Thursday, July 14, 2011
MRI Results
I saw the doctor the other week and got my MRI results. He said that everything looked good and we are going forward with the surgery as planned on the 19th. My next post will be post-surgery hopeuflly with good news, God willing.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Portal Vein Embolization Outcome
I went in last week for the PVE surgery and was told everything went 'textbook', I interperet that as very good. The surgery itself did hurt because they had to keep me awake so I didn't move. They gave me pain medication but I thought I felt a lot of it and it was not pleasent. Eventually, the pain medication won out and I only remember about 5 minutes of the painful part.
After surgery, I was kept in a room for about 4 hours to monitor my condition. The nurse gave me some perkiset and that worked great to help ease the pain in my side from the surgery. I went home and stayed close to bed for the next few days. Advil was the best for pain control. By Monday, I was back at work. I did notice some pressure around what I would consider my heart area for a few days. I could not get a full breath until Thursday of that week. Now I feel pretty much normal. I don't really feel anything different internally so I think that is a pretty good sign. Hopefully everything is growing as expected. My next big hurdle is the MRI at the beginning of July.
I thank God for his continue blessing and the pray he continues to give me and my family hope that everything will be ok through each step of this journey. I continue to thank God daily for the mercy he has on me during this trial.
After surgery, I was kept in a room for about 4 hours to monitor my condition. The nurse gave me some perkiset and that worked great to help ease the pain in my side from the surgery. I went home and stayed close to bed for the next few days. Advil was the best for pain control. By Monday, I was back at work. I did notice some pressure around what I would consider my heart area for a few days. I could not get a full breath until Thursday of that week. Now I feel pretty much normal. I don't really feel anything different internally so I think that is a pretty good sign. Hopefully everything is growing as expected. My next big hurdle is the MRI at the beginning of July.
I thank God for his continue blessing and the pray he continues to give me and my family hope that everything will be ok through each step of this journey. I continue to thank God daily for the mercy he has on me during this trial.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Portal Vein Embolization
After getting over the initial shock from my regular oncology doctor telling me that I have cancer on my liver, I made an appointment to see a top liver surgeon about my dianogsis. This surgeon was recommended to me by my oncology doctor and is said to be the best at what he does in the area.
I was hoping that the surgeon would tell me that he can remove the small liver tumors using laparoscopy and I might be in the hospital for a day to two. My oncology doctor even mentioned that I might not need chemotherapy. I was pretty hopeful until I heard what the surgeon wanted to do.
First, he said I was a good candidate for surgery, given my age (41) and good overall health. He then said that he would want to remove up to 75% of my existing liver. This really shocked me. It sounded all wrong, what about he laparoscopy I was thinking of?? The reason he wants to remove so much liver is two fold, the more he removes the more confident he feels he has removed all of the cancer. I was told that eventually the liver grows back and the hope is I return to a normal life. I was told by a nurse that within 6 months to a year, my liver would grow back to its original size.
In order to perform the surgery, he suggested that I have something called a portal vein embolization to shut down half of the liver's blood flow and increase the flow to the other half of the liver. The point of doing this is to grow new good liver that will remain after the surgery. So lets say he removes 75% but if I have my liver grow to 120% of normal size, I will have 45% left. I was told you can surive on around 20% of your liver but having more is better for a quicker and safer outcome.
My pre-surgery procedure to grow the good liver is scheduled for early June, an MRI to confirm the growth of the liver is on July 1st and the acutal surgery is in mid July. Recovery time for the surgery is about a week in the hospital and 2-3 weeks at home.
I will post next on how the surgery went.
I was hoping that the surgeon would tell me that he can remove the small liver tumors using laparoscopy and I might be in the hospital for a day to two. My oncology doctor even mentioned that I might not need chemotherapy. I was pretty hopeful until I heard what the surgeon wanted to do.
First, he said I was a good candidate for surgery, given my age (41) and good overall health. He then said that he would want to remove up to 75% of my existing liver. This really shocked me. It sounded all wrong, what about he laparoscopy I was thinking of?? The reason he wants to remove so much liver is two fold, the more he removes the more confident he feels he has removed all of the cancer. I was told that eventually the liver grows back and the hope is I return to a normal life. I was told by a nurse that within 6 months to a year, my liver would grow back to its original size.
In order to perform the surgery, he suggested that I have something called a portal vein embolization to shut down half of the liver's blood flow and increase the flow to the other half of the liver. The point of doing this is to grow new good liver that will remain after the surgery. So lets say he removes 75% but if I have my liver grow to 120% of normal size, I will have 45% left. I was told you can surive on around 20% of your liver but having more is better for a quicker and safer outcome.
My pre-surgery procedure to grow the good liver is scheduled for early June, an MRI to confirm the growth of the liver is on July 1st and the acutal surgery is in mid July. Recovery time for the surgery is about a week in the hospital and 2-3 weeks at home.
I will post next on how the surgery went.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Diagnosed with Stage 3a Colon Cancer
I am writing this Blog to help others who may be diagnosed with Colon Cancer or for others who are caring for a loved one who has colon cancer. Hopefully my story will help answer some questions and also act as encouragement to those suffering from this terrible disease.
In December of 2009, I was admitted into a local emergency room for surgery for a ruptered appendix. Earlier that same day, I had a CT scan that showed that my appendix was ruptured and I needed immediate attention. I just thought I was going in for a routine surgery. After the surgery my doctor said that I was in his top 10 worst appendix surgeries he had performed. He was referring to all of the infection from the rupture. He told me after surgery that he had removed about 4 inches of my colon because the infection had made that section of the colon not viable to keep. He also told me that he didn't see any cancer. The thought that I might even of had cancer never crossed my mind.
Three days later my doctor called me and told me that pathology did a test on the removed section of colon and found a cancerous tumor that had spread to one lymph node. I believe the size of the tumor was about 6 cm in length. I was told that it was found very early and that I was very fortunate to of had a ruptured appendix or they would not have found this tumor until it had spread. This news was devasting to my wife and myself but in the end I felt very fortunate and blessed to have had this caught early.
Chemotherapy was recommended as a precaution to make sure there was no more cancer in my body. I had an MRI done as well that confirmed no more cancer. I decided to have the six months of chemotherapy because I was only 39 at the time of the discovery and I have a family with three young daughters and a lovely wife. Chemo was my insurance policy that I would never have to deal with this kind of thing again.
I had a port put in my upper left chest so I could do the treatements of 5-FU. While these treatments were difficult, I did find that having them every other week allowed me to have a pretty normal life on my off week. I went to work the day of the treatment and carried around the pump attached to me for the next day. On the third day, I had the pump removed and worked from home. I found it phyiscally difficult to come into the office. By the fourth day, I started to rapidly return to normal and by the end of the week my appetite was back and I could enjoy the weekend.
Six months seemed like forever to go through this treatment and the last few treatments did seem harder to handle then the previous 10. After treatments were over I continued to see the doctor every three months for a CEA tumor marker test and general check up. I also had a CT scan at the end of the six month treatment and it came back clear. My blood work continued to stay low, around 1 until about six months after the treatments stopped. It shot up to 2.7 in Jaunuary of 2011 but I was told that was in the mid range of normal so not to worry. In April, it shot up to 13.5. This was not good news to me and I asked for a CT scan as soon as possible.
Two days later my doctor called me and said he has found multiple spots on my liver, at least three. I thought immediately that I was done for, now my prognosis was Stage 4 colon cancer. I had gone almost a year and a half with the Stage 3a prognosis and didn't think I would ever get cancer again. The thought is that I was never clear and this new cancer is really the same and had spread from the colon over a year ago but just now showed up.
Two day later I had a PET scan to see where else the cancer might be in my body. On Friday of the same week my doctor called me with some better news. He said the PET scan only shows cancer in my liver and that I would be a good candiate for surgery. He mentioned that they only do surgery when they think they can cure the cancer. This made me feel like I had some real hope and I thanked God for this great news.
The following posts will be about my journey through my second bout with cancer. I will be having a portal vein embolization surgery (grow good liver), liver resection surgery (removal, up to 75%) and six more months of the same chemo treatments that I have had before. My hope is that my journey through this will help and encourage others that it can be done and with faith in God anything is possible. With God's strength and healing power, I intend to beat this cancer once and for all.
My next post will be about my experience with my portal vein embolization surgery and what to expect.
In December of 2009, I was admitted into a local emergency room for surgery for a ruptered appendix. Earlier that same day, I had a CT scan that showed that my appendix was ruptured and I needed immediate attention. I just thought I was going in for a routine surgery. After the surgery my doctor said that I was in his top 10 worst appendix surgeries he had performed. He was referring to all of the infection from the rupture. He told me after surgery that he had removed about 4 inches of my colon because the infection had made that section of the colon not viable to keep. He also told me that he didn't see any cancer. The thought that I might even of had cancer never crossed my mind.
Three days later my doctor called me and told me that pathology did a test on the removed section of colon and found a cancerous tumor that had spread to one lymph node. I believe the size of the tumor was about 6 cm in length. I was told that it was found very early and that I was very fortunate to of had a ruptured appendix or they would not have found this tumor until it had spread. This news was devasting to my wife and myself but in the end I felt very fortunate and blessed to have had this caught early.
Chemotherapy was recommended as a precaution to make sure there was no more cancer in my body. I had an MRI done as well that confirmed no more cancer. I decided to have the six months of chemotherapy because I was only 39 at the time of the discovery and I have a family with three young daughters and a lovely wife. Chemo was my insurance policy that I would never have to deal with this kind of thing again.
I had a port put in my upper left chest so I could do the treatements of 5-FU. While these treatments were difficult, I did find that having them every other week allowed me to have a pretty normal life on my off week. I went to work the day of the treatment and carried around the pump attached to me for the next day. On the third day, I had the pump removed and worked from home. I found it phyiscally difficult to come into the office. By the fourth day, I started to rapidly return to normal and by the end of the week my appetite was back and I could enjoy the weekend.
Six months seemed like forever to go through this treatment and the last few treatments did seem harder to handle then the previous 10. After treatments were over I continued to see the doctor every three months for a CEA tumor marker test and general check up. I also had a CT scan at the end of the six month treatment and it came back clear. My blood work continued to stay low, around 1 until about six months after the treatments stopped. It shot up to 2.7 in Jaunuary of 2011 but I was told that was in the mid range of normal so not to worry. In April, it shot up to 13.5. This was not good news to me and I asked for a CT scan as soon as possible.
Two days later my doctor called me and said he has found multiple spots on my liver, at least three. I thought immediately that I was done for, now my prognosis was Stage 4 colon cancer. I had gone almost a year and a half with the Stage 3a prognosis and didn't think I would ever get cancer again. The thought is that I was never clear and this new cancer is really the same and had spread from the colon over a year ago but just now showed up.
Two day later I had a PET scan to see where else the cancer might be in my body. On Friday of the same week my doctor called me with some better news. He said the PET scan only shows cancer in my liver and that I would be a good candiate for surgery. He mentioned that they only do surgery when they think they can cure the cancer. This made me feel like I had some real hope and I thanked God for this great news.
The following posts will be about my journey through my second bout with cancer. I will be having a portal vein embolization surgery (grow good liver), liver resection surgery (removal, up to 75%) and six more months of the same chemo treatments that I have had before. My hope is that my journey through this will help and encourage others that it can be done and with faith in God anything is possible. With God's strength and healing power, I intend to beat this cancer once and for all.
My next post will be about my experience with my portal vein embolization surgery and what to expect.
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