Well, here I sit at Huntsman Cancer Hospital. Megan was admitted last Wednesday and had her surgery last Friday. It was a "real" surgery not a laproscopic look-see. Took a little over 5 hours. The news was a mixed bag. The surgeon was able to fix the narrowing between the stomach and the small bowel by making a by-pass in a different section of the stomach that connects to the small bowel a little lower down. Because of some larger size tumors, they resected a bit more of the lower bowel, leaving her the minimum amount of bowel needed to absorb nutrients. And the worst of it was all the small sized tumor nodules that were left behind. The surgeon said it looked like someone had tossed a handfull of rice sized tumors throughout the abdominal cavitiy. So, they couldn't get all of that.
So the next step is recovery. It is slow. Megan is a trooper. She's been up and about--even showing off the art in the hallways to her friends. And then more chemo. Our greatest hope is that with the right chemotherapy agents, we can buy enough time for some of the promising drugs that are in the research pipeline. Maybe one of them will be Megan's magic bullet!
I am not without my pity party--table for one. I am committed to staying positive for 95% of every day. If I need 5% to grieve for what Megan has lost, for what we have lost, for what we may lose in the future--well, thats what I need and I'll take it.
Recovery to Equilibrium
1 year ago
1 comment:
I am thinking of you, Megan, and your family.
I don't even know her personally but I'm proud she's a trooper. I imagine if we did meet we'd have plenty of boy "war stories" to swap.
So, while I'm sure it's not the greatest comfort, know that you've got people all the way out here in Boston - people you've never even met thinking, hoping, and praying for you.
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