3 posts tagged “surgery”

I'm very sleepy now so if my spelling makes you have hot flashes or my grammer send you into panic attacks, I apologize in advance.  I go into surgery tomorrow morning at 9:30 am.  The surgeon and I have decided to only take a portion of my stomach out, as opposed to the whole entire stomach.  He'll take out the ulcers and the scar tissue also,  This way, if there's any chance for my stomach to heal, it still can.  He believes in being conservative with his approach and I appreciate that.  The downside of this approach is that I can start growing ulcers immediately, like I did this last time and he may have to eventually take out the whole stomach.  The bright side of this is that my size 5 jeans are becoming a realistic dream!  lol

Anyway, before the surgery, I'll be tested for pancriatic cancer.  Apparently pancreatic tumors are responsible for ulcers that won't heal either.  If they find tumors, surgery will be postponed until there is a new plan of attack.

Tomorrow, I'm going to need all those prayers that you've been so generous with.  I'm not so afraid.  I know what to expect even though this surgery is more complex than the last 2 were.  The recovery time doe make me a little nervous.  It hurts like a B!#$%!  I love you guys!

Serious Doctor

2 comments

This is a very little update to let all of you know that I've been in the hospital since yesterday.  I haven't felt "wonderful" for a while now so the doctor did some tests and found more GI bleeding.  Today I had a scope done to reveal a new ulcer that wasn't detected before.  The location of this one is where the surgeon cut me and reconnected the tissue.  They tell me this is fairly normal.  Ulcers like to develope in places that have been "tampered" with.  There is a lot of scar tissue.  That's the bad news.  In 6 weeks, the GI doctor will be rescoping to decide if I'll have to have even more surgery to remove more of my stomach and/or intestines.  In the meantime, he caurterized it to stop the bleeding.

I'm not cherishing the idea of being here but I'm SO pleased with my GI doctor for disrupting his schedule today in order to get to the bottom of this new problem.  He could have put me off and performed the scope on Monday, all the while keeping me in the hospital.  As it is, I'll get to go home tomorrow if all remains well.

Even if I have to have surgery, I'm so much more healthy now that I've been receiving iron infusions.  I'm thinking that I won't get the news that there is a high probability that surgery will kill me this time.  I haven't had to have a blood transfusion in almost 6 months, I think.

Other than this, I can NOT begin to relay to you the boredom that I'm having now!  lol  There's just not that much entertainment in the hospital, you know?  At least I have a private room AND my internet air card is working so I can still talk to all of my cool peeps!  lol

Hope all is well with you and you're having a very happy Friday!

I just wnated to let everyone know that I'm ALIVE!  Thanks  to every single one of you who took the time to pray and to send positive thoughts and energy my way because I really do believe it's why I'm breathing right now.  This surgery hasn't been a fraction of the badness the last surgery was.  I don't think the doctors were ready for me to recover the way that I have.  The day after surgery, I walked several times!  That's almost unheard of.  It still amazes me how the power of nicotine will motivate me!  Geeze!  I had to prove to the nurses that I could walk and be strong before they'd let Ben wheel me outside to have a few drags off of a ciggarette.  Maybe I'll quit sometime but I think now isn't the time. lol  I only had one serious set back this trip.  2 days after surgery, my hemoglobans were at a 5 (they should be 12-15) so naturally, I had to have 4 emergency units of blood.  The good news about this is that I apparently only lost it because of surgery and NOT because I'm still losing blood.  After the transfusion, my blood was a 12 something and higher than it's ever been.  God is good!  I've been home since Tuesday (and they SAID I'd be at least 10-14 days.  NOT!) and I'm BORED out of my mind but I've still been too weak until now, to check my Vox.  I might not be around a WHOLE lot for a while but you're ALL in my heart and in my prayers.  I can't tell you how blessed and thankful I am for all of you here.  You got me through!!!! 

God Bless You All:)

Little white church in Pigeon Forge TN