Went to see a surgon today
We went to see a surgeon today. Lots of information
First, I will need to get a EKG and blood-work on Monday. This is so that they can do an additional endoscopy Thursday so that they can look around and do more biopsies. The purpose is to see what percentage of my stomach has cancer. They want to do this sooner rather than later to know where the cancer was before the full rounds of chemotherapy.
We also talked about what types of surgery would be needed. There are two extremes.
Best case: If the cancer is a small percentage of my stomach, they could do a minimal invasive surgery (laparoscopic) to remove the sections that had cancer.
Worst case: If it is most of the stomach, they might need to do open surgery, they then need to do some re-construction so that there is a Y joint. The left portion takes in bile and the right portion would take in food. This would require an additional surgeon.
We would do all of these 8-10 weeks after the completion of chemo and radiation therapy. The recovery is about 10-18 days in the hospital and 3 months outside the hospital. Either way, they need to deflate a lung to get in there to remove parts of my esophagus and connect it to the rest of my digestive track.
So overall if all goes well we have the following nominal current schedule:
Mid Feb: Completion of chemo
Month break
Mid March: 4-5 weeks of radiation therapy
8 -12 week break
Mid May: Surgical procedure
Early June: Out of hospital
September: Recovery from surgery over
The major risks are pneumonia and infection and a leakage where the two components are connected. To test the leakage they use a barium drink and some imaging. For the recovery they want me on a feeding tube as they don't want to stress out the surgery area. This will go though my nose and be stitched in place as they don't want me to move it around.
If all goes well, when I'm totally healed the major change would be that I would have a smaller stomach and would want to eat 4-5 times a day rather than 3.
If all goes well and there is no cancer detected after the surgery, I would not need traditional chemotherapy after surgery. I'm hoping that is the case as recovering from the surgery is an effort in it self. In some of the studies 50% of the patients can't get chemotherapy after surgery since the recovery is difficult.
P.S. Me and Alexis are toying with possibly going on vacation (maybe a mini cruise) during one of the breaks and do some other type of vacation with the kids on the other break. It is always good to have something to look forward to.
First, I will need to get a EKG and blood-work on Monday. This is so that they can do an additional endoscopy Thursday so that they can look around and do more biopsies. The purpose is to see what percentage of my stomach has cancer. They want to do this sooner rather than later to know where the cancer was before the full rounds of chemotherapy.
We also talked about what types of surgery would be needed. There are two extremes.
Best case: If the cancer is a small percentage of my stomach, they could do a minimal invasive surgery (laparoscopic) to remove the sections that had cancer.
Worst case: If it is most of the stomach, they might need to do open surgery, they then need to do some re-construction so that there is a Y joint. The left portion takes in bile and the right portion would take in food. This would require an additional surgeon.
We would do all of these 8-10 weeks after the completion of chemo and radiation therapy. The recovery is about 10-18 days in the hospital and 3 months outside the hospital. Either way, they need to deflate a lung to get in there to remove parts of my esophagus and connect it to the rest of my digestive track.
So overall if all goes well we have the following nominal current schedule:
Mid Feb: Completion of chemo
Month break
Mid March: 4-5 weeks of radiation therapy
8 -12 week break
Mid May: Surgical procedure
Early June: Out of hospital
September: Recovery from surgery over
The major risks are pneumonia and infection and a leakage where the two components are connected. To test the leakage they use a barium drink and some imaging. For the recovery they want me on a feeding tube as they don't want to stress out the surgery area. This will go though my nose and be stitched in place as they don't want me to move it around.
If all goes well, when I'm totally healed the major change would be that I would have a smaller stomach and would want to eat 4-5 times a day rather than 3.
If all goes well and there is no cancer detected after the surgery, I would not need traditional chemotherapy after surgery. I'm hoping that is the case as recovering from the surgery is an effort in it self. In some of the studies 50% of the patients can't get chemotherapy after surgery since the recovery is difficult.
P.S. Me and Alexis are toying with possibly going on vacation (maybe a mini cruise) during one of the breaks and do some other type of vacation with the kids on the other break. It is always good to have something to look forward to.
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