It’s been a busy week

To say that it’s been an eventful couple of weeks would be an understatement. From dark and stormy days that never seemed to end, to a much brighter day.

The Journey blog needed a few posts prior to today but I just was not up to it. So, Shirley has kept some folks up to date via email so there will be some overlap on the content but it will be a bit more from my viewpoint.

The PITA Issue

With the perianal abscesses and fistulas, now referred to collectively as PITA, there has been increasing pain over several months which have forced me to take ever increasing amounts of Hydromorphone to get any sort of relief. I was watching the clock to see when I could take my next dose, and life revolved around pain management. On April 18th, in conjunction with my GP, I added some long acting Hydromorphone to the mix twice a day. This was still supplemented with fast acting Hydromorphone 3-4 times a day to cope with pain flair ups. On the 20th the 2x daily amount was increased and again on the 25th when we had a crisis meeting with the colorectal surgeon.

At that meeting he proposed another surgery (#4) to place seton(s), collect a biopsy sample and examine the area. They call this kind of work an EUA (Examination Under Anaesthetic). At this meeting he immediately scheduled the surgery for the following Tuesday May 2nd.

Things continued to go downhill pain wise and on the day of the surgery I almost couldn’t make the walk across the street from our parking behind 400 Tache to the St. Boniface hospital front entrance. I had to stop several times to get it together to continue this short walk.

I get registered and we’re up to surgery on the 2nd floor and the action kicks into high gear. There had been a cancellation of the surgery before me and they were eager to get going. Lots of typical hospital information collection and confirmation. We did catch that they had some stuff in my case file from a “Gary Stewart” who was not me. That stuff got chucked.

At this point a very nice anesthesiologist pretty much takes over and runs the pre-op session. We confirm a lot more stuff and then have to decide between a general or a spinal anaesthetic. Both have their pros and cons and I’ve had both recently, general on surgery #1 (chipped tooth) and spinal on surgery #2. In the end we chose spinal. I met the surgeon, Dr Hyun, the resident surgeon and the pain nurse. They all review what’s going to happen and Dr Hyun estimates the surgery will be about 30-40 minutes. The pain nurse freaks out a bit on how much Hydromorphone I’m taking…but whatever.

I’m wheeled off into the OR, connected to a bunch of monitors and rolled face down (bum up 🤣) onto the OR table. The anesthesiologist talks me through what’s happening and what everyone is doing. At this point I’m looking at her shoes and can’t see any of the other action. Probably just as well. The OR drugs kick in and I feel nothing and there is no sense of the passage of time. From what I can tell the anesthesiologist never left the head of the bed, and was checking on how I was doing many times. They finish and I’m wheeled into the recovery area. The surgery has been two and a half hours!

They did a few things they were not expecting and cleaned up quite a bit of “stuff”. In Recovery I’m feeling quite mellow (good drugs) but I’m shivering and running a bit of a temperature. They put me under a nice cozy heated blanket, still shivering. They are debating if the shivering is caused by an infection or if the 4L of water they used to clean up the “stuff” has lowered my core temperature. At this point they pull out the big guns, the “bear hug”. The bear hug turns out to be a blanket with many airways built into it that connects to a heater so they can pump warm air all over my body. I think it was only 20-30 minutes, then the shivering stopped and I‘m good to go to the ward for my overnight stay.

I use a CPAP machine and have a very mild case of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). When the hospital becomes aware of this and you have any kind of anaesthetic you get some “special” treatment. The first part is the overnight stay to monitor me to ensure I’m breathing OK. The second part is you’re put in a “special” room for people who have OSA. Normally I would have been in a 1 or 2 person room but because I’m special I’m jammed in a room for 4 people with 1 shared bathroom and a nursing workstation. It’s quite cosy (squished).

The recovery was pretty miserable as the OR drugs wear off. I’m tethered to an IV pole delivering antibiotics etc. So it’s basically hanging around waiting to get discharged on Wednesday morning. The surgery had a bigger physical and mental impact than I was expecting, and while it’s good to be home, I’m still in pretty rough shape with bad pain in spite of the medications.

Thankfully, things improve overnight as the manipulations during surgery settle down and the pain and need for additional pain meds drops significantly. In the morning I‘m feeling like a new person. Certainly an answer to prayer and for the first time in over 270 days the PITA situation shows some improvement.

But wait, there is more…

The Lymphoma Issue

Thursday May 4, 2023 I have a CT scan to more precisely locate and size the spot that lit up on the PET scan that indicates a recurrence of Lymphoma. Later that afternoon we’re at HSC CancerCare to discuss treatment options.

We meet the radiology nurse and she takes a very detailed medical history assisted by my spreadsheet with key event dates, and Shirley’s excellent detailed commentary 😊. We then meet the radiology resident who explains the proposed treatment plan and the associated risks.

The radiation treatment plan consists of 20 consecutive days, excluding weekends, of a radical/curative dose of radiation. Initially there will be a CT Simulation scan that will allow them to put some temporary tattoos on my body that will be used during radiation to align the radiation to the same place every day during the 20 days of treatment. This CT Simulation scan is scheduled for next Monday May 8th. The radiologist will then determine the treatment that will precisely target the radiation to hit the target area. Approximately 10 days later the treatment will begin, likely to be immediately after the May long weekend.

In the days post surgery the pain level started to drop, one of the nasty symptoms just stopped overnight plus I was sleeping in longer stretches. I don’t think I’ve ever said “ThankYou Jesus” more times in my life, as it felt like the first time in a long time that I was getting some of my life back.

Shirley and I want to express our gratitude to all our friends and family near and far for all your care, concern, texts, emails, phone calls and especially your prayers.

God’s mercies are new every morning and it certainly feels like a new day has arrived and brighter days are ahead.

“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”

Lamentations 3:21-23 NLT