No Bag Here!

So – I guess that I left off some critical information (surgeries 15 & 16). As you know, surgery 14 placed a urine bag on me to try to drain my blocked kidney so that I wouldn’t lose it. It is dangerous to have a kidney blocked for a prolonged period of time and so they needed to act fast.

On Wednesday night when I was in the hospital following the surgery, my surgeon came to visit me. While discussing the surgery, he told me that he thought that he could move the bag to an internal system in 2-3 months. I pushed back immediately, asking if there was any way that he could do it sooner than that. After thinking about it for a minute, he said that he could probably do the surgery in a month. My response was that while that timing was better, I would like him to think about it overnight and see if he had an even better response in the morning.

The next morning, when he returned to discharge me, he informed me that he had thought about it and he felt that the surgery could be done the following week.  I was thrilled.

On Thursday, December 19, my bag was removed during surgery #15 and they were able to place a stent in my ureter. Apparently, coming from above was easier than coming from below. They left the tube in my back for another week to ensure that the stent was working. Then, one week later, I went in to get all of the plumbing moved to an internal system just in time for 2014.

And now you’re all caught up with my surgeries. Since I had 5 procedures in one month, I have become quite well known at Stanford’s Interventional Radiology unit. And – to make me completely unique, my dear friends at Genentech gave me my own stylish hospital gown, which is covered with beautiful flowers.  Since I spend so much time in a hospital gown, it’s nice to have a little bit of cheeriness all around me.  Thank you Genentech (heck – these people not only are saving my life but making me look fabulous while doing so)!

This Friday, I will head back down to Stanford for a 2 hour scan so that the radiation oncologist is very clear what’s inside of me and how best to approach my tumors.  The week of the 27^th is most likely when I’ll begin my 10 day radiation treatment. 

So – the cancer adventure continues – but first I need to get through this week since I’m putting on 7 different work events in 3 days… Oy!