Wish me luck (hugs needed)

[Mikkel]

Much better now, The second operation was a succes. I'm still in hospital but everyhing works (TMI I suppose) the infection is stopped and as soon as I stop throwing up , I can go home. Tentatively tomorrow.
Thanks a lot for all your good wishes, I'm in no doubt they helped me.
It has been a scary experience, It will take some time before I can work,but I'll be my old self, just with some interesting new scars.

[Boozy]

Thanks for the update. I'm so glad to hear that you're on the mend.

I've got my fingers crossed that you can get out of there tomorrow. You have such a positive attitude. That's going to go a long way.

[Der Cute]

Thanks for the update. I'm so glad to hear that you're on the mend.

I've got my fingers crossed that you can get out of there tomorrow. You have such a positive attitude. That's going to go a long way.

I agree- positive is the way to go. Hope you feel better soon and your GI behaves!

cutenoob

[trailerparkmedic]

I hope you're resting at home soon. Please keep us updated!

*sends more good thoughts*

[JustaCashier]

Glad to hear the good news!

Mike

[Mikkel]

Well, I got out of hospital Monday, but haven't had much energy. The drains at home was frozen, damn winter, so until I get something done about it I stay at my daughters flat, at least in the night so as to have a working toilet close by.
I was to the hospital today to get the stables removed (yes, they use stables instead of sewing you together as they did last time I had surgery ) and get the verdict on the dissection of the tumour.
It's not so good, they removed 18 lymph nodes and 3 had cancer cells in them. I'll have to get chemotherapy in a few weeks when I'm well enough for it.
A pity, but still, I have a good chance of getting well in the end. I may have twenty or thirty good years left, half a year of chemotherapy seems a fair price to me.
I'm sure I'll laugh of many of your stories yet.

[Boozy]

I'm sure I'll laugh of many of your stories yet.

I'm sure you will, too.

Thanks for keeping us updated. We're all thinking about you.

[AdminAssistant]

Best of luck, Mikkel! Just remember that incredible advances are being made in chemo and cancer treatment. Also, and not be all like, ADVICE, but start boosting your immune system and definitely don't be afraid to ask for help. There are all kinds of support organizations for those undergoing cancer treatment. Your oncologist should be able to give you suggestions.

[Mikkel]

Best of luck, Mikkel! Just remember that incredible advances are being made in chemo and cancer treatment. Also, and not be all like, ADVICE, but start boosting your immune system and definitely don't be afraid to ask for help. There are all kinds of support organizations for those undergoing cancer treatment. Your oncologist should be able to give you suggestions.

Any ideas of boosting the immune system? My only thought is "eat varied and healthy foods and exercise", any specifics?
I am already signed up with a councellor from the private Danish organisation Kræftens Bekæmpelse. He actually called me the day after my second operation, thinking that I would be out of hospital already. I have had some help, as a shopowner I don't automatically get any money for living while sick but a social worker at the hospital came with the papers to fill out after I had mentioned my economic fears to a nurse.
I am afraid that the bike shop has to go, a oneman shop won't survive a season without me being able to work full out. Better get out now with minimal losses than to drag it out. It was only a matter of time before my athritis made it necessary anyway. Sixteen years of steady work is no failure any way you look at it.
I guess the next few months wil be interesting . Oh, and not to move to fratching but I'm so thankful that anyone in Denmark is entitled to treatment without insurance, I'm sure that I would have dropped an insurance the first time I lacked money.

[AdminAssistant]

Any ideas of boosting the immune system? My only thought is "eat varied and healthy foods and exercise", any specifics?

Talk to your oncologist, but a multi-vitamin wouldn't be a bad idea either. Chemo can be pretty nasty on the immune system. Mom didn't have too many issues from the chemo itself (other than the obvious hair loss, nausea, and fatigue), but she had to be occasionally hospitalized because her white cell count would plummet and she'd get very sick. Didn't help that she worked at a school, but anywho...

Exercise may or may not be an option, since chemo takes such a toll on the body. Light walks would probably be really beneficial, but you don't want to over exert yourself. As I said, Mom had to deal with a bit of nausea, and her food preferences changed a bit. BUT, talk to your doctor and nurses, of course. Everybody's chemo experience will be different. Mom couldn't use metal silverware, but other people have no problems with it. And so on and so forth, ad nauseum. Oh, before going for your first treatment, be sure to ask if they have blankets, and if they don't, bring your own. You could store ice cream in the room Mom got her treatments in.

[Mikkel]

[QUOTE=AdminAssistant;690950Oh, before going for your first treatment, be sure to ask if they have blankets, and if they don't, bring your own. You could store ice cream in the room Mom got her treatments in.[/QUOTE]

AFAIK they have blankets or can fetch them, The commonest issues with the chemo I'm going to get is nausea, of course, and strange feelings in hands and feet. (walking on cotton, feeling a slight cold as burning hot.)
I'll get an appointment with an oncologist next week on another hospital, they told me to call the hospital Monday afternoon to get the exact time. The doctors I've talked to up to now has been surgeons, specialists in stomach cancers, but no oncologists.

Actually I have a bit of a funny story to share. I was asked before surgery if I wanted to participate in a test of a new medicine against blood clots. I would either get the new medicine or the old plus placebo, then, a week after my (first) surgery, I would get a x-ray scanning of my leg veins to see if any micro clots had formed.
I don't know if I were in the control group or not but anyway, this was what happened at the scanning.
The scanner is a huge machine, the patient is put on a board at thirty degrees, run all the way up to the ceiling so the feet is at head level, is injected with contrast and go slowly down through the scanner.
Everything went fine with my right leg, I was run up to the ceiling again and then the power went out. The emergency generator kicked in after a few seconds and the lights came on again but apparently someone had decided that the scanner used to much power to be connected to the generator. They couldn't start the computer, without the computer I couldn't get down. They began discussing how to get me down.Remember I was two days out of my second surgery, cut from side to side. I couldn't help at all in that position and any movement might at least hurt terribly and could open my belly.
The first thing they wanted to try was to push a stretcher under me, tie me to it and then lift me down. The problem was that the men in the head end would have to stand on ladders, I had to go sideways, the scanner prevented me in sliding straight down.
Luckily, they didn't find a stretcher, not something used in a modern hospital and the board someone found was deemed too narrow and too short .
The radiologist called a friend who had been in on the development on this particular scanner and asked if there was any manual way to get a patient down.
Then they removed a cover plate and found a handle, after a bit of searching they found a hole for the handle and after a few minutes of turning you could see that I moved very slowly down while the scanner moved out of the way.
That did it, after twenty minutes of turning by a muscular nurse my feet was down to the level of a bed run up to maximum, about eight people grapped me and put me gently down in bed and I could at last relax.
It turned out that another unessential piece of a equipment was the dishwasher so the next day we ate from plastic until they caught up with the washing. The power came back after four hours but in an huge hospital you can use a lot of china in four hours.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Heh, well at least you have a good story out of it.

[Mikkel]

Heh, well at least you have a good story out of it.

Oh, yes. It wasn't that funny while it happened, I hyperventilated a bit, up there under the ceiling, especially in the beginning, all those halfbaked plans I had to listen to .
After, though, I think it is a bit funny.

[Bella_Vixen]

*hugs*


MOAO has colon cancer. Still managing to hold on, after having it for at least 5 years.

[Mikkel]

*hugs*


MOAO has colon cancer. Still managing to hold on, after having it for at least 5 years.

That is encouraging. I shouldn't have it any more since they removed the tumour and about 30 cm of intestine. The oncologist seemed to say that the chemo was probably just a precaution. I don't know how much to believe it, my impression is that the doctors on one hand have to tell you all the horrible things that could happen, but on the other hand try to be as positive as possible and gloss over the risks.
When I went for the first operation I was told that I probably would be back at work in a week or two, there were a lot of complications which could happen but it was unlikely. The other cancer patients I have talked to, have all said that it was wildly optimistic to count on going to work two weeks after a major operation, even if there were no complications, which most of them had.

The treatment I'm getting is called FOLFOX (I really like this page, by the way. It gives percentages of the risks, which the oncologist wouldn't do) . I'm going to get a Portacath implanted 24th of March and will get my first treatment the day after. Right now I'm trying to get well, my appetite is back and I'm bicycling when I go out to shop. I just get tired so fast.

Oh, and what does MOAO mean??