you totally looked. shoulder punch.
We got to the hospital and John donned his fancy surgery duds. (for a guy who wears five fingers, I guess those shoes aren't that bad :/)
We ended up with the surgery before ours starting late, which meant we would start late and while it's not like we had other plans, sitting there trying not to be nervous and scared isn't exactly easy. We joked as we played Words with Friends with each other on our phones (I'm totally winning) while we were sitting there in surgery prep. We also shared a laugh that the anesthesiologist totally seemed stoned. (no, we don't think he actually was, but it was funny to envision). The good bye was not any easier than last time, but I did inevitably have to leave. Rather than spend the whole day at the hospital, I came home and grabbed a jog, shower, and a coffee and then took to the waiting room with my book. The surgery was a tad shorter than expected (yay!). I will say that the time spent in the consultation room waiting for the doc is just grueling. I sat, I stood, I step-tapped.. and my stomach just fluttered. When our doc came to the door (he's adorable) he held out his hands, said he was sorry to make me go through this again and gave me a giant hug. We are so lucky to have him as our leader on this journey. He drew me this picture of John's guts as we talked.
He removed the three tumors. They had grown since discovery, which aligns with our first experience. John's cancer means business when it is released into the wild of his guts. The good news is that the drug he was on (Gleevec) kept it contained for three years without incident. This only resurfaced when he stopped taking it (under doctor supervision of course. Those with less aggressive forms of GIST have gone off and stayed clear. I don't want to in any way insinuate that this was a doctor screw up or us requesting to go off. This was the original plan.) So the surgery was a success and far less organs were cut this time than last time. What I am hoping is that will mean a shorter amount of time without food and shorter hospital stay. But today was long. The hospital seemed to be really full today (:( sorry for those who had to receive bad news) and everything was delayed. John was supposed to hit his room an hour after surgery, so around 5, and I first saw him at about 7. When I did, he was happy and feeling strong and looking good. Like this:
He is going to be OK. He will continue to work on being healthy and happy and most importantly, we'll be on his drugs forever. I don't think we would be here if he would have stayed on them.
I have to say that I feel so lucky. Cancer is a beast. There are families that hear that there are no options and their plan is for managing the decline of a loved one's life. There are patients who don't trust their doctors or think they are making the wrong decision but due to insurance, can't request a second opinion. There are people who do not have insurance. There are people in the waiting rooms who are told that a patient died during surgery. There are patients who come out of surgery with their lives fundamentally altered because a doctor had to take more than expected. None of these things have happened to us and while this isn't something we envisioned happening in our lives, we HAVE our lives and in a week or so, I'll bring my husband home and we'll get right back on track with living those lives to the fullest.
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