My scar is bigger than your scar!

Carla and I met with my surgeon and my oncologist this last Thursday. We now have a game plan for the next part of my cancer treatment. While surgery removed what was left of the tumor and all of the surrounding tissue, I will be receiving additional chemo therapy as insurance against any rogue cancer cell left in my body causing future problems. We do not want to risk recurrence.

I will be given six rounds of chemo therapy, with each round being a three week cycle. Each cycle consists of 14 days of capecitabine (Xeloda) tablets followed by seven days off for recovery. Then we do it again. Two weeks on, one week off, six times for a total of 18 weeks. I will take these pills at home just like last time. Xeloda is the same drug I took before surgery. We are using it again since it was extremely effective the first time. I start mid January and should finish by the end of May if all goes well.

My surgeon is very pleased with my recovery. I am now one month out from surgery and everything seems to be healing and functioning well. Dr. Sklow has cleared me to go back to work as well. I plan to work part time at the office for the next two weeks while building back up to full 8 hour shifts. I actually went in for the first time this afternoon and put in a few hours. Of course I had to take a nap in the middle of it. I have a fold up matt I can lay out in my office for just such occasions. Funny that it takes 4 hours at the office to get in 3 hours of work, but it's a start.

My dad had open heart surgery several years ago and bares a nice scar on his chest to prove it. My scar picks up where his left off and continues down my lower abdomen. He hasn't seen me since before my surgery so he's been full of questions. Dad, I'm posting these two pictures so you can see for yourself what I've been trying to describe over the phone. The rest of you don't have to look.

This first picture was taken two weeks after surgery just before the staples were removed. Carla measured the scar at eight inches (20 cm). The incision was closed with 34 metal staples. A nurse came to our home to remove them. She used a stainless steel staple remover to pull them out one at a time. I only remember saying 'ouch' about four times. But then I did take two oxycodone pills an hour before she arrived.

The other part of the picture shows me holding my ostomy bag aside. A loop in my small intestines was pushed through my abdomen to the outside. This loop was cut so that it drains into the attached bag. The purpose for this is so that my large intestines can heal from surgery. All but the last inch of my rectum was removed and a new storage tank (called a colonic 'J' pouch) was constructed from my large intestines and then attached to my remaining rectum. That's a lot of very small surgical staples inside of me. Nothing comes out at the bottom for now. Dr. Sklow will reverse the ileostomy about a month after the chemo stops. Then I get to use my new plumbing for the first time. Should be fun.

This second picture is about 3 weeks after surgery with the staples removed and a fresh, opaque ostomy bag in place. Normally this bag gets tucked under my clothing and is kept out of sight. I can open the bag at the bottom for draining as often as needed throughout the day. It's just a different way of handling bowel movements. If you enlarge the photo you can see all of the little yellow bruises on my belly from the Lovenox injections. I am definitely glad to be done with those.

So here's to being half way done with my cancer treatment. Next up, more chemo therapy followed by another quick surgery to reverse the ileostomy.