Surgery plus 22 days

I met with my surgeon, Dr. Whyte, today and he was very pleased with my progress. I'll see him one more time in 4-6 weeks. The intern who came in to see me first said that this is one of the most difficult surgeries there is and went on to say that my body will continue to use up a lot of energy to heal.

I weighed in at the ideal weight for someone my height. That is what we expected would happen. I'm doing my best not to lose any more weight but it's difficult. I don't have much appetite and I get full really fast. The doctors insist that my appetite will return and I will be able to eat more at one sitting. I'm looking forward to that.

Sharon and I have been out to lunch a couple of times and I'm walking more. I'm able to talk for longer stretches each day. I'm not taking any pain killers. Life is beginning to return!

Surgery plus 20 days

In spite of the size of this surgery, I was remarkably pain free. When I woke up after six hours of surgery, I was very alert. They asked how much pain I was in on a scale of 10. I told them '8'. They expressed disappointment. I suddenly went back to sleep and when I woke again I could say that the pain was more like a '3'. The problem wasn't pain.

The real issue was that I had three drains that emptied fluids from my stomach, bladder and chest cavity. They weren't painful unless some tugged at the tubes by mistake. I had to be careful about how fast I moved around. I also had six or seven IV tubes dripping various fluids in both arms. I had an IV pole standing next to my right shoulder and one next to my left shoulder. Some lines came to my left arm from the pole on the right and some came to my right arm from the pole on the left. That meant that I had lines crossing over my body. I felt tied to the bed. I couldn't sleep on my right or left side and certainly not on my stomach. I was on my back and couldn't move without two nurses and a lot of work to untangle the lines. Still, I got up the first day and every day in the hospital and walked with my two nurse entourage, two IV polls, and various drainage bags.

I couldn't eat or drink anything for six days. I wasn't hungry or thirsty. My mouth was very dry and I could swab it often with a little wet sponge on a stick. I could watch television, but I couldn't read or operate my laptop. On day six, I passed some tests and they began to pull the drainage tubes. I was worried that it would hurt and it didn't at all. Then some IV's disappeared. I was liberated!

The ordeal required more patience than pain tolerance. I've learned new levels of patience.

Surgery plus 17 days

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.

More Improvements

My breathing is beginning to open up a little more. I can sometimes carry on a short conversation. My body continues to have some aches and pains, but nothing serious. Eating is not a problem at all. Sharon has made some delicious meals and I can eat small portions. I continue to lose body fluid from the surgery. So, we are just resting and letting the healing process run its course. I'm still not ready for visitors or phone conversations, but I don't think it will be long before I can do those things again.

More Progress!

I've been resting a lot and healing at a good speed. My hands, forearms and wrists are no longer in pain from the IVs and some of the medication that passed through them. I have two large incisions that are a little uncomfortable, but feeling better each day. The staples came out before I left the hospital. My right side, toward my back is sore and I need to sleep facing up as opposed to one side or the other. I still haven't needed pain killer during the day and only take one dose at night to sleep better. I think I get about 5% better each day.

My breathing is a larger issue because it makes talking and exercising more difficult. We visited our pulmonary specialist yesterday to get checked out. He said that I had to expect a slower recovery in the lungs because one was collapsed during surgery to give the surgeons room to operate. The lungs react by protecting themselves with a coating which needs to be broken up and coughed up. He gave me some balloons to blow up during the day to speed the process along. The balloon therapy seems to be working already.

So, I still can't talk and I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to. Aside from that I'm feeling pretty good and I'm enjoying six small meals a day. I've had no problem swallowing or digesting food.

I'm thrilled with the recovery from this operation. I expected it to be much worse. Once my breathing gets under control, I should be able to begin building my body back to a reasonable condition pretty quickly.

First day is promising

My first day home for recovery was outstanding. I still can't talk much because I start coughing as soon as I do and coughing, although therapeutic in my situation, is painful. I started on my new life style of eating small portions of nutritious food about 6 times a day. Sharon made some excellent food and I delighted in every morsel. I still have no appetite, really, but eating was still wonderful. I feel stronger already. I have a lot strange sensations and some pain in various places in my torso at various moments, but I haven't needed painkiller during the day. I can engage in moderate activity, and my breathing is the limiting factor.

Josh is joining us today for support this week. I'm looking forward to seeing him. With his help, I think we will make some quick progress this week. I can see that it will take a number of weeks to adjust to my new organ placement and complete healing from two large incisions. I'll be on the phone as soon as my breath allows me to.

I'm home from the hospital!

I'm doing very well thanks to some great doctors, loving family, and friends. The cancer is gone completely. I'm cured. Now, I will focus on recovering from surgery. It was an amazing experience that has produced a lot of learning and some great stories that I will share with a little more distance.

I'm grateful to Sharon and Jordan for keeping the blog up to date for the past 10 days. They were exhausted and still took the time get on line.