Each day is a little easier. I can talk more but my voice is not strong yet. I can see that it will take another four to five weeks to feel some sense of normalcy.
The surgery was big. It was pretty amazing. I have a scar down my stomach from my chest to a few inches below my belly button. Dr. Norton and his team used this area to remove my esophagus from my stomach as well as potentially impacted areas of my stomach. That took about an hour and a half. Then, he stitched up my stomach and Dr Whyte rolled me over to complete the surgery from my upper back. I have a long arching scar that looks like a crescent moon. They used that incision to complete the surgery. They had to crack my ribs apart, deflate my right lung, detach about two thirds of my esophagus and stitch the stomach back together with what what was left of the esophagus. The stitches had to be tight enough that I would heal without allowing any leaks. Then they had to do a number of layers of stitches to repair the incision on the way out. That part of the surgery took another four hours.
The whole strategy that they recommended worked well. The chemo and radiation killed and marked the cancer. It was easy for the surgeon to see what he was cutting. Early pathology reports were made before they closed me back up. There was no cancer anywhere except the small tumor in my esophagus. The full lab report came back within three days of surgery and indicated that the tumor had not penetrated the lining of the esophagus as previously thought. My stage 2 diagnosis was reset to stage 1. This is very important because it means that there was very little chance that a cell of that cancer traveled to some other part of my body and is waiting to develop.
I will be scanned for cancer a lot...maybe as often as every three months. I will be anxious waiting for the results of each scan, but I have some comfort from the fact that it was only stage 1 and we treated it very aggressively.
For now, all I can do is relax and try to keep walking often, breathing right, and eating right.
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Hi Bob, Wow, you are so brave to undergo so much...but I guess sometimes you don't have a lot of choices. I'm glad you are getting better everyday. Your body has endured a lot...wow. I think it is amazing what they can do these days.
Now don't laugh because it might hurt...but almost everytime I get ready to take a picture either my husband or I say, " Oh the ole blank in the blank picture." I sure wish you knew who that old man was that you met that day when you went out to take pictures of the boat in the mist. Maybe if you went back to the same place, he might shuffle by with his cart again. Then you could get some pictures of him. I would love to get a close up of his face. I can sorta picture it in my mind. I'm still taking pictures and having fun. I started my photoshop elements class at adult education and like it. My teacher recommended a good book that tells you step by step how to do everything. I'm going to get it today. It is called The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelly
Well time for lunch. Take care of yourself. Say hi to Sharon. I really enjoyed all the pic. your daughter posted. Rest easy, Susan
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