The Surgery

Well here are all the details. I went to St Louis on Monday. A student Dr came in and said, well you know how bad your cancer is, and usually we don't do surgery and I lost it right there. He said well Dr Strasberg is reviewing your scans and he is very aggresive with cancer and he will see you in a bit. I was hysterical, how could I put myself thru that again, I was ready to leave. After what seemed like years, Dr Strasberg came in and examined me. He said ok, I believe that you are young and otherwise healthy, and we should do surgery. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. He said this will not be a curative surgery but we will take the tumors off of your liver and use Radio frequency ablation to get anything that is deeper within the liver. He wanted me to go see the colon surgeon right then. He said he was basing his decision from my pathology reports saying that it was neuroendocrine cancer. I asked him more about that since Mayo had said even though it read neuroendocrine on both biopsies they felt it was adenocarcinoma and thus treated me with the chemo that I was originally on. He said let me relook at this and left the room. I thought, great, drop me from the 10th floor with your student coming in, then lift me up to the roof and tell me surgery, and now drop me down again. He came right back in with my pathology report and said he totally believes that this is neuroendocrine cancer, and the tumor in my colon has to come out. He said if the disease is too much in my liver they will do nothing with my liver. He said this surgery should give me 10 to 15 years and hopefully they will come up with new treatments in that time.

I went over to the colon surgeon and she said you realize this is not a curative surgery, although it could be curative if there isn't any more microscopic disease that hasn't shown up on Ct scans. I was floating again! She is going to do a right hemectomy and a left hemectomy, basically taking the right side of my colon and then my left side of my colon and then reattach my colon, I asked if I would have a bag and she said no.
So, I am off of chemo for now, I didn't think to ask how long before or if I would have to go back on chemo. I am very scared about the chances for potential problems, 1 in 20 for a major complication, 1 in 3 for a minor complication. I hope I can beat the odds, no, I know I can beat the odds, afterall as he said I am young and otherwise healthy. I am scared, but I know this is the only option I have, I have to go for it, you can't imagine how wonderful it would be if they could get all the cancer. I know that is a small chance but I have hope.

I am scheduled for surgery on March 25th. They say it will take about 5 and a half hours to complete. I will be at Barnes hospital for a week. God is good, and he is surely showing there is hope for me. I can feel it. I pray for his guidance during and after surgery.
If you could please pray for me, that would be great, I can do this, I know I can. I have too!
Scared, nervous, excited, hopeful, amazed, that is all the feelings I have been going thru.