So I started Chemo today...yippee. The first drug on the cocktail for the day is Oxaliplatin, it screws with the DNA synthesis in the tumor cells due to it cytotoxic (toxic to cells) effects. It's pretty nasty stuff, the nurse came in with a with a gown and thick gloves carrying the IV bag. Makes you feel real comfortable they're about to pump this stuff through your veins. Also got a steroid, Calcium, Magnesium and an anti-nausea drug. The whole thing took about 7 hours. I started getting some of the symptoms by the time the drip finished. Cold sensitivity, soreness in my arm the put it in. etc... There's a huge list and I had more by the time I got home. Good times...
I started the Xeloda again tonight, I only have one more pill to take a day than I did before, so I'm hopeful it won't be much worse than last time.
Found this little video on the Xeloda...kind of interesting.
With all of that said hopefully this is all for nothing and the radiation and surgery did the job to remove the tumor.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Oliver's First Haircut
Last week Oliver got his first haircut. He went from our baby to our little boy. It's amazing how a little haircut changed the look of our little monkey.
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| Getting ready for the cut, he got to sit in a car and watch Winnie the Pooh so he was pretty happy about that. |
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| Getting the cut. |
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| He had fun wearing his 'Batman' cape. |
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| All done with the cut. |
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| Our little guy...all growed up. |
Pain in Nick's A**: T+24
It's been 3 weeks since the pain in my a** was removed, literally. Figuratively, it will continue to be a pain in my a** for months to come. With that said I'm feeling pretty good these days. There's no doubt in my mind that my wonderful nurse(Lindsey) has pulled more than her share of the weight these last few months and that has helped with my feeling as good as I have. Basically being a single mom taking care of two small children. Luckily only one in diapers though. I'm truly blessed to have found such a wonderful woman.
I didn't realize how uncomfortable I was the two weeks prior to surgery until I was able to compare it to the last two weeks. For the two weeks prior to surgery if there were feces near the tumor it was uncomfortable. How uncomfortable? Basically it felt like I had to take the a giant poop ever nearly all the time (even gas would cause this feeling as well as tiny poops) and if I didn't I'd start to get nauseous (I almost tossed my cookies the night before surgery). No more feeling like giant poops need to happen all the time and nothing coming out and no more nausea.
Bowel function was one of the things the surgeons warned about. You see I have about half the amount of rectum as regular person now. What does that mean? Well the rectum acts as a temporary storage site for feces. As the rectum fills stretch receptors in the walls stimulate the need to defecate. If you don't act on the urge, often the rectum pushes the feces back into the bowel relieving the urge. So since I have less rectum, it fills faster, the walls stretch sooner, which creates the urge to defecate more often, with less ability to push it back into the bowel. Both surgeons we talked to said it's not uncommon for people to have the urge to defecate upwards of 15 to 20 times a day (uh...that would suck) after this type of surgery and then ask for a colostomy after the fact. Both also said that it can be trained down over time, like exercising a muscle (which the rectum is), but after about 2 years it is what it is. So I'm ahead of the curve here. I'm probably averaging about 3 poops a day, which is entirely manageable. At the two week follow-up the surgeon said it's likely that this is the worst it will ever be and could get better. So going from having an urge nearly all the time to 2-3 time a day...I'm going to call that a win.
As many know, I'm a bit of a nerd. I mean how many people build a machine to dispense margaritas, just because they can? Yeah not many, just giant nerds like me. I wanted to see how the incisions healed so I took a picture nearly everyday from 2/1 to 2/10. Below is a little animation of the change.
As a medical device engineer I'm always fascinated by how different things are accomplished in surgery. Connecting two tubular structures in the body is called an anastomosis. My surgeon used a intraluminal (circular) stapler made by Ethicon (J&J). The stapler places two offset rows of titanium staples to create a seal between the two sections of bowel. Here's a video showing the process (warning: a bit graphic as it's a real surgery).
I didn't realize how uncomfortable I was the two weeks prior to surgery until I was able to compare it to the last two weeks. For the two weeks prior to surgery if there were feces near the tumor it was uncomfortable. How uncomfortable? Basically it felt like I had to take the a giant poop ever nearly all the time (even gas would cause this feeling as well as tiny poops) and if I didn't I'd start to get nauseous (I almost tossed my cookies the night before surgery). No more feeling like giant poops need to happen all the time and nothing coming out and no more nausea.
Bowel function was one of the things the surgeons warned about. You see I have about half the amount of rectum as regular person now. What does that mean? Well the rectum acts as a temporary storage site for feces. As the rectum fills stretch receptors in the walls stimulate the need to defecate. If you don't act on the urge, often the rectum pushes the feces back into the bowel relieving the urge. So since I have less rectum, it fills faster, the walls stretch sooner, which creates the urge to defecate more often, with less ability to push it back into the bowel. Both surgeons we talked to said it's not uncommon for people to have the urge to defecate upwards of 15 to 20 times a day (uh...that would suck) after this type of surgery and then ask for a colostomy after the fact. Both also said that it can be trained down over time, like exercising a muscle (which the rectum is), but after about 2 years it is what it is. So I'm ahead of the curve here. I'm probably averaging about 3 poops a day, which is entirely manageable. At the two week follow-up the surgeon said it's likely that this is the worst it will ever be and could get better. So going from having an urge nearly all the time to 2-3 time a day...I'm going to call that a win.
As many know, I'm a bit of a nerd. I mean how many people build a machine to dispense margaritas, just because they can? Yeah not many, just giant nerds like me. I wanted to see how the incisions healed so I took a picture nearly everyday from 2/1 to 2/10. Below is a little animation of the change.
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| Incision healing |
I read a study that said that after 3 days post surgery the coupling is at 60% strength of the bowel wall and after a week the coupling is a 100% strength. Pretty amazing that after a weeks it's full strength.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Pain in Nick's A**: T+7 Days
So things are healing pretty well. Everyday I'm feeling a little less sore. I walked a mile the other day (slowly, very slowly) and felt pretty good. Planning on another walk today. Right now I'm just on Ibuprofen, haven't take a Norco (aka: Vicodin, hydrocodone and paracetamol (acetaminophen)) since the first night. Some may wonder why I'm skipping the 'good stuff', two reasons. First, the main reason, one of the main side effects is constipation. I'm just thinking that I should be as easy as possible one my new plumbing. Second, I'm just not a huge fan of narcotics. I also like to 'feel' my body, as I believe it gives the best information on how things are going and I don't want something masking those feelings unnecessarily. Sounds a little hippy like now that I've re-read it. Oh well.
So I've gotten through a about a half a stack of previously unread magazines and have nearly drained the DVR of unwatched shows. Next on my list is starting to design the mechanical structure for my future 3D printer. So I'm not quite bored yet, but definitely getting a little cabin fever.
People keep asking about the incisions, here they are, in all of their glory. Little bruised, huh. No wonder it feel like I was kicked in the gut, looks a little like it too. Well what I imagine a good kick in the gut would look like. The three little upper incision are the laparoscopic incisions where they put in the various instruments and cameras. The lower one is about 3 or 4 inches, is where they pulled out the bad portion of colon.
So I've gotten through a about a half a stack of previously unread magazines and have nearly drained the DVR of unwatched shows. Next on my list is starting to design the mechanical structure for my future 3D printer. So I'm not quite bored yet, but definitely getting a little cabin fever.
People keep asking about the incisions, here they are, in all of their glory. Little bruised, huh. No wonder it feel like I was kicked in the gut, looks a little like it too. Well what I imagine a good kick in the gut would look like. The three little upper incision are the laparoscopic incisions where they put in the various instruments and cameras. The lower one is about 3 or 4 inches, is where they pulled out the bad portion of colon.
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| The incision. |
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