Of surgery and treatments

Well, saw the surgeon today. He removed the staples from the surgical wound, so Husband no longer looks like he has a 10 inch zipper running down his middle, through his navel. The wound is still scabbing and healing so it looks a bit of a mess, especially in the navel - but, having seen my parents bypass surgery wounds heal until they are close to being invisible, I know that this will heal well too.

To digress a little - We are NOT having fun with the colostomy bags. The whole lot is actually in two parts - the BASE PLATE, and the COLOSTOMY BAG itself. The BASE PLATE has a hole in the centre (think of a flat doughnut), and the stoma (ie, the protruding small intestine), fits through that hole in the base. The area surrounding the hole in the base plate is supposed to stick firmly to the skin of the abdomen so that nothing can leak out from under. The colostomy bag itself clips onto the top of the base plate. The base plate is supposed to stay in place for 5 - 7 days, while the bag is supposed to be changed every 2 - 3 days. So... why are we not having fun? Well, the base plate has a problem sticking to Husband! One half of the plate, nearest the surgical wound does NOT stick properly. That is probably because the abdomen is pulled in due to the surgical wound (think of the surgical wound as a valley with high ground on either side!) and so the abdomen on that side is not flat - so how can a FLAT base plate stick to a not flat surface. On the OTHER side, away from the wound, it sticks very well indeed... but the net result is that, so far, every time we have had to change both the base and the bag together. And, therefore, Husband has very tender and sore skin under the base plate. My poor babe!!!

Anyway, back to the surgeon. He is going to schedule the reverse ileostomy (ie, the op to push the small intestine back into place, and remove the need for the colostomy bag) for week of 16th March. Next week the surgeon will confirm the actual date of the 2nd operation, and we will have to be back in KL 2 days before that, so that an x-ray (a special type called a 'loopogram') can be taken of Husband's insides, to ensure that the colon has healed well. In the same operation the surgeon is going to implant a chemo-port under Husband's collar bone (for eventual chemotherapy), and he is also going to cut away the dead flesh from the bed sore on the bum. He will also be having a CT scan of lungs, liver and pelvic region to check if the cancer has spread or not. Fingers crossed and prayers going that it has NOT spread!!! Once all that is done, we can finally get around to starting chemotherapy.

Husband and I are heading back to SG this coming Friday. A very, very slow drive, with plenty of stops along the way to let Husband walk off the soreness from the bed sore, and to empty the colostomy bag as needed.

I am supposed to continue with work till 26th March, but with all this happening I feel terribly guilty that I am not doing justice to my job. This whole week I have taken as leave, but that leaves such a burden on my boss - who has been incredibly and totally supportive of all that we have been going through. BUT, it is not fair to my employer or to my client, so I have been checking with my truly wonderful boss as to what can be done about this, as neither of us wants to see an unhappy client. It is also ironic that I am in a job that I am genuinely enjoying, with people who are great to work with, and I have to leave. Ah well... life can be funny! At least I am happy that I have found the perfect person to replace me. In fact, given time, I am pretty sure she will do an even better job than me :-D

So, that's the updates for now. If anything 'interesting' happens between now and the date of the loopogram, I will update this blog again. If not, well, have a great life my friends, and please continue to pray for us.
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Final comment: The word 'interesting' in the last paragraph above is used in the context of the Chinese curse "May you live in 'interesting' times". :-P