Well...How did we get here?

 

10.13.21

Well...how did we get here?

Yes, I do like the Talking Heads, and yes, I heard that song yesterday, and yes, it led me to start thinking back over the past 2+ weeks. How did we get here? Well, it’s been nothing short of a whirlwind.

As I wrote earlier, I don’t remember much, if anything, about the specific moment when the doc came in on 9/27 and told me that I had cancer - a 6.5cm lump of fun in my colon. Between the anesthesia and just hearing the word “cancer,” that moment in time is just a blur. But Brandi was in immediate warrior mode - figuring out next steps and intent on getting things in order.

At this point, I’m hearing from some of you, from some of my friends, that you are out there scheduling your colonoscopies - and the wait time is about 3 months. It’s hard to believe that we need a 3 month wait to perform life saving screenings, but this is the reality today. And by the way, for every one of you who have reached out and let me know that you have scheduled your screening or that you have convinced your husband/wife/partner to get theirs, I am grateful. This is one of my missions in spinning this disease into a positive, and while I’m not keeping a tally sheet, my heart grows that much more with each new appointment! Please keep spreading the word and making those appointments!!

Anyhow, the amazing thing about cancer is that while almost everything else in the medical field is slow and delayed, the doctor put through my needs ‘stat’ and within the time it took us to drive from my colonoscopy to work (20 minutes), we had all 3 of my next appointments on the calendar. Brandi set up my CT for 10/1, my oncologist for 10/4, and the surgeon CALLED ME and we set up 10/6 for that appointment. Whirlwind indeed.

During that first week, we told the bare minimum of people - basically my parents and our bosses. We did not want to do anything else until we knew more. That being said, we did not sleep all that well that week. My primary concern, quite honestly, was telling the kids. That alone kept me up at nights. We do everything we can, as parents, to protect and nourish our kids. Telling them that I was sick with cancer was a huge nightmare because I could not protect them from that pain.

With colon cancer, the biggest issue is whether it is isolated or spread. Without gory details, Stage 1 is where the doctor can just scrape away polyps during a regular colonoscopy. Anything more than that cannot really be diagnosed during the colonoscopy. So for most of the week, we had no idea how serious things were. Stage 2 would mean that the cancer is isolated without spread. Stage 3 basically means there is curable spread. Stage 4 is an incurable spread.

At the Friday CT scan, I asked a lot of questions. I tried to butter up the technician in order to get as much information as possible. I asked her if she saw my pictures? I told her that she was probably so experienced and good at her job that she could probably see if I had a lot of reason to be worried. Alas, like all good techs, she said she does not read or interpret the pics. But she did say that she had a friend on that end and she would ask the friend to speed up the readings. As it was a Friday, I figured that we would be waiting until the oncologist on Monday, at least. To our relief though, on Saturday, I received a message that my results were uploaded to my digital account.

Now, I am a reading teacher, but I’m not a doctor, so we read the results with some caution, but to our untrained eyes, the results seemed to indicate that there was no spread to major organs - no longs, no liver, no nothing! There did seem to be some swelling in the surrounding lymph nodes. We figured all of that meant that I was not in Stage 4 and provided some relief until the oncologist confirmed our thinking on Monday. At that appointment, we were told that I am somewhere within the Stage 2 to 3 range and that we won’t know for sure until testing is done post-surgery. The oncologist said that either way, the prognosis was good for Stage 3 and even better for Stage 2. In fact, Stage 2 (no spread) just means regular monitoring and colonoscopies for 5 years. Many have commented on my positivity - well, this is one reason for that. If the doctor is confident, then I believe in the science and I can draw from that confidence.

The next step was to meet with the surgeon. To be honest, the first doc at the colonoscopy told me that I’d be out for 1-2 weeks post surgery. Apparently though, that is for smaller surgeries with scopes. (skip the rest of this paragraph if you’re squeamish). Apparently, my little guy requires both scopes and an incision in my belly about the size of the surgeon’s hand so he can get up in there. Essentially, they are going to take out about 1 foot of my colon and likely around 25 lymph nodes in the surrounding tissue. Then the surgeon takes the two ends of my colon and staples them back together.

All said and done, this will require me to be in the hospital for 3-5 days and then prevent me from working for 4-6 weeks while I recover at home. That is significantly more than 1-2 weeks as I originally thought. Aside from telling the kids about the cancer, this is the scariest part of this whole thing for me. For one, I do not love hospitals - they have given me anxiety ever since I saw my Grandpa Oscar after he passed at Glenbrook. It was not easy for me to be in hospitals, even when our sons were born. The idea of surgery gives me so much anxiety that I have dealt with years of knee pain simply because I did not want to go to a doc and have them tell me I need knee surgery. But now I have no choice, and to be honest, I am scared.

So, later in the day on 10/6, I got in touch with the surgery scheduler and took the first date available to get this shit outta me - 10/22. It is SO SOON and that is truly amazing considering what many of you are finding out - that scheduling anything hospital related is taking about 3 months. My cancer will be removed in less than a month after my diagnosis.

I’m grateful that early screening caught this before stage 4.
I’m grateful they were able to get me in so quickly.
I’m grateful that so many are inspired to schedule their own screenings.
And I’m grateful to you, my readers and friends.

So here’s to you (I’m raising my Ensure Surgery immunonutrion shake in toast).

Keep scheduling those screenings!!!

Thank you and I love you!