It's been a minute since my last update but I have a good reason, I promise! On June 9 I had my surgery. For those who have been following along, the original surgery strategy was:
Remove the left lobe of my liver, the gall bladder, and as many tumors as possible from the right lobe of my liver (Liver surgery is far and away the most complicated and difficult part)
If all went well, remove the primary tumor in the tail of my pancreas and my spleen
Close me up and call it a day, monitor and monthly maintenance
So here is what actually happened:
Removed the left lobe of my liver, my gall bladder, and 17 tumors from the right lobe of my liver - CHECK
I lost too much blood in the first part so they couldn't do my pancreas or my spleen so they closed me back up and we start discussing a staged strategy for my surgeries.
So, all in all, the Liver surgery (again, the hard part) was a success and they removed a lot and I am healing nicely. The pancreas will happen later (as will the kidney) but the date is TBD. The surgeon was guessing 3-4 months from now.
I had one complication, a hypoxic respiratory failure which means I had air get into my bloodstream presumably from an IV line. They had to intubate me after I was in recovery from the Liver surgery. Getting a tube down your throat is not something overly fun, but I was mostly sedated and I am sure it was scarier for my friends and family who were there with me. I woke up a few times with the tube in (by design) but overall handled it well. The hospital isn't sure what happened yet and might investigate it. But, at the end of the day, the great news is that I am fine and the respiratory issues, while threatening and scary, seemed to not have any long-lasting physical effects.
Now I am in healing mode. I am getting there but as those who know me know, patience is not my strong suit! But, I am learning.
I have some pain, mostly in the form of intense soreness on my right side. My incision itches but the staples are coming out tomorrow (6/22). I definitely have fatigue and have a lot of weakness. And it all comes and goes. There are days I walk to the corner three times and days I don't. If I step back and look more macro, I am definitely improving (I am blogging after all!).
Not sure about the next steps yet. As I mentioned, the staples are coming out tomorrow and now that I am more aware of my pain I will be focusing on how to lessen it. I have pain meds at home and they help when I need them. The energy will come back over time. The good news is that my tumor load is much less now, my GI tract seems to be working and I don't seem to be having any Liver issues or complications.
The next steps with my Dr are:
Work on a post-surgery treatment plan (shots, scans, etc)
Figure out what's going on with my blood - my numbers are all over the place
Discuss next steps and future surgeries and how to approach
Thanks for reading!