Hysterectomy
Matt's Experience Matt, a YCS board member, submitted the following experience about his wife Kara:
The surgery was outlined to remove Kara's uterus and both ovaries. The surgery went fine without any complications. She was the first case in the morning, and it took a couple of hours to complete. The nurses had her up and trying to walk that evening (gotta get those bowels moving!). The hospital stay lasted for several days, and there was a lot of soreness from the surgery that lasted several weeks. By four weeks, she was approximately 60% recovered and 80-90% by six weeks post-surgery. Because the ovaries were removed, she is now on the estrogen patch. Ask for the brand name. It costs more, but the generic is HUGE and obvious.
Brain Surgery
Matt's Experience
Matt, a YCS board member, submitted the following experience about his wife
Kara:
We had emergency brain surgery to remove the largest of four metastases to the brain. We went into the hospital early in the morning, she was prepped, and several hours later the surgery was done. She awoke briefly in the recovery unit and then was moved to the brain ICU. There were people who were living in the waiting room, and everyone had their space staked out. Find a good comfortable chair and claim it.
Since she had just come out of surgery, she was in a private room and the nurse let me stay past the visiting hours. The next day, she was moved out of the ICU, and the following day she went home. Fortunately for us, the tumor was very close to the surface of the brain and did not have lots of "fingers" emanating out from the tumor into the brain. It was an easy surgery, very little tissue to cut through so there is not much to be sore.
The next week, the staples were removed, and we had to be careful not to apply pressure to the "bone flap" until it had healed. Occasionally, her arm would get tingly for a short time while sitting still. When we mentioned it to the neurosurgeon, he increased the dose of Dilantin thinking the tingling sensations were seizures trying to break through. The increased Dilantin immediately stopped the problem. She still has a massive scar on her head. The surgeon was not very concerned about a "pretty" scar, but the tumor was gone. The other three tumors were inaccessible by traditional surgery so radiosurgery targeted them.
Left-axilla lymph-node dissection
Karen's Experience
Karen, a YCS board member, submitted the following experience about her
husband Mark:
Surgery #1: Mark's lump showed up in his left armpit (axilla). The diagnostic surgery was almost two hours long because the lymph node had rapidly grown to 10 centimeters (which is considered quite large), and it was partially wrapped around major blood vessels and nerves leading to his arm. Mark had a drain, which I had to empty and measure the contents of, for three days. It healed pretty well, which was fortunate because he started chemo the next week.
Surgery #2: Since the cancer was, against all odds, staying only in the axilla area, we had a second surgery, this time with a breast surgeon I knew. They removed several lymph nodes further up into Mark's armpit, making the incision in a similar place as the previous one. He healed fairly well from this surgery and had the drain out pretty quickly. However, since he ignored the doctor's advice to not lift anything heavy (and I was not there to stop him), that started a chain of events related to complications from the surgery. Unfortunately, these complications eventually lead to the opening of the surgical wound months later, requiring special care.
Intrathecal procedures/fluoroscopy
Karen's Experience
Karen, a YCS board member, submitted the following experience about her
husband Mark:
Lumbar punctures are when a needle is placed inside the spinal cord in order to sample the spinal fluid for testing, insert chemo or other drugs, or both. Some of Mark's chemo had to be inserted intrathecally, since the body does its best to prevent drugs in the blood from getting into the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Burkitt's lymphoma likes to go into the central nervous system. Mark got horrible headaches from the spinal taps. They were so completely debilitating that after the first two we started loudly asking for fluoroscopy, where an X-ray helps the doctor to guide the needle into the correct place in the spinal column, minimizing pain and the risk of losing additional spinal fluid (which greatly contributes to the headaches).
While the fluoroscopy didn't totally eliminate the headaches, it reduced them a lot, making it easier for Mark to at least be more comfortable between treatments. It is vital that after a spinal procedure your spouse lies totally flat (no pillow) for a minimum of an hour to allow the pressure in the spine to equalize and for the hole to begin to heal. Anything to avoid those horrible headaches!