In the post about the Chaos Party I mention being (mostly) done with cancer treatment. The mostly part was because while surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are all behind me, (again), I still have some Stuff To Do.
Because my cancer has been hormone-driven, my oncologist strongly recommended having my ovaries and tubes out, and felt that my surgeon could decide about the uterus and cervix. Let's face it; I'm almost 50, I don't need any of that stuff anymore, and like Dada said, "clearly your departments aren't communicating with each other because you haven't been able to physically feed a child since 2018 so why do they keep trying to make one?" I couldn't agree more. Enough is enough already.
My surgeon felt the same. "Why in the world would we leave anything in there to cause trouble later on down the line? No! Let's do it all at once."
"I agree. No uterus left behind. Everybody out of the pool."
So, my belly (and bug bites) Before:
My surgeon also said that she prescribes a bowel cleanse before the surgery. Should anything, God forbid, go wrong, there's less mess to deal with if you're squeaky clean inside. Good times ahead for me and my stack of library books...
The pre-op nurse who called to go over everything told me that they'd be able to use my port. I was thrilled. That doesn't happen for every procedure like you'd think it would. And while they did indeed get my port, which was being stubborn and not wanting to draw blood (it does that sometimes. It'll let you put stuff in but gets selfish and won't let stuff come out. She had to re-poke it, then it gave up and cooperated), they informed me regretfully that because the surgery was being done robotically, that meant I'd need another line started to push meds in case anything unforeseen should happen.
I told the nurse, "good luck! I have tiny, uncooperative veins and haven't been drinking because of the bowel prep." Bless her heart, she got me on the first try in that lower pink circle, and then AFTER it was all over they do a blood draw to check your hemoglobin status so that is the elbow stick in the top pink circle! Six days later, I'm less blue and purple and more green and yellow.
They applied a scopolamine patch behind my left ear to prevent nausea. You leave that baby on for 24 hours and then peel it off, throw it in the trash wrapped up, and wash your hands. If you touch your eyes the medication can dilate your eyes and cause blurry vision- the opposite of anti-nausea, haha, so follow directions.
I had other stuff in my IVs and fentanyl for the surgery, which I've had before, apparently, because I asked and they checked. The anesthesiologist had already gone over her checklist with me about myself or any family members who have had trouble with anesthesia.
My bugger of a port, looking all innocent:
I don't even remember seeing the docs in the OR. Dada smooched me and they rolled me down the hall. I remember going into OR #3, seeing the lights, hearing someone say that Tiffany was already in there, and then looking down my right side as they lined up the bed I was in with the OR bed, then nothing until the recovery room. My surgeon showed Dada the pictures of everything that was removed, and she may have showed them to me but I ALSO don't remember seeing her afterwards, so I'll have to ask at my follow up appointment. Gotta check on my Mrs. Potato Head pieces!
So it's four small incisions for a robotically laparoscopic complete hysterectomy and then everything gets pulled out down below. A camera is inserted into your bladder during the surgery to make sure nothing is accidentally nicked in that area as well, so you do have some burning upon urination immediately after surgery, but by the second day that had already faded for me.
They sent me home the same afternoon with ibuprofen to take every 8 hours with food, a stool softener to take twice a day because straining during constipation can tear open your stitches and then you have a right mess, and Percoset which I haven't taken any of because for me the ibuprofen/tylenol routine works great. I'm thankful. I thought there would be both more pain and more bleeding, but I have only had twinges and some spotting, no cramps, no gushing, nothing awful! Did I mention I'm thankful?
Bye bye, lady parts. Well done, good and faithful servants.
Thank you all for your prayers and the well checks. I have the best tribe, as always!
Please pray that I continue to heal well- my follow ups are at the 2 weeks and 8 weeks marks, and I'm not anticipating difficulties there, but I AM beginning a new medicine that I'll be on for the next three years if I tolerate it well.
It's called a cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitor (CDK4/6 for short). CDK4/6 proteins regulate cell division and cell growth, so by inhibiting/blocking those proteins, the drug slows or stops cancer cell growth. We are using this because my cancer has been hormone receptor (HR)-positive (meaning estrogen and progesterone driven) and HER2 negative this time around.
It's a lot of big words, so just picture Gandalf with his staff in front of my regular cells, and bellowing to any stray cancer cells, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
It's a 21 day on, 7 day off cycle, like a lot of birth control pills. Blood counts will be monitored while I'm on it, so my goofy port had better get it together and start drawing blood correctly. There's potential side effects, as with any drug, and these ones could affect heart and liver. I already had my EKG before beginning it so we have a baseline, and my oncologist does blood draws at each visit.
Fatigue is also a potential side effect, and there's a laundry list of others that I suppose I should read so I know what to watch out for. It's a fine line between knowing what could happen versus scaring myself to death. My radiation doctor is actually the one who put the bug in my oncologist's ear about this type of drug, lucky me; they're conspiring, haha! He had a different brand in mind and my oncologist declared this one to be much less time in the bathroom than the other, so thank heavens for that.
Please pray that my system tolerates it well, so we can do the 3 year stint and be done with it. The reason it is three years is that it's been proven to prevent recurrence when patients have taken it for three years, and there aren't apparent benefits to continuing past then. I'll also be switching from Tamoxifen to Arimidex no that I no longer have ovaries. "Better living though chemistry," is the quote I keep hearing in my head, but I don't know that I believe it, haha! Hair loss is on the list of potential side effects, so it'll be interesting to see if I end up bald for a third time and how long that will last. As usual, plenty of the side effects are "I can deal with" ones like fatigue, bathroom issues for which one can use Imodium or stool softeners, and so forth. There are some more serious ones, as well, such as your heart rhythm being affected (long QT syndrome) so that's a bit worrisome. I guess there's no such thing as a risk-free life, and the meds are to help prevent recurrence. Since I do NOT want to endure a Round Three, here we go!
