Hanging In There

 I’m still here and sorry for being away for so long. I’ve never been much of a blogger although I wish I was better at posting. The surgery I had in September was a bit tougher than I had anticipated. I also had some problems with a blockage while in the hospital and that left me pretty sick plus extended the length of my stay. By the time I came home I realized the warnings of that being a difficult surgery were absolutely true! I don’t think I’ve had anything hit me as hard as that did and it has kept me mostly out of commission, although I am already back on chemo.

So, how did the surgery go? I had been told that they hoped to remove almost all of the visible cancer. They knew there would be cancer left but they hoped nothing major. As it turns out they were not able to remove as much as they had hoped. For a time, I lied to myself that I was headed for a remission and even hoped that I would have a chance to ring the bell. I can still hope that those things could be in my future, but not anytime soon.

I am having the heavy-duty, all-day chemo every three weeks. I had my first one three weeks ago and I have another one this Thursday. I had to tell my daughter-in-law, Kristi, that for the first time ever I would not be able to help with the preparations for our family Thanksgiving meal. Of course, she understands and has been so sweet. The doctors already have plans for me to start on infusions of Avastin (Bevacizumab) every three weeks beginning in January and continuing as long as possible. I will also have a pill form of chemo along with it. The infusions will be given at the Cancer Center so I will still get to see all the friends I’ve made there. I’ve been going to the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center for almost a year now and those girls are absolute angels! I love them all.

Tom and I have a week of medical appointments. Tom has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, I have one Wednesday, I have chemo Thursday, and Friday I go back in for an after chemo injection. It keeps us busy.

So, what else has been going on? Well, my dear great-granddaughter Juniper has just been the joy of my life! My granddaughter, Annika, her hubby Nick, and Juniper come to visit us around once a month and also bring dinner when they come. It is wonderful to see them all! When I can’t see them Annika posts pictures and videos of Juniper for me to see. She is not quite 18 months yet and she has grown so fast. She’s walking everywhere, has a great vocabulary already, and loves all of her books! I am so grateful that I am able to know and enjoy her!

My grandson, Gavin, stays busy with his job as a firefighter. We are all so proud of him although sometimes his job can be a little frightening, at least to his grandma! He is such a special and caring person and makes me feel so blessed, just like the rest of my family.

We are all looking forward to a family Thanksgiving dinner at my son’s house. There is nothing I love better than those occasions when our whole family gets together!

I hope you are all well and happy. It’s hard to believe this is November already! Thank you if you are still reading despite the fact that I am so slow about posting. I appreciate you all!

Finally!

 

The last time we spoke my cytoreductive cancer surgery had been postponed to September but I still didn’t have a date. Well, I finally do have a date – this Friday, 9-12! I did have more notice than this, in fact I learned a few weeks ago but my life has been such a whirlwind since then that I have not gotten around to writing a post until now. I’m sorry for being so slow about posting!

Before I had the date confirmed I had to have another chemo and this one was rough. It was one of those six hours in the chemo chair at the cancer center. I was sick for nearly two weeks after it. Then I had a multitude of various medical appointments in preparation for surgery. My primary doctor left the practice with no notice to his patients so I went with another doctor in the same practice but I had to see her before surgery so I would “officially” have a primary care physician. There was an assortment of other appointments including a pre-op appointment at the hospital last week. They did bloodwork, ekg, and a variety of other things.

This surgery is not in the hospital I normally use that is closer to our home. This hospital is in Kansas City and handles many of the types of advanced surgery I will be having done. I have to admit it is a little frightening to me because so much is involved. My oncologist will be removing my ovaries and tubes plus doing an omentectomy. An omentectomy is done to remove cancer cells that have spread to the omentum from other organs, such as the ovaries. The other surgeon will be removing as much as possible of the cancer from my colon and that is expected to be a much longer part of the overall operation. I have to be at the hospital at 7:00 a.m. Friday and the surgery starts at 9:00 a.m. They say I should only be in the hospital about five days so I guess we’ll see!

Oh, and I mentioned a lot of appointments, well I received a call this afternoon telling me to come in tomorrow to see the surgeon that will be working on my colon. It’s not like I haven’t seen him, but I guess he wanted just one more appointment before Friday. I really like and trust both of my doctors so I’ll be there tomorrow.

In the mean time I’ve been running in circles trying to get things done around the house, and laundry and such before I’m out of commission. I won’t be able to get much done after tomorrow because Thursday I have an all-day prep similar to what you have when you have a colonoscopy only I’m having it because of the colon surgery. And tomorrow is my last day to get to eat anything!

Thank you all for hanging in here with me and I apologize for being such a bad blogger. I could sure use any prayers and positive thoughts you could send my way to help me get through Friday!

Love to all!

Bonnie

Three Months Later and I’m Still Fighting

 

I’m sorry I didn’t post sooner, but I discovered that once a week chemo was a bit difficult. I’ve got a few things to bring you up to date on however first I would like to thank those of you that are still here despite my absence. Also thank you to the ones that have sent me cards in the mail. They have meant so much more to me than you might realize!

At the risk of boring you with yet more medical news, I’ll try to bring you up to date. Since we last spoke, I have had 12 chemo sessions. Certainly more than I had expected. My most recent CT scan did show some small improvement in my cancer. It is still there, but some of it has shrunk just enough to consider surgery! This is what I have been hoping for! I saw my oncologist July 15 and he said he would like to look at surgery around the end of July or the first part of August. I’ve been waiting for a date all this time but we all know how medical dates go, or it’s more like how they don’t go. I received a call this morning that the surgery won’t be until sometime in September or possibly even the first part of October. There is a good reason for the delay though. It seems this is a much more serious surgery than I realized. It is a Cytoreductive surgery or some even call it the “Mother of all Surgeries”. That’s not saying it’s the worst possible surgery, but as cancer surgeries go it is serious. Part of that reason is because I have cancer in several different areas of my body. It started as ovarian cancer and spread through my omentum. (I didn’t know what that was either!) It then went into my colon and caused all kinds of trouble. I even have a bit next to my lungs. (not in them) So they will be going after the cancer in all these areas in this one surgery. There’s another reason to make it difficult to set a date, I will have two surgeons and finding a date that works for both of them is not easy! Even after I have surgery I will be going back for yet more chemo because they know they will not get all of the cancer.

I am hoping to get a surgery date next week but I’m sure not holding my breath. There is another possible problem. Since I have to wait longer than expected, there is a concern my cancer might grow again. Because of that I may have to have more chemo while waiting. That’s up to my oncologist and I know he doesn’t want me having chemo too close to the surgery date. If I need to have more chemo I’m ok with it. As I’ve said, I’m in for the fight.

In the meantime, we have had a variety of things going on in our family, but all good. My sweet great-grand daughter, Juniper celebrated her first birthday July 12^th! That girl just brightens my heart in so many wonderful ways! Our family has had a variety of get togethers as we have celebrated many birthdays. There is nothing I love better than family get togethers!

Like so many of you we have gone through quite a few heat waves and we are in another one now. It’s been hard on the people as well as the animals like this squirrel here!

I promise he's ok, just wiped out from the heat!

We went out to eat at a favorite bar-b-q restaurant with my son Chris and his wife Kristi when I had a short chemo break. I don’t know when I’ll get any hair back but I have a variety of these chemo hats that work in the meantime!

Myself & Tom at Jack Stack

Today we will have the family together once again at Chris’ home. We will be celebrating my 73^rd birthday! Man I’m getting old!

 

 

A What Did Your Surgery?!

 

Last Friday our younger son Sean had outpatient surgery for a hernia repair.  We always help him out with things like that since he is single and lives alone.  As with many surgeries he had to be at the hospital early - 6 a.m. early.  In order to get to his house to pick him up and then to the hospital in time we left our house at 5 a.m.  I am not really a morning person but you do what you have to do in these situations.  The difficulty we encountered was the fact that just as we were leaving, our area got hit with a major severe thunderstorm that lasted all morning.  Let’s just say the trip to get him to the hospital was not a lot of fun with the storm and the morning rush hour combined.

We did get him there in time despite the storm and traffic.  Due to the increase in covid in our area and new hospital restrictions we had to just let him out at the door.  We were not allowed to enter the hospital and wait inside.  That was difficult for me as a Mother but as my son reminded me, he is an adult.  We knew it would be several hours so we found a restaurant that opened at 6:30 a.m. and went there for breakfast and coffee.  We managed to spend a couple of hours at the restaurant and then went back to the hospital parking lot.  There was really no place we wanted to go after that and we wanted to stay close to the hospital so we waited in the car.  We noticed there were others waiting in their cars too.  The increase in covid combined with the almost full hospitals does create some changes in many different ways.  I received several calls from the recovery room nurse telling us he had done well but had to stay in recovery a bit longer.  Finally, around 1:00 p.m. they let us know we could pick him up.  He was groggy but basically doing okay and we drove him back to our house to stay for the initial recovery time.

After we got home, he casually mentioned to me “You know a robot did my surgery.”  I stopped what I was doing and said “A what did your surgery?”!  Sean thought it was rather cool that his surgery was done by a robot.  Yes, I have heard of that being done these days, but somehow I had not expected it.  I was glad he didn’t tell me that before the surgery as I think I would have been much more worried! 

This is the type of robot that was used.*

                          

Apparently the surgeon he had and the hospital he was in are well know for their robotic surgeries.  I looked up the hospital and read about this type of surgery and I must admit it sounded good.  They say there are many benefits of this type of surgery including greater surgical precision, increased range of motion, improved dexterity, enhanced visualization and improved access.  There is also less pain, less risk of infection, less blood loss, less scarring and faster recovery.  Sean said the surgeon sat at his head at a computer with a screen showing the magnified view of the surgery. 

The doctor sat at a console similar to this.*

Sean is sore and tired but overall doing well, thankfully.  Advancements these days continue to amaze me.  But you know, I’m still glad he didn’t tell me it was a robot until after it was over!

* Credit for photos:    By Cmglee - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,              https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39437443       

 

It’s That Time of the Year

 

Every year about this time I become more acutely aware of the change of seasons.  The days are colder and the nights are longer.  I like the changing of seasons because it keeps me in touch with that part of our world that continues on as it has all my life.  It reminds me that there is something bigger in life that moves forward despite us.

A Squirrel eating one of those hedge apples I mentioned in my last post. 

Saturday was a nice day here with temperatures in the low 70’s, windy but warm.  I spent the day outside doing yard work and getting ready for the winter months.  We have a redbud tree in the front yard that badly needed trimming and I got that done and bagged.  It felt good to be outside in the fresh air especially knowing that we would not have many more days like this.

Saturday night we were able to spend a few hours with our oldest son, Chris, just visiting and enjoying the opportunity to be together for a bit.  We don’t get to see family very often and it is special to us when we do get together.

This past week has been busy with a lot of the basics of life.  I saw my eye doctor as my vision continues to challenge me.  I was given a prescription for new glasses and I got a new pair picked out and ordered.  I look forward to getting them as the pair I have been wearing has not been doing me as much good as they did at first.  This time I ordered the kind of glasses that get darker in the bright sunlight.  I’m supposed to wear sunglasses but I rarely do as they are such a pain when you wear glasses.  I don’t want to carry two pairs of glasses or try and put sunglasses over my regular glasses.  So, I will give these a try and see how they work out. 

Winter was beginning to feel much closer on Sunday when instead of temperatures in the low 70’s our high was in the low 40’s and it was damp and cloudy.  I was glad I had done my outside work on Saturday as this was a day to stay in with the heat turned on.

When it gets cold Zeus always heads for the covers!

This new week will be busy with the usual variety of appointments, grocery shopping and such.  Also on Friday our younger son, Sean, is having outpatient surgery and we are taking him to the hospital for that.  He is not married so we help him out with things like that.

It has been fairly routine days around here.  Many bloggers I know write about their day to day activities but I’m not so sure there is much of interest in my days!  I hope everyone is well and having a nice week!