It's About Time!!!

As I recover from my surgery (May 27), and watch my summer slip by, I find that procrastination has come to the forefront.  I don't feel overly bad about it however, because on August 2 I'm back on the clock and life will become fast and furious once again. 

Danny and I headed to New Orleans on Sunday, May 23, and the more we packed the more Daphne (the cat) became nervous.  She hid before we left, so we weren't able to tell her goodbye, and when Jess came to check on her throughout the week, I guess she was pretty pathetic.  She showed us, though...when we got back from New Orleans, she took one look at us, hid under the bed and wouldn't come out for quite some time.

On Sunday, we drove 3/4 of the way to New Orleans and on Monday took a scenic drive which took us closer to the gulf.  We went over some amazing bridges and saw some shrimp boats (Danny's goal) and saw several fields of sugar cane.  We came really close to taking a bayou tour (world famous) but decided against it.  We arrived at Hope Lodge late Monday afternoon and got settled in.  Hope Lodge was built by the American Cancer Society and is totally free for cancer patients and their families while the patient is in treatment.  As fate would have it, our room was available for the entire time we needed it.  It's a really nice facility and the staff was very accommodating.

Tuesday, I had my appointment with Dr. Boudreaux, and it was like meeting a celebrity.  Danny and I had watched a presentation he gave at a seminar sponsored by the Carcinoid Foundation, and that presentation cinched the deal for us...there was nowhere better for me to have surgery than New Orleans with Dr. Boudreaux.  He spent a lot of time with us explaining the surgery and after looking at the CT scans I took with me, spotted a primary tumor on my small intestine (since December 16, I had been told that the primary tumor was in my mesentery, which doesn't happen).  After asking permission to freeze tumors for further study, etc., Dr. Boudreaux asked, "Wanna?" and without skipping a beat I replied "I wanna".

So the process began.  My insurance had to be called for permission (which they granted in a very short amount of time), then I was sent to the lab for 13 (no joke) vials of blood to be drawn and an EKG.  Finally around 2:00 or so, starved to death, we were able to go about our business.  I was to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday morning for 7:30 surgery, which gave us half a day Wednesday to sight see (pre-op prep was to begin at noon).

Wednesday morning, we set off toward Mississippi and the gulf coast on a very pretty highway.  The sand was beautiful, people were fishing, and Danny was able to see more shrimp boats.  We then circled around so we could go over the 34-mile bridge over Lake Ponchetrain, which was a true adventure.  Due to the curvature of the earth, it's not possible to see the shoreline across the lake until you're about halfway across, and that was a little unsettling.  We made it across in good shape and enjoyed the view.

Thursday morning, 5:30 a.m., we arrived at the hospital and within a short amount of time, I was being prepared for surgery.  My biggest dread is always the IV, and I can always tell if it's going to be a good or bad experience just by the temperament of the vampire.  The nurses decided I needed something to calm me down, but they didn't give it to me until the IV was in place (a lot of help THAT was!).  (The first attempt failed, and even though Danny and I told them I don't want any details, the nurse felt compelled to let me know what happened.)  So that's pretty much all I remember until I woke up in ICU...

As for the surgery, Dr. Boudreaux has performed over 300 similar ones, so I was in very good hands.  He and his team did several things, and it took about 5 or 6 hours.  They removed both ovaries, scraped my uterus (but I don't know what they scraped), removed my gall bladder, found 2 primary tumors on my small intestine and removed a portion of my intestine, removed a small portion of my liver, and put my small intestine back where it belonged...it was twisted and fused to my liver.  I didn't get any pathology results due to Memorial weekend, so I don't know the state of my health at this point.  I'm trying to focus on recovering (the surgery was equal to 3 major surgeries) and I'll find out where I stand when I go to my follow-up appointment on Tuesday, July 13.  Needless to say, I have a list of questions to ask while I'm there!

June 1, I was released from the hospital, and in spite of the doctor's advice to make the 12-hour drive in 2 days instead of 1, we made the drive in 1.  Danny made a pallet for me in the back of the Suburban, and I was quite comfortable there, so I saw no reason to stop and spend the night anywhere.  Danny wasn't tired, we left New Orleans at 8:30 a.m., so we made it home by 9:00 p.m.  Was it ever good to be home!! 

I had a visitor while I was in the hospital...my cousin George and his wife from Houston.  Their son lives about 90 miles from New Orleans, so they made the drive to see us.  How thoughtful of them, especially since my crazy physical therapist chose that time to come in an work with me.  I really appreciated the visit, though, however short!