Week 6 of radiation is complete. Radiation treatments are not really that difficult to do. You go into the chamber, lay down on the table for 20 minutes, and let the machine shower you with radioactivity. No problem. But, the doctor did say that week 4 and 5 would be difficult to deal with. There has been pain in my chest when I take a deep breath or when I eat anything solid and try to swallow. I can also feel the pain in my rib cage when I try to move around. It's a bit like having a sunburn on the inside of your body.
My feeding tube site from my original operation in March has never really healed. I showered a couple of weeks ago, and when I was finished I had blood streaming down my side. At that point, I was fed up. I called the doctors office and scheduled an appointment. I saw the doctor and he took one look at it and said;
"Hyper-tropic Granulation"
As Clint would say, "Say What?" The doc said there was a suture under the skin that never dissolved. Scar tissue grew around the suture and it would all need to come out. He said 10 to 15 minutes with a local anesthetic and it would be all over. That turned out to be wishful thinking.
We arrived at the hospital at 6:15 AM, got checked in and made it to my room. The nurse came in and asked if I had had anything to eat. I told her the doctor had planned on giving me a local and that it was OK for me to have breakfast. She said she would tell the doctor. It turns out he had changed his mind and wanted to put me out. Too bad they didn't tell us ahead of time. The doc said we would go ahead with the local.
They wheeled me into the operating room. The room at UCSF on Divisdero street was beautiful, state of the art. Everything was brand new. I think they would rather of had me not remember any part of the room. The nursers seemed to be somewhat alarmed that I was awake for this procedure. They knew what was going to happen, not me. They gave me an injection that numbed the site. The doctor started cutting, and pulling, and tugging, and cutting some more. He kept asking me "did you feel that?". I would say no, but it "does feel like you are re-arranging my insides". He would say, "that's normal". Well, 10 to 15 minutes turned into over an hour. They kept injecting me every 10 minutes or so. Finally, the doc said "there it is". So he took the suture out and finished taking the rest of the scar tissue out. They took about 4 to 5 sqaure inches of scar tissue out of a hole about an inch and a half wide. He finished up, closed, I went back to my room.
It will take a while to recover from my surgery. I wanted to go back to jogging in the morning, but that will have to wait. The pain in my side to too severe to do much right now. All I can try to do is keep eating and try to recover.
I will post again soon. Thanks for your support. MC
