What's happening wii

[JAB]

A few weeks ago I was having trouble 'going'. I thought it was just constipation. Long story short, turns out there was a blockage in my bowel. Things backed up so badly that my colon apparently perforated/ruptured. Three surgeries later, including removing my appendix, I now have a colostomy bag and a big incision in my abdomen that still isn't fully closed. To add to the fun, it seems the mass causing the blockage was cancerous. Haven't gotten much in to that part of treatment yet other than the certainty I will need chemo.

Anyhow, just thought I would let folks know what is going on with me. Not sure how much I will be on for a while.

[runco]

Hate to hear that, praying for you neighbor. 

[Peace]

Very, very sorry to hear that.  Thanks for letting us know.  You have prayer, well wishes, and good vibes headed your way.  I'll spare you any platitudes I might be tempted to puke out.  

 

Keep us updated on your victories, and let us know what else we can do.

[Dustbuster]

Hope u get well quick!

[Oh Shoot]

So sorry of this misfortune ... praying in my way for your long term health.

 

No stranger to this sort of thing in my family: my dad blew out colon, had ostomy for about a year, they reconnected later. I myself had a right side hemicolectomy in '05 for a per-cancerous situation they couldn't remove any other way.

 

Do they say your ostomy is permanent or possible reconnection later?

 

- OS

Edited November 16, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[TGO David]

Sorry to hear of this.  Hang in there!

[Raoul]

So sorry to hear this.

[gregintenn]

Wow! You are in our thoughts and prayers. Hang in there!

[K191145]

Sorry to hear that JAB, hope you get better soon.

[dralarms]

Prayer sent for healing.

[Chazmr]

Definitely in our prayers JAB.

Keep us posted with updates as you can.

[RED333]

O Lord please look after this man and his family.

[buck1032]

As other have stated thanks for keeping us in the loop. I too will keep you in my prayers. Please take care of yourself, body, mind and soul.

[VERO1]

Do what he Drs tell you man. This hits close to home as it is what took my grandmother years ago. She was in her 90's and just not strong enough to fight off the ensuing infections. Wish you a speedy recovery.

[peejman]

Thoughts and prayers for you and your family. Hope they've got their arms around this soon enough for a speedy recovery.

[Sam1]

Keep your spirit up man, whatever you're dealing with, the doctors have seen it before and they know how to fix it.  It might just take a couple of tries to get on the right path with you.

 

Also a word of advice from personal experience, keep yourself occupied, keep your brain occupied... just keep busy whether it be with your family, reading books, watching a movie or counting rocks on a gravel road. An idle mind will get to you in a situation like this.

[DWARREN123]

Prayers for you brother!

[A.J. Holst]

Special prayer for you right now and it's a good one!

[MacGyver]

Man, I hate to hear this.  You'll be in my prayers.

 

Keep us updated on what's going on, and please let us know if there's anything our community can do to help.

[Grand Torino]

Hand in there and get well soon. We will be praying for you.

[E4 No More]

Wishing you well, JAB.

[Bassoneer]

My dad had a similar experience a couple of years ago at UT hospital.  He ended up with an ostomy for a while, but then later they reconnected everything and now he is 100% back to normal at 84 as if nothing ever happened.  Prayers for you bro...hang in there and know that God is with you.  Best wishes, B

[JAB]

Thanks for all the well wishes. I still haven't seen the Oncologist. I have an appointment next week. The big thing is that they will need to do a test (a PET? scan) to determine if the cancer has remained localized - being that it is stage 3 and they found some cancer in a couple of lymph nodes - or if it has spread. If localized, we'll be looking at how to cure me. If it has spread through my body, we'll be looking at predictions of how long I have. C'mon, local. The surgeon says that my ostomy should be temporary but that he doesn't want to do the reversal surgery until my chemo is done because he doesn't want to do anything that will delay the chemo. I outright hate the thing but at least it looks like it won't have to be permanent. As an extra, added bonus it looks like problems related to congestive heart failure are coming up, again. At its worst a handful of years ago, my ejection fraction got down to 15%. Normal for someone my age, etc. is about 70%. Mine got back up to about 65% but the scan done in the hospital indicated it is back down in the 35 to 40% range. So I have to see the cardiologist in a week or so, too.

[TrickyNicky]

Wow JAB, I'm late to the thread but very sorry for your troubles and really hoping that everything stayed local to one area so they can scoop it out and get you up and rocking again. Best if luck also with the cardiologist, it's
Funny how just about anything from a knee to a neck injury can affect that all important muscle.

We'll be keeping you and your family in our thoughts.

[JAB]

Well, I am back at work today.  I'm not really feeling up to being here but when the FMLA gets close to running out  - and leave time is even closer to running out (meaning no more paycheck with no more insurance soon to follow) there aren't that many options.  At least this place will be shut down for a couple of weeks for the holidays after Friday so I guess this is a good week to return.

 

My surgery wound still isn't completely healed.  There is a section at the top that is still open and still has to be packed and covered.  A healing wound of this nature will throw false results in a PET scan so the oncologist scheduled the scan for the 22nd.  I hope the wound is healed enough to proceed by then.  After that the oncologist will know more about how to proceed.  Chemo is pretty much a given but I guess the scan will help determine the aggressiveness.  I am not sure they could start chemo before the surgery wound heals, anyhow.