My stomach had been bothering me a bit in 2024. I did a virtual visit with my GI Doctor in April. The PA told me I could double up my Omerprazole for a few weeks and see if it helped. It did and that was that. It was bothering me again in December though and after a virtual visit with the doctor, he ordered an ultrasound.
I took the test on the last Friday morning of the year. We were driving to Houston to visit my brother and family that day. The doctor called me himself. I had a large lesion on my liver and more tests would be required. Initially he said we'd need to do an MRI. I was a bit nervous about it. He didn't know what it was and said he wouldn't know more until we did more testing. That night I was fearful of dying. And also fearful of having to go through chemo. Finally I realized that it's not really something I can control. If I'm going to have to die, there's nothing I can do about it.
I can't get an MRI as I have a prosethesis in my left ear from a long time ago that's probably stainless steel. They won't risk an MRI as it can deform it. I made plans for a CT scan pretty quickly. It confirmed a large lesion and next I went in for a biopsy. The biopsy at St. David's South wasn't bad at all, in fact they gave me nice drugs for it. It confirmed that I had a Hepatocellular carcinoma. I was referred to Texas Oncology.
Went to see Dr. Chadha, a nice guy. He sent me to get a PET scan and referred me to Dr. McKenzie in his practice. Dr. McKenzie was great too. After the PET scan, which showed no spread of the cancer, he told me we had plenty of time to go to Cancun before the surgery. We'd planned a 4 night trip there to an all-inclusive resort a few months earlier. Our trip to Cancun was great. I'd bought 10 expensive protein drinks the doctor wanted me to drink (2 a day for 5 days prior to surgery). They cost $10 each.
I got dropped of at the hospital pretty early as they wanted to do some pre-surgery tests. St. David's Medical Center was really good. They took great care of and before I knew it, I was up and a little groggy from anesthesia. There was another guy in the recovery room groaning loudly "My God, Oh My God!". The nurse told me they'd move me up to a room shortly which they did.
I got a room on the 5th floor Oncology Ward. I wasn't very comfortable. They gave me a pain pump that gave me a small dose of something every 8 minutes if I pressed it. I kept pressing it and eventually felt a bit of relief from the pain. They helped me to the bathroom and asked me to pee, but I couldn't. Apparently they couldn't get a catheter in during the surgery. A nurse tried and couldn't get it in. The head nurse came in and stretched my dick out and got it in. That wasn't much fun.
The second day the Doctor came in and told me that the pathology showed that no cancer got into my small blood vessels and I was basically cancer-free. Apparently I had Stage 1 liver cancer.
I ended up with ileus, where my digestive system wasn't working. My abdomen was pretty distended and a day or two later they put a tube into my stomach through my nose. Initially I felt some relief but not for long. Because I had ileus, I couldn't eat food and they were giving me pain meds via IV every 4 hours. I went into the hospital on Monday. Thursday and Friday nights I was really uncomfortable and waking up after about 2 hours. It seemed like I'd never get through those two nights but I did. By Saturday I wasn't quite as uncomfortable.
Eventually they gave me another CT scan to see if there was any blockages, which there weren't. Then they had someone use an ultrasound to put in a special IV to give me nutrition. Finally on the 9th day they took the catheter out and I could pee. I also started pooping a little liquid. On the 10th day they discharged me. I had been walking up and down the hallway with a walker but didn't need one when I got home.
It felt great to be home. They sent a woman to show us how to change the IV bag once a day. A bit of pain. I had to carry this bag with me and sleep attached to it. After a few days I went to see Dr. McKenzie. He wanted me to keep the IV nutrition for another week but only for 12 hours a day instead of 20. That was a bit easier. After another week, he took the IV out and I was on my way to recovery.
I got better and stronger pretty slowly. My abdomen was a bit sore and although I was eating by now, I didn't have a great appetite. Eventually my appetite started to improve. My pain levels dropped pretty quickly and I got off the powerful pain meds I had been taking the week I was out of the hospital with no problem.
At 3 months I took another CT scan and had bloodwork that showed I didn't have cancer anymore. I'll go get that done again in another 4 months. I was very lucky!
No comments:
Post a Comment