Hi Teresa, Thank you for sharing your story and suggestions. I'm assuming your surgeries were from blockages in the intestines, or no?
Our appt with the surgeon went very well. He's the type of Dr that we like. We said we came armed with questions and he said... great, I'm ready, bring it on. So first off, my husband had admitted he had been in denial and we needed to establish his staging from the Dr. He NEEDED to hear it from him. They don't always offer staging, so I asked. Is he stage 4 (which i knew but my husband didn't believe me). YES. Is this curable.... NO but it's treatable. We discussed the chemo pill his oncologist had sad was the next line of treatment bc the liver tumors are growing and the disease is spreading. The surgeon didn't recommend the pill for many reasons mainly, that being overall side affects, restrictions while on it and the bottom line was it wasn't really going to outweigh the minor plusses it might have over the side affects esp with my husband's current other health issues. We then discussed pros and cons of surgery (debulking) of the liver. He pulled up the pet scan images (my husband is visual and needed to see this) and showed the tumors, some very tiny possible tumors that didn't show on the scan and some possible cysts. My husband asked about doing an ablasion vs surgery. The surgeon said the tumors are too big for an ablation plus one is to close to the gallbladder. He recommend that bc things have changed since our last visit he would recommend surgery but it would be up to my husband, and as to when. He also explained the surgery, surgery time. time out of work, and emphasized it was a major surgery. I was impressed that he also mentioned that he meets with the Board and would be discussing his case with other Drs of different specialties. And said that his oncologist should have been keeping him updated on my husband's progress. Had we known that I would've made sure that he was kept up with my husband's progress. We also asked for a recommendation for a different oncologist. And we went with the one who saw our son when was initially diagnosed with cancer. We left with all of our questions answered and my husband seems to be ok with the surgery but doesn't know when to do it. It was a lot for him to take in, and I get it. He needs to just let all this sink in and figure it out. Unfortunately, he's the guy that will find every reason not to have it done. Which we discussed with the surgeon that if he were to wait until next year then there will probsbly be more growth and surgery would be more entailed. We left it at, my husband will decide when and call back to schedule. He does have another appt in Dec that was our initial follow up that we left in place so that we can ask more questions and hopefully get this set up. I feel better now and not the doom and gloom that I did before. We did not discuss prognosis. I felt like that would be too much at once. Plus there is no set guarantee at this point. I feel helpless and I have no control over his decision or plan. But I did remind him we are in this together and I'm a vital part of his treatment. He agreed. Patience is not my thing.....I would want it out of me if it were me... but it's not me. So I'll wait. When the time is right I'll approach the subject again. Having surgery by end of year has more plusses than next year. And he knows that. Once he makes a decision I'll let y'all know. Thanks all