My surgery is scheduled for Friday, May 15th at Banner Estrella Hospital. The liver transplant surgeon will come to Estrella vs. us having to over to Good Sam Hospital. Estrella is a lot closer to home for me anyways. That will complete six full weeks off of chemo. I am very pleased to wait for the six week mark. They will take 1/3 of my colon and the surrounding lymph nodes. They will also be taking the right lobe of my liver which is about 60%. The reason for this is my liver was so bad when we started off and leaving any scar tissue from the tumors will only give the cancer a great area to come back. Therefore, they want to take any remains of cancer out of my body. Removing any and all cancer is totally fine with me. I will be in the hospital for at least 5-7 days after surgery. Then home to finish my 4+ week recovery. Deron will be updating my blog for me hopefully on a daily basis to keep you all posted on the post op recovery. I'm very excited and also a bit nervous. I was not planning on the liver resection but I fully understand their reasoning. I now have to make my "to do" list of everything I want to get completed before surgery. Please say a few prayers for my surgeons to have great knowledge and steady hands. Also say a prayer for my family and my speedy recovery. This was our major goal when I was diagnosed almost 7 months ago. I think I am still a bit in shock that my body has come so far in the last 7 months. God has been so good to me.
Hope all is well with everyone else.
Much love,
Kim
Friday, May 1, 2009
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4 comments:
So glad you have a date. Many prayers headed your way for a speedy recovery! God is good :)
Will definitely be thinking of you during the next couple of weeks. I will be praying for you, your family, and your medical staff. You are such an inspiration. Keep the faith - I am so proud to consider you a fellow survivor, and I can't wait to meet you in person, again. Maybe this time I will remember you!!! (Chemo brain is an amazingly frustrating thing!)
Hi Kim, My name is Carol and I too have battled that colon cancer monster. I have been watching your blog since I saw the article in the newspaper a while back. I am so glad that you are doing well and want to offer words of encouragement for your upcoming surgery.
I am 2.5 years post surgery for Stage III and so far am NED! I was 45 when dx'd and it was a total SHOCK. I did not have any symptoms except a bit of bleeding from time to time which I thought was the hems flairing up. Good thing I have an awesome PCP who made me go to the GI!
Anyway, I want to let you know that my surgery was not too bad. Just make sure they give you a diaper as it was not a lot of fun running for the bathroom when you can't! They attached a ball of medicine to my incision area and that really took care of the pain.
I was out of the hospital in 5 days and it took a few weeks after that to get moving around again but overall not too bad.
I also gave your blog address to someone I know who was dx'd 25 years ago (YES...25 YEARS!) with Stage IV...so I hope she sends you some words of encouragement as well.
Take care of yourself and I wish you and your family the very best.
Our family continues to pray for all of you! We will keep you in our thoughts and keep the prayers coming!
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