Hiya Bloggy,
Ok, so all plans for doing up a few entries over the last week or so have been shot to pieces. I didn't get an entry/pictures about the fog we've been having (totally clear at the moment), the surprise 40th Birthday Party for Sanjay on the weekend (was that ever fun!) or anything else that I've been up to that has been keeping me busy and out of trouble :)
So, here I am... and I'm going to put in an entry right now because I can't keep up with the email and Facebook messages asking how I'm doing. I'm doing really well! For those who don't know, or have forgotten or thought it was next week, or whatever... I had my Lung Ablation (RFA) procedure done yesterday at Royal Columbian Hospital.
Ok... so it was one of those things that was a Good News/Misunderstood News scenerio. I'm not so sure there was a misunderstanding or it wasn't explained properly or something changed between the consultation appt. and the actual procedure.
The Good News... I had to be put under a General Anesthesia because of the location of the largest tumour, the procedure apparently would have been very painful. So, along with being knocked out, it meant that I would have a breathing tube doing the breathing for me and rather than a blood pressure machine with the cuff around the arm, they put a catheter directly into an artery to monitor the blood pressure. Because of this, I was told that I would have to stay overnight in the hospital, to be monitored because of the GA.
Prior to starting the procedure, Dr. Halkier explained to me that he felt zapping the two tumours we had discussed would be too risky. The reason being that the two tumours were not on the same lung... one on each lung. One of the risks with this procedure is that with sticking a needle into the lung, the lung could "leak" or partially collapse, or even collapse totally. So to do this to both lungs at the same time, it was taking too much of a risk that I might end up with two collapsed lungs. Ok, I'm not sure why this risk would come up now .. I don't recall us talking about not doing the two tumours during our consultation appt. But my friend, Nancie, who was at the consultation appt. with me did remind me that he did say it was risky to do both and that he would TRY to do both, not that he WOULD do both. Ok, so I'll put that one down to maybe my misunderstanding.. or else how he worded it didn't sink in with me.
He also said that he wasn't sure I'd be getting any benefit from this particular procedure. He says that he will only do it if 1) there was a possibility of a "cure" which there isn't in my case. A cure would be possible if there were under 5 tumours and it was a primary lung cancer. I have 7 spots and it is a spread of colon cancer, not a primary lung cancer. 2) If, by having the procedure done, would ease any discomfort from, or symptoms a person was having. I don't have any symptoms. So he said that he was actually discouraging me from having the procedure since I was putting my lung at risk of collapse but with none of the above benefits.
I told him that I still wanted to get rid of preferably the two tumours but if he could only do one, then the largest one (19mm or approx. .73 inch). So, that's what we did. The team came back in and prepped me for the General Anesthetic... and next thing I knew, Dr. Olfray, the anestheologist(sp?) was saying, "Cheryl, are you awake?" It literally seemed like seconds, but apparently it was an hour or so.
Dr. Halkier did manage to zap the largest tumour... and so far (knock on wood), no complications. I was wide awake and back to my usual self, much to the surprise of the recovery room staff... and my colour was back to normal. Hehehe.. the various doctors/techs/nurses were amazed to find out that I had been under GA and was so back to normal... so much so that when they took me down to have a chest xray and Dr. Halkier saw how wide awake I was, he signed the order that I could be discharged after the xray :)
My good friend, Nancie, came to the hospital at 5pm with my toiletries, assuming that I would be staying overnight... only to find out I was being discharged and could go home with her. Also, my dear friend, Colleen Winton, showed up for a visit, again assuming that I would be in overnight. But since I was free to go, I got dressed and the three of us escaped the hospital and went, in the fog, back to Nancie's place for tea and a chat :)
Next on the agenda for this week, I have to go to one of the blood labs and have some blood taken so they can do the CEA test, which my oncologist has ordered. I will be seeing her Monday afternoon and by then she will have the results to the test. The last two times we've run the tests, my CEA has been low... 1.7 and 1.5. Anything below 5.0 is considered normal... and I want to be soooo normal :)
I have to admit, I didn't sleep very well Monday... being that I wasn't at home and knew I was facing the procedure in the morning. We thought I'd sleep well last night with the remains of the GA, but I woke up almost every hour. It's now 5pm on Wednesday and I have to admit I think I may be tired. I've been really cold all day and here I'm ready to go to bed for the night... but I don't dare go to sleep now, otherwise I really will be up at 1am for the night :) Hahaha... then again, maybe that's not a bad thing. If I go to bed now, I can always get up in 8 hours and try to tackle some of the things I could always do on the computer :D
Ok... no pictures in this entry, not even any of the little diva :)
Huggggs,
Cheryl
