By midday the next day I had gotten so ill at home that I had to call Cindy at work and we got me admitted to Palmetto Health Baptist late in the afternoon that Friday. Upon arrival an NG tube was inserted and connected to suction. Within the first two minutes that two liter suction container was completely filled with a blackish colored liquid. At first, I thought that it contained blood, but when the nurse dabbed a small amount of this liquid on a white paper towel we could see that it was green tinted indicating that the liquid was an very condensed bile solution.
A second two liter container was connected and within an hour and a half it too was filled, but the color was beginning to lighten up some. When the third container was connected I was permitted to drink water and the drainage very quickly lightened and my general health was vastly improved. The third container lasted the rest of the evening and into the next day. I was kept in the hospital over the weekend continuing the suction therapy right up to my surgery Monday evening.
Sure enough, when Dr. Mirra opened my abdomen he found a vast number of small lesions scattered throughout my small bowel beyond the mass that now caused my gastric outlet obstruction. His surgery on me was now abbreviated to installing the gastric relief system and putting me back together.
My recover following this surgery was SO much easier than my first surgery that there is really no comparison whatsoever. I was up walking the entire post surgical unit in multiple laps on day two post surgery. On day three I walked to the elevator and dropped down to the second floor and I went by to see my friends in the Cath Lab. I received comments from my surgeon and the nursing staff that they had never seen anyone recover so quickly from this type of surgery. I felt great! Once home I began doing choirs as I as able (probably more than I should have). I would begin to pay for this in the days that followed.
My incision runs along the same incision that was previously done back in last November, but only along the left half of that line. The line is stapled closed, and the gastric relief tube leaves through a hole below that line about an inch and a half lower than the line. The line is very clean, but is slightly swollen; more so in one area and less in others. The hole that the gastric relief system extends through is just slightly reddened and "weeps" a thick greenish tinted drainage. I wash these sites with Hydrogen Peroxide several times a day,. I also wipe the site clean with alcohol "prep" pads and then dress the site around the tubing with Triple Antibiotic ointment and sterile gauze that allows the drainage to be wicked away while protecting the antibiotic ointment to remain at the site.
Tomorrow, I go to see Dr. Mirra to have the staples removed, the site examined and to get clearance from the surgeon for the oncologist to resume my chemotherapy. This too has now bee enhanced; in addition to the weekly infusion of the Gemzar will be a continuous infusion, 24 hours a day, seven days a week of a drug called 5fu. The Gemzar is the focused drug to fight the pancreatic cancer, while 5fu is designed to handle those lesions that were found beyond that pancreatic mass. The hope is that by stepping up the Gemzar infusions to it's maximum dosage and adding in the 5fu that we can arrest these lesions or, if God is willing, to reverse their growth. If the later is accomplished I might be able to extend my life out and perhaps be a five-year survivor. If we simply arrest the cancer I still might make it out to five years ( I am now just over a one year survivor, placing me in a fortunate 3-4% group.
In all of this, I cling to the Word of God found in Matthew 6:25-34 Here Jesus says, 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Or Romans 8:28 28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Please note that Paul did not add an asterisk indicating a caveat clause that excludes certain things such as cancer, but even these things are done for the good of those who love him. As a true believer in the Almighty God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I trust that even this is being done to benefit me and those around me. For me, this is my mantra and much more than that. For I know that the true prize is already secured for me. I know that I am a co-heir with Christ; called to him through God's eternal Word, joined to him in Baptism, and strengthened by him in Holy Communion. With all of these blessings I know that come what may in this life that I am already fully firmly at home in my next life - an eternal life in the wedding party of Christ to His bride, the Holy Christian Church, and nothing can shake me from that. Amen!
That's all for now. Your brother in Christ,
Mack
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