Surgery Gets the Green Light

Well, here I am in, a place I didn’t think I’d get be.

I just spoke with the surgeon a little while ago to go over the results of Friday’s PET scan and yesterday’s colonoscopy. Everything was pretty much what we thought before, but now is confirmed. The chemo worked great on reducing my cancer and we’re going to attempt to remove/destroy what’s left.

On Friday, 11/27, I’ll be undergoing surgery to remove the tumor in my colon and to remove/ablate the tumors on my liver. He’ll start with my colon, which should take about 2 hours. The tumor is in my Sigmoid colon, which is the lower part of your colon. The doctor doesn’t believe I’ll need an ostomy afterward and I’m hoping he’s correct, though I’ll deal with whatever I need to should complications arise.

The next part of surgery, the liver, will be a different incision than the colon and lasting 4-6 hours. He’s planning on cutting out the large mass on the left part of my liver and then microwaving the other tumors/removing them if possible. I’ll be getting an epidural, so hopefully the pain is very much controlled during recovery. Recovery will start in the hospital with a stay of 5-7 days and my wife should be able to be with me during visiting hours, barring any changes due to further upticks in Covid cases.

I’m excited, happy, sad, nervous and every other feeling you can have. Thank you all again for your support and helping me get to this point. I’ll update more when I hear post-surgery plans from my oncologist or if there’s any other pre-surgery news.

Until the next time,

Matt