Major surgery scheduled for Tuesday!

Right on the heels of my minor breast surgery, I will be having a major surgery early next week. The surgery that both my gynecologic oncologists have agreed upon is a radical hysterectomy. A month ago, when I first heard of this surgery, I was freaking out big time. Now, I'm actually looking forward to it, particularly the idea of getting this deadly cancer out of my body.

I am sad that I didn't qualify for the trachelectomy. I would have liked to have had the option of giving birth to my own child. But right now, I think it's more important for me to focus on beating this cancer.

My mom has already reserved her open-ended round-trip flight from NY to Portland, Oregon. She will arrive this Sunday, at 10am. This will be a big day because of several reasons:
*My niece will be celebrating her 3rd birthday.
*My mom will arriving to help me before and after my surgery.
*E and I will submit our deposit to hold the apartment that we finally found in Hillsboro! (Hurray!)
*This will be the first day of my preparations for surgery on Tuesday.

There are several things I have to do prior to surgery. First, I need to watch a video on self-catheterization. I will do this later today, but I'm already cringing on the inside just thinking about doing this. Apparently, when you have your reproductive organs scooped out, some nerves are unavoidably cut which can result in the loss of the sensation of having a full bladder. Because of this, I will need to prompt the act of voiding my bladder by inserting a tube into my urethra. Normally, this would be quite painful, but Dr. T2 assured me that after the surgery, I will hardly feel a thing, which is the problem. He also said that usually after the 6-week recovery period, most women regain enough sensation to be able to urinate normally. Let's hope that I'm like most women in this instance.

On Sunday, I need to begin clearing my bowels with a laxative. Then on Monday, I have to take some strong antibiotics and start drinking clear fluids only. Jello is okay. In fact, Dr. T2's medical assistant suggested drinking a cocktail of Jello and hot water 30 minutes prior to taking the antiobiotics. Apparently, doing so will coat my stomach with jello so that when I take the antiobiotics, I won't feel as nauseous. E liked this idea so much, that he said he would try it too. He's very fond of jello.

On Monday, I have to arrive at NW Cancer Specialists where a nurse practitioner, LC, will answer all my questions and tell me what I can expect before and after the surgery. Then I will proceed to Good Sam, right next door, where they will take my blood and give me a chest x-ray.

Then, after midnight, I am not to eat or drink anything.

By 5:30am on Tuesday, I am to arrive at Good Sam. My surgery is at 7:30am. If all goes smoothly, it will take about 2 1/2 hours. Then I will have a hospital stay of about 3-6 days, followed by recovery at home for 6 weeks.

Following surgery, Dr. T2 will send my tissue samples to the lab and if the pathology report reveals that I have less than 50% cancer spread to my cervix, then I won't have to have radiation therapy after my 6-week recovery from surgery. If the pathology reports that I have more than 50% cancer spread, then I'll be really bummed because that means an additional 5 weeks of radiation therapy, where I would have to come into the hospital every day during the work week. It would only be external radiation, though. Plus, Dr. T2 explained that radiation therapy has evolved to the point that most people don't experience any skin discomfort, like a sunburn. Mostly likely, I would feel nothing for the first 3 weeks. Then I might begin to feel some fatigue. But that's about all. For some unlucky patients with very sensitive skin, they will still experience some burning sensation. I'm just crossing my fingers that I won't have to deal with radiation at all.

My consultation with Dr. T2 about the surgery happened yesterday and I was sure that I was forgetting to ask him something, so he was kind enough to encourage me to call if I thought of any additional questions. He also gave me his email address, which I really appreciated, since I prefer things in writing. In addition, he gave me some photocopies of medical papers that have been written about oopexy, or ovarian transposition.

Oopexy is when you move the ovaries out of the pelvic area to protect them from ovarian failure due to radiation. It is not certain that I will need to have radiation afterwards, but if I do and wish to preserve this last bit of fertility, I will need to move them out of the field of radiation. Dr. T2 feel strongly against this procedure. Apparently, studies have shown that only 50% of women can save ovarian function, and many women experience painful ovarian cysts. Plus, the ovaries will eventually have to be moved back down surgically to where they belong.

When I inquired about early menopause, Dr. T2 said that I could just have hormone replacement therapy. This is as easy as taking a pill every day. I thought it was more complicated, that I would have to visit the hospital frequently to get hormone shots, but I was mistaken. Taking a hormone pill every day sounds very easy, indeed!

So, this will probably be my last post until I return home from the hospital in about a week or so. I'll keep doing my EFT practice, and praying, and wishing for a good outcome.