Healing up, slow but steady!

Yep, saw both surgeons today, as follow up, and am happy to say that Husband is definitely healing up steadily.

First up was the plastic surgeon - all bandages and dressings removed, the area on the back of the left thigh (from which the skin was taken for the graft) has healed up completely - except for one small area where the surgeon, thinking that he could RIP the dressing off (thereby causing pain only for a fraction of a second!), also ripped off a corner off the newly formed skin (OUCH!!!), so it bled a little bit. Sigh.... BUT, the rest is A-OK. Still a funny red colour, but all healed up. So, just put a light dressing over it, held in place with plaster, and that should come off by tomorrow. As to the rest of the wounds: The area to which the skin was grafted is healing nicely. More than half of it is already healed up and the new skin has seamlessly blended in with the surrounding skin. The rest is still healing, but should be done within the next few days. As to the surgical scar - every alternate staple has been removed, and the area cleaned, and he is healing well. New gauze applied to the whole area, including the grafted area, followed by pressure plaster to hold it in place - but no more gum-gee padding required. Next visit is on Wednesday, at Assunta Hospital, just to check progress and, with luck, remove more staples (and maybe some sutures) and re-dress the wounds.

Next up was the gastro surgeon. All sutures removed now, stomach probed and pronounced as doing well. He also "tested" the chemo port, using heparin saline to flush the port and the connected tube, to ensure that there is no blockage. This is because we are (tentatively) planning on starting chemo on April 27th, and the chemo port must be unblocked and operational for that. Next visit to this surgeon is only in 3 months time :-)

So, he is healing well all told, and the only real issue is that his spine still feels like it has red hot pokers sticking into it whenever he lies down or sits for too long. I think it is because, after so many weeks of lying only on his side, the spine may be slightly out of alignment. Must check with the various doctors in my family as to whether seeing a physio would be a good idea!

And, Yes, as said above, we are planning on starting chemo on 27th April. Still have to do the CT Scan (and any other scan required) to check whether the cancer has spread or not, and do a full blood test prior to starting chemo, but finally we can get this going. The plan currently is for chemo to be done every 3 weeks, for 8 cycles - so a total of 24 weeks from commencement to completion. Each cycle has a 2 hour IV of a drug called Oxaliplatin, and that is followed by 2 weeks of oral medication (no other IV required!), followed by 1 week break. Then the cycle repeats. Interestingly enough, the same schedule and the same cycle of drugs is done whether the cancer is at Stage 3 or Stage 4, so even if the cancer has spread to other organs (ie, it is Stage 4), the chemo regime is still the same.

So, let us see how Husband fares this week.

Till next time, stay safe, stay HEALTHY.