Surgery Consult Update

 First, thank you all for the prayers last week when I headed with Paul to Charleston to a surgery consultation with a surgeon at MUSC. 

The prayers were felt, and we were able not only to travel back n forth safely but also feel like we were able to ask good questions, and truly hear the surgeon so we could make a very important decision, informed and levelheaded. 

An Angel fact many might not know; I don't love interstates. I had some near miss accidents some years ago and my anxiety really heightens when I am on an interstate for any length of time. 

Yes, this fact did make traveling cross country when we moved back to SC quite interesting. I may or may not have "strongly encouraged" Paul to take an exit in nowhere Texas once, took the truck keys out of the ignition, sat silently contemplating making the abandoned gas station or grain silo our new residence for over 30 minutes. Looking back the funniest part was my youngest two kids having real questions about what we were doing...were we going to live here? Were there grocery stores? Upset they didn't have internet connection there...and my mom who was in the backseat trying to quietly tell them to just give mommy space and to shhhhh be quiet lol

Anyway, my sweet hubby, knowing I was already stressed going into the appointment planned a backroads only route for us to get back n forth to Charleston and we packed a nice picnic lunch which we ate alongside the battery before heading into my pre-consult lung function testing. We even had a bit of time to look at some Charleston architecture. He gets a golden star for sure! 

I had been worried about my lung function test since it can basically rule in or out my suitability for the surgery at all and I am still recovering from my lung aspiration event from a couple of weeks ago.  However, I PASSED it!!! and on the first try for each of the tasks too!  That was very encouraging to be sure. 

After some trickiness trying to get from one hospital building to another down the block using a medical shuttle, we arrived to our surgery consult with Dr Barry Gibney.  To be honest, I was expecting not to like him as I have had my heart set on the first surgeon and hospital my medical team recommended, Dr D'amico at Duke in NC.  

However, Dr Gibney seemed knowledgeable and confident.  A little side note, remember a couple of months ago when my daughter wrecked her car and the owner of the house/mailbox that she hit was a Esophageal cancer survivor and health insurance agent? Well, this Dr Gibney in Charleston is who did his surgery 5 years ago. 

He explained the basics of the surgery baring no complications and without having my updated post chemo/radiation scans to be completely case specific. 

The surgery itself is rather complex and I am anxious about it. He explained that provided everything is a go, he would perform a robotic, minimally invasive Ivor- Lewis Esophagectomy procedure, meaning instead of longer incisions I would have 8 or so small incisions. The surgery takes around 5-8 hours to complete. During the procedure he would remove 1/3 of my stomach and 3/4 of my esophagus, all of the lymph nodes around the esophagus, and will splice several times the vagus nerve as there is no practical way to preserve it entirely. My left lung will be deflated during the surgery. My remaining stomach will then be brought up and attached to the top of the esophagus in my neck.  I will have a feeding tube to my intestines for several weeks/month after to allow my digestive system to heal. He said the first 24 hours are the most critical for complications and baring none the usual time from surgery to discharge is 7 days and the expectation is to have me up and walking the day of the surgery. The actual full recovery is longer. 

So truthfully, none of that sounds like what I WANT to do. However, statistics say chemo/radiation without surgery leads to an 85% recurrence rate. Therefore, after much prayer and thinking, Paul and I have decided to proceed with the surgical recommendations.  We have also decided to continue with Dr. Gibney and MUSC Charleston. It is covered by our insurance and is more conveniently located for not only my family to offer support but also for the recovery period. My other option for NC involved actually having to relocate to NC to continue the second leg of my treatment there in order to have insurance that would cover services at Duke and with Dr D'Amico. 

We have an appointment to have my repeat PET scan at 10am in Charleston on January 24th.  We will meet again with Dr. Gibney right after to go over the results. We will also pick a date for the actual surgery and any other pre-surgery procedures (EEG etc) at that time as well.  We were told that the surgery should take place ideally 6-8 weeks after that PET scan and no more than 12 weeks after, so most likely March 2023.  

A few specific prayer requests heading into the new year...

1. That I finish my last 5 radiations strong. 

2. That the PET scan on the 24th shows that the chemo/radiation has been successful in shrinking/inhibiting the growth of the tumor. 

3. That God in His great graciousness provides me with comfort and peace as we move toward this surgery date and that my anxiousness is replaced by assurance that HE is the great physician. 

Thank you guys, again, for being alongside me on this journey. It truly does help knowing I have a team of people alongside me, encouraging me and praying into this situation.