Breaking the Silence...

I appreciate everyone's respect as we took a little time to digest the situation. I can't say it isn't disturbing, but it doesn't change my resolve. So onward we march...

I saw the surgeon today for a follow-up appointment. He removed my staples (I thought there were 17, but I think it was actually 19 or 20). I've lost about 15-20 pounds from my normal weight and he made some recommendations to try to regain some weight before I start chemo.

He said that the healing from the surgery appears to be going well. He confirmed that the disfigurement (puckering, crookedness, lack of navel) in my scar was really a necessary product of the hernia that was challenging to repair. Down the road, post-chemo, post-colostomy reversal, it can be repaired/improved with another surgery that would put some type of mesh in my abdominal muscles, but that's pretty far down the road.

The surgeon was concerned/disappointed by the pathology results. He recommended that I see an oncologist at MD Anderson, which is still a work in progress. They have my records now and we're working on the next step. The surgeon also said that I still need to have the rest of my colon scoped to make sure there are no more polyps or tumors. Since I had a complete obstruction in my sigmoid colon, they were only able to scope a small portion of my colon in the hospital. So he recommended that in 2 weeks or so, after the stoma from my colostomy is securely healed in place, that they go in and scope the rest of me. Hopefully that is uneventful and doesn't lead to discoveries that would require additional surgeries.

I met with the oncologist who was assigned to me at the hospital. Even though I don't feel like I will pursue treatment through his office, I'm going to continue under his care till I have a relationship established with another oncologist. This doctor would like to put in a port for my chemo next week and have a PET scan done to check for any hotspots that may be malignant and require additional surgeries before my chemo. I'll probably stall on this so I can have it done by the facility that will ultimately be coordinating my treatment. The oncologist indicated he would recommend a 6 month course of chemo, with treatments for 3 days every 2 weeks. He said the treatment will be pretty aggressive and that I should assume that I'll lose my hair. So wig shopping we will go...

That's about all for now. Thanks for all the kind thoughts, prayers, notes, food, and gifts. It all means so much to us to be surrounded by all your love and support.