what the surgeon said

 I was just too tired to write sooner and the kids were all were fighting the flu. Now it is Hubbys turn. He is on the bed behind me totally miserable.


But as to the details of the surgery, it will be broken up into 2 parts.

Part 1 will be on June 4th. Check in will be at 5 am. with me having nothing to eat from midnight. surgery will start at around 7 ish and end at around noonish.  During this part Dr Soukiasian will do an endoscope to peek around on the inside of my esophagus. He will also do a laproscopic staging to physically see exactly the stage of cancer.  Then, if all goes well, he said he will remove some blood vessels around the stomach to prepare it for Monday. He will also place the feeding tube.  I will go home on Saturday hopefully around  noon or 1:00. A home health care nurse will follow up that weekend to make sure we are taking care of the feeding tube. and that all is going well.

Part 2 will be on the 7th. Again, check in will be @ 5am with surgery starting at around 7:00 ish. Insisions will be in my abdomen, right side and neck.  I will have my esophagus removed laproscopically, the stomach cut lengthwise and fitted as a tube, and finally stitched into place as my new esophagus. I will have drains and tubes in quite a few places and hubby will not be able to see me until 2 or 3 that afternoon.

here is a break down of what will happen and HOPEFULLY when:

*1-2 days in ICU
*up and walking within 24 to 48 hours
*feeding tube starts again on day 1
*walking every day
*every hour, must do coughing and breathing exercises
*physiological therapy ( basically a rough back massage to loosen up phlem and gross stuff)
*a swallow study done 5 to 7 days post surgery
 *if no leaks i start to drink fluids the next day
*ideally chest drain tubes would also be removed at that time, but depends on how I am doing.
*I get to have my own pain meds button (woo hoo)
*I will be in the hospital 7 to 10 days
*at home, feeding tube stays in for minimum of 3 months.
*dumping is a small risk, but nowhere near as large as it would have been without the botox being injected into my pyloric valve. (usually doctors just cut it and permanently damage it, but my surgeon injects it with botox to let it heal slowly on its own).I am pretty impressed by that BTW.

He did say that 60 to 80 percent of patients have SOME sort of complications but most of the time they are just nuisances rather that life threatening, especially where he does his incision in the neck instead of the chest.

According to him, for, me, I have about a 20 percent chance of leakage because of the radiation I had done. Radiation destroys blood vessels and causes scar tissue to form. It also inhibits healing. I am not that worried though, because he does his incision in the neck, not the chest. He said that if there is a leak in the neck, its not that big of a deal, drain it and I will be fine. If the insision were in the chest, if there were a leak, it could kill me. Since that is not an option, I really dont mind a big scar on the side of my neck...

The risk of death during this surgery for me will be anywhere from 1 to 4 percent.  Not to bad considering the "high rent district" he will be mucking about in!!!