Getting better each day

Another mellow day at the apartment. My appitite is getting close to normal. Pain is slowly decrreasing. Exercise is getting easier. Looks like we're moving forward according to plan! Here's a quick video of the walk we did this afternoon around the apartment complex. I sped it up in the middle. We did not walk that fast.



M

Recovery Day 2 (one week out from surgery)

I feel my pain pill kicking in
I feel like a man without sin
It's just like a 3 martini gin
Yay, yay for Vicodin - cha, cha, cha.

Last week at this time I was completely unconscious with my gut spayed open, surgeons cutting here & there and Sheila was very nervous. Amazing what can happen in a week. If we had not have done the surgery, I was months (maybe weeks) away from major complications (i.e. demise) caused by the cancer, and today it's possible I may be cancer free. It will be months (or years) before we know if the surgery was "successful", but I'm quite sure we've bought a lot more time and, possibly, a cure.

Recovery at home

Today has been a mellow recovery day at home. We're transitioning our pain medication, so it was a little rough this AM, but we're back in the groove. Yay Vicoden! In the hospital, I was doing 3 "laps" around the nurses station using an IV pole for support. Today I did a "lap" around our apartment complex and even did a set of stairs. Sheila said I looked like I needed some more vitamin D so we hung out by the pool for a few minutes taking it easy. The more I move, the less it will hurt tomorrow. We'll see our docs on Friday (urologist, surgeon, oncologist) and go from there.

Mark

Graduation Day

We have left the hospital!!!!! Two days early after major abdominal surgery. For most any of the 5 procedures they did, you'd normally expect to stay about a week. Wow! Sheila & I are pretty down to earth-types, but we can't help but feel all the positive energy generated by all our friends & family has helped get me to this point. The docs/nurses were very happy with my progress & we're back at our apartment now. If everything goes well, our next follow up with the docs will be Friday to remove my foley catheter & then some more rest/recovery. Before the removal they will shoot up some radioactive fluid & check for leaks. If it's good, they they take it out.

It also doesn't hurt to have great care at a great hospital. As it turns out, it looks like their big JACHO inspection is coming up soon, so everyone was extra careful to do everything right. Another (most significant) factor was/is Sheila taking care of me all along the way. Love yuo honey!!!! xoxoxxx

Mark

Happy Saturday everyone!

That last blog was actually from yesterday, but if didn't go through due to a minor technical glitch.

Yes, as Sheila say's we're eating normal food now. The hospital food here is actually quite good. You order off a printed menu & they deliver within 45 minutes.

Feeling better/stronger everyday. The plan is to actually leave the hospital tomorrow! We need to stay local to recover some more & do some outpatient procedures, but it really is going well. I even have my computer wired up in the room now to do the blog. You guys hang in there with practice!! Listen to Cindy, or I'm gonna have to send a note to your mom.

Take care,
Mark

Hi everyone!

This is Mark on my phone thingy (like that ipodphonethingy / I'm pretty
sure that's the technical term)
Well. That was an e-ticket ride. I've been on more drugs the last 3
days than Cheech & Chong! We're really starting to cut back now. I'm
on mosty preventative stuff for infection, BP, and inflammation, and
pain It looks like I'll be off my epidural in a couple hours so then I
will have just one IV (and the foley cath). I do have some temp
plumbing but we'll be able to hook that back up after a while. ~~All
the docs say I am doing great. I am walking more & more each day. Last
night I got lots of good sleep too.
Thank you ALL for the wonderful thoughts and prayers. You have been a
huge source of strength for us both.

Mark

getting ready to get out of here

Mark is progressing remarkably well. He is eating a regular diet and walking at least 6 times a day. A big thank you to all our supporters, especially to my mother and sister. They spent a lot of money and time to come out here for Mark and I. I can't imagine what I would have done without them holding me together. I don't know if I could have gone through this without their selfless support Mom, Sharon.... I love you both so much.

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good Friday

Mark is dictating this. I'm baaaaack. Got most of my tubes out and feeling pretty human now. They switched me to a regular diet, but we are taking it pretty easy. Applesauce....livin la vida loca. Sheila has been great and taking good care of me. Something is beeping. gotta go. More later

from sheila....good thing yall skipped the moon, don't know how that would have worked with Mark's stitches.

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better day

Mark is doing better today. The epidural issues that plauged us yesterday are resolved and his pain is better controlled. He did a lap around the nurse's station and after I gave him a bath, he is now resting. He told me to tell you all 'thanks and love you'.

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long day

sorry we weren't able to post earlier, it's been a long day. Mark was doing well in the morning, but his pain really got bad during the middle of the day. Anderson has a good pain service, but it took until late this afternoon to see a smile from Mark. It's not unexpected to have severe pain after 8 hours of surgery, but it is hard to watch in someone you love. good days, bad days...we having both at the same time.

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post op day 1

Mark had a relatively good night last night, considering all the tubes and wires stuck into him. I stayed next to him on a cot. This morning he will attempt to get out of bed and be moved from this transitional PACU sometime later today. This morning, I read all the comments to him. All the love and support from you all just blows us away....you are truly pulling him...and me...through this.
We will be in the hospital at least ten days, we found out this morning. Mark will blog, or dictate to me later today when we go to a regular room. Keep up those good thoughts..we can feel them strongly.

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In the PACU

Mark is now in the recovery unit. The surgery was more extensive than we had planned. Although the scans were unchanged, his cancer had advanced far more than we realized. It had invaded the bladder. It invaded his pelvic wall, basically near his sciatic nerve. I'm glad we were here, because they were able to save part of his bladder, most of his colon and all the visible tumor. Both kidneys were saved. The big challenges will be dealing with the remaining microscopic cancer and possible nerve damage in his leg. If he has damage, the doc says physical therapy usually works well. I'm sure all the Surgers out there will be willing to coach him during his recovery.
Mark will be in the PACU or ICU tonight, so this will be my last entry until tomorrow. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

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setback

After the 12 pm update, the nurse said I should go to lunch. So, imagine my stress level when I was called on my cell phone and told the doctor wanted to talk to me. They put me and my sister in a consult room. Five years ago, I was sent to another consult room to be told my husband had incurable cancer. Today. after waiting ??? felt like 30 minutes, the doctor came to tell me there was tumor that did not show up on the scans and couldn't be completely removed. It is actually growing into his lower back. They scraped out all they could and came to ask my permission to do radiation intraop. This won't cure him, but he will keep some of his bladder and have a reversible ostomy and live to fight another day.

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4 hours

New report, Mark is still in surgery. but all is going as expected. Next report at 2 central.

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first report

Every two hours. a nurse comes out and gives a report. My greatest fear has been that the doctor would open him up and see so much cancer that he would just close him back up. My sister went with me to the little room where they give the report. I think my heartrate was about 149. Happily. the main surgeon has been in there two hours and everything is fine. I think I can breathe again.

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showtime

They just wheeled Mark into the OR. He's in great spirits this morning; we were both thinking about our friends and family out there supporting us. Although we only slept a couple of hours last night, I feel pretty wired. The surgery will be at least 6 hours after they get started, and the CRNA said it could be up to 12. I'll keep you all posted.

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Long day...

Remember that previous blog about them running like clockwork? Not today! The first appointment went very quickly: a blood test. They called me in moments after I signed in and the woman taking my blood was very nice and even commented on how "pretty" my blood was. It did have a nice luminous dark-red quality. She said she would like to get nail polish the same color (and she didn't look like the goth-type). So far so good.

Next appointment was with my main cancer surgeon. We saw his nurse first & she informed us that our doctor would like to take one last look. This involved taking 2 Fleet enemas. Good morning Markie! We got that handled and our doc came in the room for the final exam. I tapped my foot. He tapped his foot. I assumed a "wide stance". He pulled out his Olympus Prot-o-scope 2000. You know the drill...

I cleaned up & after a quick cigarette, one of the nurses explained the "prep" for the surgery. This one is a little different than the colonoscopy prep, but the results are the same. Our doctor came back to talk about the test results and surgery. Good news: all the tests came back as expected and there was no evidence of any "extra" cancer. This means we can move forward with the surgery!

The Surgery: We pretty much knew what this entailed, but we, of course needed to talk about all the possibilities. Depending on exactly what they find when they go in there tomorrow, the surgery could turn out about 10 different ways. We know the cancer is up against my bladder. They may take a little, a lot, or all of that. Depending on that, they will need to reconnect the pipes coming from my kidneys. It's possible that the pipes can't be connected on one of my kidneys and if that's the case, it will need to go too. Prostate may need to go. Part of my colon near my rectum will need to go. Could be a little. Could be a lot. The way the blood vessels are connected to my small & large intestine pose special problems as well. Because of my first surgery (5 years ago) I don't have all of the normal blood vessels. So it will be a special problem getting it all sewn back up. Our doctor has actually published a paper on this specific issue, so I feel we're in pretty good hands. Actually all the folks we talk to have extremely high regard for our guy, so we're feeling pretty good about that. Anyway - it's a complicated surgery. It's a big surgery. Should take about 6-8 hours total. He made a point to tell us that although the risk of death was low, it was not zero. Infection is a possibility. Bleeding is a possibility. Something could pop/bleed/etc. But, we're in good hands at a great facility.

After that appointment, we went to meet with the anesthesiology department. They were running late. WAY late. Cliff notes version is that it took 5 hours to get to be seen. The first nurse made me quite nervous (and this was after me calmly getting the surgery story earlier). Anyway, there was nothing special about me & putting me to sleep for the surgery shouldn't be too complicated.

While waiting, I checked email and saw that a bunch of dragonboaters will be meeting at the dock tomorrow to send us good vibes at sunrise. WOW. You guys really touch my heart. I told Sheila & a tear came to her eye (as did mine when I read it). It is great to know that you guys and so many others are thinking about us, praying, hoping & wishing good things. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

We check in for the surgery at 5:15 AM tomorrow.

Nice weekend

Had a nice mellow weekend. Saturday we went to the Texas Dragonboat Association festival at Clear Lake (close to NASA). It was a pretty small affair. Really just a few corporate teams. I didn't see any of my Houston Heat friends but it was fun to see the races.

Today my niece from Arlington came down to visit for a few hours. We had a nice brunch together and hung out this afternoon. We filled her in on everything and she filled us in on the latest with my sister's family.

This evening, Sheila's mom & sister flew in from Virginia. They will be here for the next week or so to keep Sheila company. It's great to have family help out!

I'll do a quick blood test in the morning & we meet with our surgeon right after. If the scans didn't show any extra cancer we didn't know about, we'll do surgery tomorrow. If they do, we'll head home. Hopefully there won't be any surprises. So that's our next hurdle. The big one after that will be during the start of the surgery. If they see more cancer than is expected, they may decide not to go forward with it and just close me back up. That would be a bummer, to get this far & not be able to do it. If it all goes well, they'll cut out all the cancer and have enough stuff to stitch me back together. Here we go...

Day 3 of tests DONE!

Didn't sleep too well last night due to the "prep" for today's test. Let's just say I was "clean as a whistle" this morning. Colonoscopy was at about 9:00AM. The folks here at MD Anderson have the the process down cold. Before we even signed in, they were ready to lead us into the back area. Here's your spot, get dressed in your "easy access" robe & we'll be with you in a moment. As soon as I had changed, the nurse was ready to put my IV in. (Good stick today. The PET nurse had to take two tries & I have good veins!) Test went fine, no surprises to speak of (Yay!). We had a mellow afternoon in the apartment, recovering & I'm feeling pretty good now. Look out Houston!!!

BTW, I revised the entry about the pillowcase if that didn't make any sense before. See below on the Love & Fear entry.

PET Done

Day two of testing: Did my PET scan today. You can't have any carbs/sugar before the test, so no breakfast for Markie. They start an IV and inject you with radioactive sugar. Then you rest for about 90 minutes. No crossing your legs or any movement, because they don't want your muscles to "suck up" the sugar. As we all know, cancer cells grow abnormally fast, so that's where the sugar goes. They put you in another doughnut shaped device & scan for the radiation (which "lights up" where cancer is). The scan is pretty quiet (especially relative to an MRI). After my 5K nap, they remove you from the coil & that's it.

Tomorrow is my colonoscopy, which means today is "prep day". No solid food (but sweet drinks are now OK, as long as they are not red or purple). For an early lunch I had a big bowl of green Jello. Yum! For dinner I think I'll have some chicken broth.

So far, so good!

sheila figured out how to do this blog thing

Hello!
This is my first, brief entry. I will be posting as Mark is probed, sliced, diced, scattered smothered and covered. Can you tell we have been at Waffle House lately? No one will be scattering or any of those things to Mark, as long as I am around. I am off to cook our pre-PET dinner and will be back to post tomorrow.

sheila

Fear & Love

After getting here last night, we had achieved our initial "goal" of getting to Houston & moving in to our temporary apartment. Although there was certainly some relief to be here after 1200 miles on the road, it was actually a bit scary, because we were now faced with the reality ahead. What will the tests show? What happens if I miss a step of the prep for one of the tests? What happens if there are complications? Not only that, what if something happens at home & we can't do anything about it? It's enough to make your brain explode. The rational part of your brain says, "chill - you'll get through it." but the fear sneaks in & gets it foot in the door.

What's the opposite of Love? Hate? I don't think so. Too close. Nothingness? No, that's just absence of emotion. I think the opposite of Love is Fear. When you Love, there is no doubt. By definition, Love fills the gaps in what we do and how we feel. Love creates meaning out of nothing. Fear creates a feeling of nothingness, a void, blinding you from seeing what is there.

So to combat the fear, I read the pillowcase. (This is the pillowcase that my Dragonboat friends wrote messages on after our last paddle in Charleston. It's hanging on the headboard of our bed now). I hadn't really read hardly any of it. Last night I puled it out and read every word. The expressions of warmth, generosity, hope and Love shined a clear light on exactly what was happening. Yeah, it'll be tough. But I have the love of Sheila, here by my side, and the love of lots of folks back home.

Likewise, the comments on the blog here, have been a tremendous inspiration to us. I cannot tell you how much it means to Sheila & I.

THANK YOU!

Love,
Mark

Tests - MRI

Last night was our first night in the new apartment in Houston. It's a pretty good place, close to the hospital & also across from Hermann Park.

Today was Day 1 (of 3) of tests. MRI day. The prep isn't anything special for an MRI. The machine looks similar to a PET or CT but operates on a different principle. I had a Pelvis and Abdomen scan, so it took about an hour & a half. They prep with some IV contrast, but it's not the iodine stuff you get with a CT. MRI scanners are very noisy. Clank, clank, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, zap, zap. 90 minutes worth. They even give you earplugs. The folks giving the test were all very nice and explained everything along the way.

We also met with the urologist that will be assisting in the surgery. They pretty much take their lead from the primary surgeon removing the tumor. They actually go into the bladder and insert temp stints so they can easily identify all the "plumbing" during the surgery. If there's anything left after cutting out the cancer, they stitch it all back together (more or less). Easy! The length of the surgery depends largely on exactly what they find when they go in there. We did have a bit of good news today in talking to the doctor. They had already looked at my MRI this morning and they THINK that they may be able to keep some parts that we thought might have to go. The bad news is that if it's worse than they think, we might lose a kidney. That's why you have 2 right?

Tomorrow is my PET scan. Then inject you with radioactive sugar and scan to see where it goes. If part of your body sucks up more sugar than it should, that's an indication that there might be cancer there. The prep tonight is to have a low carb dinner (salmon, broccoli, salad) and only water the day of the procedure. The good news is the procedure is in the AM so I won't have to be on low carb all day. The bad news is I immediately start the prep for my colonoscopy the next day. I can have sugar, but no solids. Gatoraid, Jello, broth. Yummy. And there's the Phospho soda stuff. More later on that, I'm sure. So, I'll be ready for a nice meal Friday night.

We made it!

We made it to our apartment in Houston. 1200 miles!!
More later... We need to get all moved in.

M

Dream

I had a dream last night that I was a CIA agent protecting the President (not Bush, just a generic "President"). Our intelligence said that there was a mysterious tiger that was impervious to bullets and that the cat planned on attacking the President. We were guarding the president on his way to meet another government official and the tiger attacked. One agent went to shoot it and the tiger swallowed the gun and the agent whole. Two other agents attacked with their guns drawn and were swallowed. The cat turned to me, the remaining agent between it and the President. I kept my pistol in its holster and braced for the pounce. The cat started to bite me, but I grabbed it by the scruff and started calming it, telling it everything was OK. The tiger halted its attack and I was able to lead it away.

What does it mean?

Mark

Day 2 - Taking it easy on the beach

Today was a mellow, mellow day. October 23 is looming as a "change your life" kinda day, but today was all about relaxation. We did a few quickie videos & photos. Hope you like them.

M

Day One

Day one of our trip. We packed everything last night. I remembered that our cat needed to have his stiches out at the last minute, so Sheila volunteered to take him to the vet this morning while I packed the car. Since we were, more or less, in the "frequent flyer club" at the emergency vet (that's a whole 'nother story), they take the stiches out for free. Yay!

Timing worked out fine & we were on the road by 9:00. Weather was nice & we made it to Destin, FL by 5:00 local time. The hotels in Destin were full, so we went a couple miles down the road and got a room at the Holiday Inn (on the beach!!!!) in Ft. Walton Beach. Nice sunset view from the room. The front desk clerk recommended this restaurant, Bay Steamer, and it was awesome. Steamed clams, mussels, oysters, crab & local shrimp. Yum. Excellent food (and service).

Looks like there were a few comments. I'll check them out. Thanks everyone for sending good vibes!!
M

5 Years & still going

Five years ago, I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. At the time, the statistics for 5-year survival were not 50%, 20% or even 2%. They were "N/A". Not applicable. Well, we've proven that you can sometimes go against the odds & win. I've had 5 happy years that the stats said were impossible. I've gone through surgery, chemo, chemo again, radiation, new chemo, chemo, radiation again, and more chemo.

In a few days, we'll embark on what may the the last major step in my recovery. Because my remaning tumor (in my abdomen) has been (we believe) pretty stable, and since it appears (we believe) to only be in that one remaining spot, our doctors think surgery to cut it out is an available option for (possibly) a cure. I know - lots of qualifying statement in that sentence! Nevertheless, it looks like our best bet moving forward. It's hard to imagine, but we may, finally, get cured. The chances aren't 100%, of course. Lots of things could go wrong. But I have the best doctors, the best hospital & the best damn patient advocate one could ever have (my wife, Sheila).

Many of our friends & family have asked "what's up", so this blog is dedicated to you: The folks that have given us support, prayers & well wishes during this process and in the future.

Love,
Mark