The surgery went really well; I had minimal pain while in hospital, and this continued at home. It just so happened that this past weekend I had some wound care with the Home Care folks. The nurse felt that I was developing an infection in my incision and so she recommended I go to emergency and get some antibiotics. That night I had my husband take me to the ER.
As luck would have it, the doctor on call happened to be the same one that blew me off back in April when I first went to the ER complaining of persistent, ongoing abdominal pain. He had poked and prodded and then asked why are you even here. I replied, "because you guys have all the great diagnostic equipment - let's use some of it!"
Nope. In the end he sent me home saying he would recommend me to a gastroenterologist for gas or some such, despite my insistence that it was not gas. Here I am over 3 months later not having ever heard anything about an appointment for this referral. Good thing I was persistent and kept going back until a doctor ordered some tests and lo and behold we found cancer.
So in emergency on the weekend when this doctor came into my cubicle, before I even let him examine me I said to him that I needed him to take this very seriously. I reminded him of our previous encounter and told him that I had had surgery to remove cancer from my abdominal muscle only 10 days before this ER visit. To give the doctor his credit, he actually apologized. Because I had gone in not just due to the infection, but because of some difficulty breathing, he ran a barrage of tests. It also so happened that the doctor who took over after his shift ended, was the doctor who had seen me in May and ordered tests that led to the discovery of my tumor and subsequent surgery. I was quite pleased to have the chance to thank her after I reminded her of our previous encounter. She was happy to hear that I had been able to obtain services and surgery fairly quickly and wished me well.
On Monday, I had a follow-up appointment with one of my surgeons. You see, I actually got the two for one deal on my surgery. The oncologist removed a 5 inches of the abdominal muscle, and then a general surgeon placed a mesh to help support the spot where the muscle had been. This included placing a drain, and the drain stayed in and came home with me. At my follow-up the doctor removed the drain. What a relief that is because it was really annoying to have to haul it around everywhere because it was attached to me, and try to sleep comfortably, etc.
After having had the drain for so long, I find I'm still looking for it or feeling for it at times. There is a gaping hole about the size of your baby finger in my side still but it's closing, although it is still oozing a bit. I was going to include some wound photos but that might be a little graphic for some people so nope.
In the meantime, my son went for his driving test and is now a licensed driver. Yay for him! This morning I added him to our insurance which fortunately, is only going up about a hundred bucks a month. That's not too bad for a new driver.
So I'm home, recovering, with virtually no pain. However, I am getting bored. I am allowed to drive, but still restricted from lifting and twisting like if I were vacuuming or something. They did give me a prescription for some narcotic pain relief, but I told them I wouldn't need them and I haven't.
As of today it has been two weeks since my surgery, and I feel fantastic. I have a follow-up with the oncologist at the end of August. At that time they should have the results from testing the tumor and should have figured out a bit more about the cancer itself, and ongoing treatment options. The surgeon has already indicated that I will very likely have some kind of radiation. I'm not sure where that treatment will be, either London or Kitchener I imagine. Perhaps it's time to start lobbying the Owen Sound Hospital to increase their cancer services to include radiation and not just chemotherapy. I think I found my next calling.
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