Ray’s Blog

Still, almost six weeks out from my initial surgery and one week after my portacath surgery, I’m still in pain. A lot of actions I used to take for granted I now dread. I’m in pain and in fear of increased pain if I do something to aggravate myself. It is improving every day but slower than I had hoped. Here’s a brief list of things that scare the crap out of me now because they hurt or really hurt:

• sneezing
• coughing
• yawning
• stretching
• walking
• turning my head
• standing up
• sitting sown
• moving my right arm
• sleeping on my side or stomach
• sitting for long streches
• sometimes, even doing nothing

This morning I arrived at Vassar Brothers Hospital at 6:15 to have my portacath surgically implanted. It’s a same day surgery which compared to my five-day-stay right hemi-colectomy sounded like a piece of cake. It wasn’t. more…

UPDATED: new incision photo
The procedure I had was a right (my right) hemicolectomy. The idea was to remove the tumor, the section of the large intestine it was in along with associated lymph nodes, and any other tissue they could visibly see was cancerous. more…

I’ve been sent home after only 4 days post-surgery. The worst of my surgery recovery is now over. I’m really going to miss: being hooked up to an epidural, IV, urinary catheter, and NG tube, taking morphine (not really), eating liquid diets, getting CAT scans, needles for blood work, sleep interrupted every hour, the smells, the tastes, the sounds. In other words, it’s good to be home.

Tomorrow I will be having a cancerous tumor removed from my colon. The hope is that it has not spread and that the surgery alone will solve the problem. And to know that, we will have to wait until the pathology comes back on what they remove. So for now, I am focused on getting through the surgery and recovering as quickly as I can. I am grateful for all of the kind words from so many over the last few days. Vassar Hospital will be my home for the next week or so. I’ll keep you posted.