The party is cancelled

What party?

Well, I never even got to the part where I sent out the invitations.  It was supposed to be an "Eat, Drink & Be Merry for Tomorrow I Won't Have an Esophagus" party.  I thought it would be a fun way to bid adieu to a bit of extraneous anatomy.

At the meeting this morning with Dr. McCahill (surgical oncologist) he told me that he had created a special spot for me tomorrow in his surgical schedule.  You see, Dr. Scott, the chemotherapy guy, is just itching to get started on treating the lymphoma because of its super aggressive, lethal nature.  The trouble is that the chemo treatment for that will inhibit my body's ability to heal itself; it is designed to kill fast growing cells.  So it is important to take care of the also-aggressive esophageal tumor first so that I can heal up from surgery before the lymphoma slaughter begins.

Dr, McCahill, the party-wrecker, gave me the lowdown on what to expect from an esophagectomy.  Evidently the esophagus, this seemingly-important player in the gastrointestinal system is not all that critical.  Kind of like your appendix.  It is merely a tube and it functions like a dumbwaiter, delivering food from the kitchen, down to the dining room.  This surgery just relocates the dining room "upstairs", right next to the kitchen.  So post-surgical Chuck will have his stomach in his chest, sharing an efficiency ribcage apartment with his heart and lungs.  It'll be a bit noisy and crowded but the food will get there quicker.

 Earlier I had mentioned that there were 2 ways to accomplish this surgery.  Dr. Shabahang prefers the trans-thoracic approach and he made it sound pretty damned good.  You can see more of the terrain and pick out the bad stuff easier.  Dr. McCahill prefers the laparoscopic trans-hiatal approach. There are a couple of blind spots but the the healing is much faster and the  possible side effects are less risky.  The bottom line is that Dr. Scott wants me back in the saddle quicker and the trans-hiatal approach can be scheduled right away and the healing will go faster.  That, plus the fact that 70% of these surgeries are being done with this newer method and it has become more accepted as the standard, preferred treatment.

So, I have been squeezed on to tomorrow afternoon's schedule at St. Mary's for this 6-8 hour surgery and I'll be shacking up on the 4th floor of Lacks Cancer Center for a couple weeks following.  The average is 11 days and the record is 7 days.  I'd think about trying to smash that record except the people at Lacks are so nice and they give me everything I need at the press of a button; very science fiction.

So at some point, the party will be rescheduled under a new name: the "Who Needs a Damned Esophagus Anyway?" party.  See you there!