Karla got to work immediately. She had asked the nurse practitioner and nurses where was the best place to have surgery. Overwhelmingly, they all suggested the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in downtown Boston (actually, it would be either the Beth Israel Hospital or the Brigham and Women's Hospital where the surgery would occur, and then my continued treatment post-surgery would occur at Dana-Farber). We were visited that night by the Winchester surgeon who indicated surgery would take place at 4PM the next day (Sunday, December 22). Meanwhile, Karla had been talking to her Mom (a former nurse) about how to get us to Dana-Farber. Me, I was so whacked out on painkillers that I don't have any recollection of staying overnight at Winchester Hospital.
When the surgeon came by early the next morning, Karla requested that I get transferred. There was no guarantee I would get into the other hospitals, but things were put in place and by 4PM on the 22nd, I was in another ambulance, on my way to the Brigham and Women's Hospital in downtown Boston. Strangely, I was also going to be in the hospital where Karla was scheduled to give birth to our son five months later.
While all of this was going on, Karla's Mom and been talking to her cousin Marshall, who lives in Boston, and who had attended our wedding. In turns out that he played on the same softball team as Charlie Fuchs, who happened to be the chief oncologist of the gastro-intestinal division at Dana-Farber. Dana-Farber is an amazing institute. It is renowned as one of the best cancer centers in the US. Think of it as a place filled with doctors who specialize in one type of cancer only. You know you will be getting the best treatment. Marshall had reached out to Charlie, and I think he was instrumental in getting me scheduled for surgery, and also having Dr. Brian Wolpin as my oncologist going forward
Surgery was now scheduled for 2PM on Monday the 23rd. I do have faint recollections of being wheeled into the operating room (it was extremely cold) but I was still on painkillers and my memories are few and muddled if there are any. My surgeon was Dr. Jennifer Irani and per Karla, the surgery itself took two hours.
Unfortunately, they also confirmed a high number of tumors in my liver (as had shown up in the CT scan) and those were not operable.
So, post surgery, I remained in the hospital through the 26th. Each day, I would try and do more stuff. No solid foods, just jello or broth and it was hospital quality, so not the best. The big goal for me was to have a BM (bowel movement) to indicate that my colon was back working again. Success on the night of the 25th (my Christmas gift to the world)!
I had a whole slew of visitors come through. Nurses, nurse assistants, the surgeons, the oncologists, and of course family. Karla's folks brought Isla in on the 25th but she did not react well when she figured out that Mommy and Daddy were not coming home right away. I can't imagine what must have been going through her head, seeing Daddy in the hospital like that. I have been amazed at her three-year old resilience throughout this process. My folks also came down from Ottawa and between the DeGaetano parents and the Cuthill parents, Karla, Isla and I would be well taken care of over the next week.
One significant visitor was Dr. Wolpin, who would be my oncologist going forward. He gave Karla and I the straight goods: when talking about life expectancy, the numbers for this type of cancer were not good and in general, you should think of your remaining life in years rather than decades. However, there was a big "but" here - but most of the statistics are based upon people who get this cancer late in life, generally in their 70's or later. Me, I was young and healthy, and so it was very possible that I would outlive the statistics by a long shot. He also outlined what I should expect going forward. Chemo sessions every second week, starting about a month after surgery (there was a risk that the chemo drugs could interfere with the healing process). The sessions themselves would occur over a 48 hour period, starting in the hospital, but continuing at home as the drugs would be infused into my system through a portable infuser. He felt that the impacts of chemo for this type of cancer were relatively benign, and that I should be able to continue to work during the process. He did caution that everyone reacts to the chemo in different ways. It was a lot to take in, and Karla and I did break down and cry at various points in time during our meeting. Overall, I liked Dr. Wolpin, and felt that he would be a good doctor to manage my recovery from this illness.
I have to tell you that I HATE being in a hospital. Sleep is virtually impossible, as someone comes into your room to check on something every two or three hours. The smells, the sounds, the uncomfortableness of the bed. Going to the bathroom is a chore because you have to wheel your IV drip in with you and then make sure you don't get tangled up in all the wires. Your wearing that hokey hospital gown that opens up at the back, you are not showering and you are (in my case) constantly in some level of pain. Some of the nurses and nurse assistants are good and some not so much. But once I had the BM on the 25th, I was all for going home as soon as possible.
So on Thursday, the 26th, Karla and I made it abundantly clear that we wanted to leave, and after much concern and many machinations to make it happen, I was able to go home by about 6PM. It turned out to be the right decision, as my recovery progressed quite quickly once I got home. We celebrated Christmas with Isla on Saturday, December 28th. Luckily, at almost three years old, she was not really aware that the 25th had come and gone.
I won't get into too much detail about the recovery itself. My stomach felt like I had overloaded on situps, but as the days passed, that feeling started to ease. I wrote the following in an email to friends on January 7th:
On Saturday, December 21, I had some acute stomach pains
while at home in Reading MA and
fainted. An ambulance was called and I was admitted to Winchester
Hospital. As part of the process of determining if what I was
experiencing was an appendicitis attack (which seemed to be the case) they took
a catscan of my stomach and chest area. Unfortunately, the catscan also
showed a tumor on my colon, and also indicated it had spread to several other
areas of my body. We transferred to Brigham & Women’s Hospital
downtown and I had surgery on Monday. They removed the tumor on my colon
as well as my appendix.
I will be doing chemotherapy sessions to manage the additional tumors in my body, and I’m told that I should be able to function relatively normally while the chemo is ongoing. I am scheduled for my first chemo in two weeks, and will be on a schedule of chemo for every two weeks for the next six months minimum. Most likely, it will be part of the rest of my life, although there will be periods of a few months where I will take breaks.
I plan to live my life as normal as possible going forward. I will continue to work at RSI, I will continue to highly anticipate the birth of my son in May, and Karla, Isla and I will continue to travel (and hopefully see all of you here and there). This is not a death sentence. While I may not live into my nineties, I have every expectation that I will be around for a long time to come, and this is just a challenge (albeit a fairly big one) that I will overcome.
Karla, Isla and I will probably move permanently to the Boston area at some point this year. I just can't get better medical attention than what's available to me here.
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