnight for observation at this hospital. Not too concerned about the actual procuredure. He's not happy about the overnight stay, but I told him it will be good practice for the more lengthy stay in a couple of weeks! (We are trying to maintain some level of humor here but it is getting harder by the day).

    Take Care all....
  • Noellesmom
    Noellesmom Member Posts: 1,859 Member
    #5
    kimmygarland said:

    Surgery Scheduled
    The surgery is scheduled for 9/15. MORE WAITING... argh. I understand though, he has to have the feeding tube put in, plus they want one more MRI done before the operation.

    For some reason I am really dreading that feeding tube. Just the whole thought of him not being able to swallow and getting all his nutrition and hydration through a tube just skeeves me out! But we will adjust. When he was in chemo/rads last fall, I had to hydrate him at home through his port and that was nerve wracking but we got through it.

    He's very irritable today. I told him he needed to start taking a 1/2 a xanax in the mornings between now and surgery.

    Noellesmom - he'll be having his put in endoscopically too, but for some reason they keep them overnight for observation at this hospital. Not too concerned about the actual procuredure. He's not happy about the overnight stay, but I told him it will be good practice for the more lengthy stay in a couple of weeks! (We are trying to maintain some level of humor here but it is getting harder by the day).

    Take Care all....

    I understand
    When Jim's feeding tube comes out in a couple of weeks, they will be doing the biopsies on his esophagus. This has me very nervous.

    We will deal with whatever they find but I can't wait to have this part behind us.
  • Pennymac02
    Pennymac02 Member Posts: 332 Member
    #6
    kimmygarland said:

    Surgery Scheduled
    The surgery is scheduled for 9/15. MORE WAITING... argh. I understand though, he has to have the feeding tube put in, plus they want one more MRI done before the operation.

    For some reason I am really dreading that feeding tube. Just the whole thought of him not being able to swallow and getting all his nutrition and hydration through a tube just skeeves me out! But we will adjust. When he was in chemo/rads last fall, I had to hydrate him at home through his port and that was nerve wracking but we got through it.

    He's very irritable today. I told him he needed to start taking a 1/2 a xanax in the mornings between now and surgery.

    Noellesmom - he'll be having his put in endoscopically too, but for some reason they keep them overnight for observation at this hospital. Not too concerned about the actual procuredure. He's not happy about the overnight stay, but I told him it will be good practice for the more lengthy stay in a couple of weeks! (We are trying to maintain some level of humor here but it is getting harder by the day).

    Take Care all....

    Feeding tube?
    Hi Kimmy,
    You said Thursday for the feeding tube. Is that 9/9? Will he go into the hospital tomorrow before, or stay over the day after? I just want to remember you and Bob in my prayers.
    Penny
  • kimmygarland
    kimmygarland Member Posts: 312
    #7
    Pennymac02 said:

    Feeding tube?
    Hi Kimmy,
    You said Thursday for the feeding tube. Is that 9/9? Will he go into the hospital tomorrow before, or stay over the day after? I just want to remember you and Bob in my prayers.
    Penny

    Feeding Tube was last Thursday
    Feeding tube was last Thursday, he spent the night in the hospital. Everything went well and his incision site seems to be healing nicely. We have been flushing the thing every day, and that has gone well. He's back to eating normally (well, as normally as he has been the last few months) and now we just wait for 9/15.

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