A very busy week.

Today I had a routine visit with my gynecologic oncologist. I had a PET scan & lab work done on Monday. My PET scan & physical exam were normal. My lab is basically normal...I'm a little anemic but that should improve with time and the CA 125 which is the cancer antigen or tumor marker for ovarian cancer was not yet available but hopefully will be normal...should be. Dr. Orr offered me a prescription for iron pills but I have decided to pass on those for the time being. My next follow up appointment is not for 3 months, yeah. This is all a big relief even though I still don't know the actual results of the CA 125. I feel so much better knowing that the PET scan was normal. Now if Bruce can just get through a couple more days.

Bruce had his surgery to remove the cancerous area of his esophagus done last Thursday. The surgery took over 5 1/2 hours. Bruce has an incision below his right axilla (arm pit) & had 2 chest tubes in his right chest and an incision in his mid abdomen just above his belly button to his chest. He also has a nasal gastric(NG) tube that goes up his right nostril & down into his stomach. It has suture material (thread) wrapped around it & then a stitch goes through his nose so the tube will stay in place.  The tube initially was hooked up to suction to keep his stomach empty but it is now disconnected to see if it is needed any more...so far so good. He had 3 IVs (intravenous lines), one in each arm & one in his neck. The chest tubes were due to his lung being deflated during surgery as Dr. Goldin had to be able to get to the cancerous area of the esophagus and that is why Bruce had the incision under his right axilla. The chest tubes were removed yesterday. Bruce still has the NG tube in his nose but hopefully it will be removed tomorrow. The IVs in his arms have also been removed. Everyone keeps remarking how well Bruce is doing. He had a PCA pump to give himself pain medication & is off that. He is now taking the pain medicine through the IV in his neck or through his feeding tube which is below his belly button & goes into his jejunum which is part of the small bowel. Bruce didn't care for the pain medication that was being given in the IV so he is going to try going with just the crushed pain pills given through his feeding tube. Dr. Goldin used part of Bruce's stomach to replace the part of the esophagus that was removed. I  still don't quite understand how all that was done as far as the surgery but plan to ask Dr. Goldin tomorrow if I can get there early enough to catch him. Hopefully Bruce will be going home tomorrow. Well got to get to bed if I'm going to get there early enough to catch Dr. Goldin.