Let's go back to the days prior to the surgery. On the Monday just after Easter, I completed my final day of work before my medical leave began. Everything went well. I completed all of the necessary paperwork and consulted with my supervisor who would be taking over the crisis portion of my job while I'm out. During my meeting with him, co-workers and HR staff presented me with a couple of beautiful bouquets of flowers and the announcement that I was chosen to be April employee of the month. I continue to be amazed at how my fellow teammates show appreciation to me for doing my job. I am learning, as I get older, exactly how much of a team player I am. I'm really not one to put myself in a holier than thou place. We're all staff and there for the clients and each other. Let's show that. Anyway....that's another topic for another time, I'm sure. That day was full of a mix of emotions. I love my job. I love my co-workers who have become wonderful friends. I sure do miss being there on a daily basis, though the 2mos will go by quickly, so I should focus on healing, I'm certain. By the end of the day, good-byes were said, everything prepared, and I left at the end of the day knowing that I was going to be missed, prayers were being offered up, and I would be back as soon as possible. On Tuesday, I did the bowel clean out that had been prescribed. If you haven't had a MoviPrep, you might read Dave Barry's take on it and see what it's all about. It wasn't quite as bad as Mr. Barry described, but....it sure wasn't a fun experience. I also had to spend the afternoon on heavy doses of antibiotics in preparation for the surgery. I was notified that I needed to be at the hospital at 7:15am the next morning. As far as my mental health, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. Just going on autopilot and putting everything in God's hands. God is the only One who knew how things were going to turn out. I just had to trust His timing and His plan and move forward as I was doing.
The hospital where the surgery was performed is north of Seattle and I live quite a bit south of there, with my church and support team living even further south. My support team converged at my home early the next morning to carpool to the hospital, where we met another friend and pastors from my church. 3 of our pastors came to pray and offer love and support. Unfortunately I wasn't able to pray with 2 of them as timing didn't play in our favor, however I hope they know how much I appreciate their love, support, and prayers. I was honored that they came such a long distance, so early in the morning to be with us. I was grateful we had a chance to visit before I was called back to prepare.The rest of the day is pretty blurry for me, due to lots of medication and the surgery. They put in IVs and an epidural. I hear that the 6-8hr long surgery actually only lasted less than 6hrs. When I awoke in recovery, I was having some trouble breathing so they gave me a breathing treatment. I did realize immediately that I had no NG tube in my nose or colostomy bag attached to me. This was WONDERFUL news for me. They allowed my best friend and my sister to come in to visit one at a time so they could see me for myself and know that I was okay. I had a nurse that was dedicated to just me and my care. I felt pretty fortunate.
I was told that the surgeon was surprised at how the cancer had advanced since my previous abdominal surgery in October, though the pathology reports continued to say that it was the low grade, slow growing neoplasm that they had initially diagnosed. Just prior to the surgery, I had informed him that I believed the mucinous material had increased. He stated that he would be quite surprised if it had. Then, he discovered "a substantial amount of mucin" upon opening me up. He did a colon resection (removing the part of the colon that was attached to the appendix), scraped the cancer off of the liver and diaphragm, and removed the remaining portion of my omentum. They then did the heated chemo bath portion of the surgery. I haven't seen my surgical report yet, but this is what I know so far.
I was in the hospital for a full week. It was interesting being in a teaching hospital and having teams for my care. Dealing with numerous IV sites, lots of tubes, the epidural, pain medication, etc is likely more information than any of you want to read in a blog post. Suffice it to say that it was a week of medical care, a week of listening to my bowels to assure they started moving again after the surgery, and lots of lost time due to sleep and pain medication. Good thing my support team was always there for one another so no one became supremely bored. Since my discharge last week, I've been spending a great deal of time becoming accustomed to my post-surgery bowel struggles, lack of appetite, loss of energy, and difficulty sleeping. All of this is normal for the procedure that I had done. As friends of mine who are in the medical field have repeatedly informed me....this is my 2nd significant abdominal surgery in 6 months. That I should give my body a break from expectations. Okay. So I spend the next bit of time gradually increasing and moving forward. The 27 staples were removed 2 days ago and I have a post-op appointment with the surgeon next week.
So, that's what's been going on with me health-wise. Lest I lose sight of the rest of the story, we attended church Saturday night. Unbeknownst to me, a wonderful deaf man was speaking last weekend. Luke Everett is the son of the founder of Rancho Sordo Mudo. He said some things that really touched my heart. Reminders that God has granted my request to continue living and working for Him here on Earth, as much as I would like to be in His presence in heaven. "Vision is a reflection of what God wants to do through us to impact the world.... Living and doing what we do, we can become very comfortable and just plug on until Christ comes back..... You can lose sight of the needs that are around you..... You can see the brokenness in humanity......Every life has meaning. Jesus died for every life. If you change one family, one life, then you've made a difference because every life has meaning. Jesus loves every life. We always think of God has a group hug kind of God, but He loves each of us individually. " ~ Luke Everett
I'm not sure what the future holds. God does. I don't know yet what the vision is, but it's becoming increasingly clear as time marches on.
"Don't give up on yourself because God hasn't given up on you.... God has a plan. God has a vision for you guys." ~ Luke Everett
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