Saturday 1 December 2007

Surgery Rules!

Well, my little bout of major gut surgery is over, and shows good signs of having been successful, at least in palliative terms.
I went in, very nervous, on Saturday afternoon, to be cut up by a bit of a Canberra Dream Team. 3.5 hours later, I came into recovery - apparently but unsurprisingly wisecracking all the way. I remember nothing of it, but Gaye tells me it was all very funny, and had the surgeons in stitches!. I actually woke up (sort of) at around 9.30, to the news that Labour was in. That made me feel immediately better.
The time in the high dependency unit was unpleasant, mostly because I had tubes hanging out of me all over the place: nose, side, neck and a catheter. Yuck. Also the bloke in the bed next to me who had an hip replacement snored all night, and wallowed around like a whale. Poor bugger also had 7 hours of renal therapy a day and diabetes. Sometimes I feel a little inadequate when faced with the problems of others!
I've been down on the ward since Tuesday, and every day I feel a little better. I've had practically no pain, which is good, and I've farted and crapped, which is even better from a surgery point of view (honestly!). I'm now totally tube free, so I get in and out of bed at my pleasure. I do get a period of unpleasantness most mornings, where I get flushes and feel unwell, but that passes after an hour or so. And I've had a couple of vomiting spasms over the last two days, but they've been pretty unproductive, so I suspect they're indicative of nothing except repair.
Prognosis. Understand that this surgery was a bypass, not the resection we were hoping for, this means that it was entirely palliative. The cancer is still there, and heading north up the duodenum. This means effectively that I have no medium or long term future, and its uncertain how long my short term will be - it all depends upon what the very unpredictable tumour does. It could be 6 months, 12, or even three. All of which is a bummer, but............. them's the cards.

Brisbane is now ramped up. We are out of the house (settled yesterday) and have a rough date we can get into the house up there (18th December). The only uncertain thing is my health. As soon as the doctors are happy that I'm fit to travel, and don't nee then anymore, we're off. In the meantime, we're downsizing the Lexus (Oh no!) and getting into something a little cheaper.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tony Great to see you back online. We're all rootin' for you (in the nicest possible way). Will pop in for a proper update & a spin around the ward. Gus, Jayne & Abigail

Anonymous said...

Hi Tony,

Thinking of you at this time.

Regards,
Glenn T