Sugeon Meeting Was Not Good

Dr. Ahearne will not perform the reconnect until I have a "shake and bake" procedure.  It would occur in Winston-Salem at the Wake Forest Cancer Center and consists of a 14-hour surgery where they pour chemo drugs into my peritoneal cavity and let it bake there destroying the cancer.  After the surgery, I would be at Wake Forest Hospital for a month followed by several weeks of at-home therapy.

The Mayo Clinic in Jax said they recommended talking to a surgeon there(when we left in May) so maybe we do that when we go down there in November   Perhaps I can get it done at Mayo without Shake and Bake.

Ahearne is worried that if he reconnects and the cancer comes back we'll have to go back in and create the ostomy again.  We certainly do not want to do that.BUT Mayo thinks the cancer can be corrected by chemotherapy.   We talked about shake and bake with the Mayo Doctor (Dr. Johnson) and she believes it does not increase life expectancy much.

If we move to Winston for 30-60 days- then Patrick and the dogs would need to get a house there that takes dogs and all kinds of other inconveniences.  We really have to figure out what we are doing here.  It scares me to think he will simply NOT DO IT without the shake and bake.  Interestingly the shake and bake would also reconnect the bowel while I am on the table. 

There is no rush on this but eventually I will have to decide. 

I am having that feeling that I am not immortal again.  It went away several months ago and I was having a great time.    I know the cancer is there -- I still get pains -- but I just want to hibernate for a while (at least tonight).  I want to have a pity party for a little while.

I found out that the man who discovered this technique is Dr. Paul Sugarbaker of DC.  If he is still there, we could get a hotel room at GW (my alma mater) and hang out in DC for a few months.  HA!

Oh well, life always presents us with interesting choices, doesn't it?  But at least we have the choice.  In some other counties I would be left to die on the side of the road . 

Thanks for all your comments and concerns!

Love,

Peggy