It's a busy week leading up to surgery. Calvin finished hockey with three tournaments on three straight weekends. That was really crazy! They played in the finals on each weekend (1st, 2nd, and 2nd). That's some pretty good success... I am really thankful for the coaches, parents, and even players from the team. They were are a great diversion for us through a really difficult time for us. Calvin improved throughout the season, and his teammates were so encouraging. Several of them will be moving up to bantams next year. So it's a little bittersweet to see the season come to an end. I watched Calvin go from having no idea where he was supposed to be to gutting it out in front of the net taking cross checks to the back from the goalie. That was pretty awesome to watch him annoy the goalie so much that he was getting out of his game. He was getting on the scoresheet more often, too.
I just had a port flush, which means they run some saline and an anti-clogging drug though it. That's a good thing in the sense that it hasn't been used for so long that it needed to be flushed... My white count is back in the normal range, still on the low side but at least it's in the proper range!
Surgery is this coming Tuesday (the 24th). It's going to be a big one again with a fairly long recovery period. As usual my timing is fantastic and I developed a cold this week! This is my first cold since my cancer diagnosis... Isn't that nuts? I called in to make sure it wouldn't be a problem for my upcoming procedure, and they said as long as I do not have a fever, it should be fine. I do not have a fever, just a stuffed up head and scratchy throat.
I think I talked about it in my last post, but I figure I'll bring it up again regardless... There's a chance that they'll have to do a somewhat experimental procedure one called NanoKnife IRE. It's been around since 2009 and has FDA approval on some levels, but is not always covered by insurance. I'm not sure if I'm covered or not but I gave permission to do it regardless if they feel it's the best/only option... It's not as expensive as I thought it would be, I don't want to mention numbers, but let's just say low-mid four digits. You only live once, right? I certainly can think of more entertaining things to spend the money on, but if I'm not around to use it, what good does that do?
BC Technical is treating me really well with all this! I thank God that he put me on the path to be gainfully employed and have great coworkers around me to help out when Im down. All the other guys in the region are going to take care of my customers on my behalf and I know they will be well taken care of. There's a lot of peace of mind in knowing this. My boss is really cool with it too, this is the first time in my life that my boss is younger than me. (There's a sign you're getting old!)
I thank God for my church daily as well. Although I feel a little disconnected with being away so much with all those hockey weekends... We do struggle with that a little, and I do not take skipping church light, but I also take my family seriously, and we needed to do this. Calvin needed to do this. His teammates need him there as well. He is but no means the star of the team, but cog in the machine serves a purpose. Anyway, back to church! I look forward to being back to normal there as well. We've been going to the same church for at least 17 years, and you develop some strong bonds in that time. When you're away, you can feel it... I am so thankful to know that they are praying for me there, and at other churches all over the place. That doesn't make me special, it's the power of prayer and the God that answers them that is special!
If anyone has a question about me or my situation that I haven't answered, leave a comment! I'm usually an open book, I'll either respond in comment, or write a new post if that makes more sense.
Until then, peace!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
My life stays interesting
So where do we pick up on our hero's latest adventures? So much had happened in the past few weeks... My truck died leaving me stranded in Alma. The transmission lost first gear, and I really didn't want to drive in reverse all the way home, so Angela came and picked me up... I had to borrow my uncle's truck (thanks Dave!) and grandmas's trailer (yes, my grandmother has a car hauler... Yours doesn't???). This is how it went: drive from Hamilton to Greenville in van, pick up truck and trailer, drive to alma, load up truck, drive back to Holland to drop off dead truck, drive back to Greenville to drop off truck and trailer, drive home in van... That's about a 10 hour job.
I tried to get a replacement transmission from a "legitimate rebuilder" in Saginaw. Big mistake, after three weeks of unkept promises, I finally pulled the plug. I'm still looking for replacement. In the meantime, we are using my father on law's truck (huge thank you to Jim!).
Let's see... Also, my hair started to grow back. I look like Jean-Luc Picard right now, but with WHITER hair. We'll see how that goes, but looking like Grecian Formula is in my future! I'm just glad it's coming back.
We're one step closer to sellin the old house! I'll really be glad when that's behind us. I'm really happy that it's working out for our buyers, they're really great people! We just need to get a new purchase agreement filled out as the old one is out of date now.
Truth be told, all of that was just fluff. I was just making you wait for the real news. I had a PET scan on Tuesday, and met with the surgeon today... I have good news and bad news...
Good first: zero uptake on both the primary (colon tumor) and the secondary (that last little spot in my liver). That means they are either dead or dormant. Doc said if I were an eighty year old, he'd would just send me home assuming I'd die of something else before the cancer came back. I'm not eighty though, so we're going to be a little more proactive. The primary is a very straight forward operation, not much risk involved... Only real danger is if the place where colon is sewn back together leaks, it would be very similar to a ruptured appendix (that would be a bad thing).
The bad(ish) news: The secondary may not be quite as simple... This still has the potential to come out on the good news side, so let's start there. When he gets in there, they're going to take a syringe sample of the mass in my liver and biopsy it right then while I'm in surgery. If it's benign, we're done. If it's not benign, it gets a little tricky. The mass is pretty much in direct contact with a major blood vessel. This potentially causes all kinds of problems. If they attempt to cut it out, they could nick the blood vessel, and I could bleed out on the table. Or if the use microwave oblation, they run the risk of not getting it all, and having it come back OR going too deep and damaging the blood vessel, which could cause me to bleed out on the table, or cause a blood clot that could cause a stroke or embolism and kill me a later date (fun, eh?)! Another option is a thing called a nano knife. It's a last option kind of thing for a couple of reasons: one, it's still really new, and no one is exactly an expert with it yet. Two, it's rarely covered by insurance (yippee!!!). It's still considered experimental by most insurance companies.
The PET scan revealed a five cm spot way low on my pelvis. Possibly a lymph node, but no way to know with out going spelunking. It's very possible that's it's nothing. There's are several reasons to have uptake on a PET scan. Any kind of damaged tissue will show up on the scan. They specifically asked me if I had done any vigorous exercise in the past few days, as the micro tears in the muscles would show up. So I'm not too worried about that, but they have to go look for it to make sure... I asked the doc what his gut told him, and he doesn't think its a tumor.
Here's the last bit of bad news, because they have to go into the liver again, and the colon, and low on my pelvis, laparoscopic is off the table. I will be cut right down the center from my diaphragm to below the naval! (Ouch). This just means another long hospital stay and many days off work.
I was out for five weeks total during my last surgery (one week in hospital and four weeks at home) I'm hoping to shave a week off this time, but we'll have to wait and see. By the way, this happens on the 24th of this month! At least Calvin's hockey season will be over.
Did I mention that his team won their tournament last weekend? What an awesome experience. This is a truly awesome bunch of kids, as well as parents. I wish they could all stay together for another season, but alas, many will move up to bantam next year. I've made friends just like calvin has, and I'll be sad to see them go.
Shalom
I tried to get a replacement transmission from a "legitimate rebuilder" in Saginaw. Big mistake, after three weeks of unkept promises, I finally pulled the plug. I'm still looking for replacement. In the meantime, we are using my father on law's truck (huge thank you to Jim!).
Let's see... Also, my hair started to grow back. I look like Jean-Luc Picard right now, but with WHITER hair. We'll see how that goes, but looking like Grecian Formula is in my future! I'm just glad it's coming back.
We're one step closer to sellin the old house! I'll really be glad when that's behind us. I'm really happy that it's working out for our buyers, they're really great people! We just need to get a new purchase agreement filled out as the old one is out of date now.
Truth be told, all of that was just fluff. I was just making you wait for the real news. I had a PET scan on Tuesday, and met with the surgeon today... I have good news and bad news...
Good first: zero uptake on both the primary (colon tumor) and the secondary (that last little spot in my liver). That means they are either dead or dormant. Doc said if I were an eighty year old, he'd would just send me home assuming I'd die of something else before the cancer came back. I'm not eighty though, so we're going to be a little more proactive. The primary is a very straight forward operation, not much risk involved... Only real danger is if the place where colon is sewn back together leaks, it would be very similar to a ruptured appendix (that would be a bad thing).
The bad(ish) news: The secondary may not be quite as simple... This still has the potential to come out on the good news side, so let's start there. When he gets in there, they're going to take a syringe sample of the mass in my liver and biopsy it right then while I'm in surgery. If it's benign, we're done. If it's not benign, it gets a little tricky. The mass is pretty much in direct contact with a major blood vessel. This potentially causes all kinds of problems. If they attempt to cut it out, they could nick the blood vessel, and I could bleed out on the table. Or if the use microwave oblation, they run the risk of not getting it all, and having it come back OR going too deep and damaging the blood vessel, which could cause me to bleed out on the table, or cause a blood clot that could cause a stroke or embolism and kill me a later date (fun, eh?)! Another option is a thing called a nano knife. It's a last option kind of thing for a couple of reasons: one, it's still really new, and no one is exactly an expert with it yet. Two, it's rarely covered by insurance (yippee!!!). It's still considered experimental by most insurance companies.
The PET scan revealed a five cm spot way low on my pelvis. Possibly a lymph node, but no way to know with out going spelunking. It's very possible that's it's nothing. There's are several reasons to have uptake on a PET scan. Any kind of damaged tissue will show up on the scan. They specifically asked me if I had done any vigorous exercise in the past few days, as the micro tears in the muscles would show up. So I'm not too worried about that, but they have to go look for it to make sure... I asked the doc what his gut told him, and he doesn't think its a tumor.
Here's the last bit of bad news, because they have to go into the liver again, and the colon, and low on my pelvis, laparoscopic is off the table. I will be cut right down the center from my diaphragm to below the naval! (Ouch). This just means another long hospital stay and many days off work.
I was out for five weeks total during my last surgery (one week in hospital and four weeks at home) I'm hoping to shave a week off this time, but we'll have to wait and see. By the way, this happens on the 24th of this month! At least Calvin's hockey season will be over.
Did I mention that his team won their tournament last weekend? What an awesome experience. This is a truly awesome bunch of kids, as well as parents. I wish they could all stay together for another season, but alas, many will move up to bantam next year. I've made friends just like calvin has, and I'll be sad to see them go.
Shalom
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