Monday, May 12, 2014
Sunday, May 11, 2014
A week after seeing Dr Kim, surgery was scheduled. We stayed with Aimee and David Sunday night. They had ordered a memory foam wedge pillow for Dennis and he slept the best he had in months on the wedge.
They didn't take him into surgery until 4:30PM. De and Aimee waited with me. We got many phone calls from family. When Dr Kim came to talk to me, I knew it was bad news. You want your surgeon to come out with a smile on their face. That means things went well and they are proud of their accomplishment. He was not smiling. The lymph node was ok, but the appendix was eaten through with cancer. There was cancer all over surfaces of the stomach, messentery, liver, pericardium, etc. they took the appendix, one tumor and a sample by the cecum.
They didn't take him into surgery until 4:30PM. De and Aimee waited with me. We got many phone calls from family. When Dr Kim came to talk to me, I knew it was bad news. You want your surgeon to come out with a smile on their face. That means things went well and they are proud of their accomplishment. He was not smiling. The lymph node was ok, but the appendix was eaten through with cancer. There was cancer all over surfaces of the stomach, messentery, liver, pericardium, etc. they took the appendix, one tumor and a sample by the cecum.
DKR had been having vague symptoms since October. They got much worse after Christmas and into the next year. He thought he had ulcers due to the stress of taking care of his mom or that he had a hiatal hernia. For the last 6 weeks before going to the doctor, he slept in a chair. He felt full all the time and felt the food was coming up.
Two weeks after Duella died, DKR had his scopes. The next day we got the terrible news, stomach cancer, adenocarcinoma with a signet ring cell component. We were very hopeful as the gastroenterologist said that the tumor was very small, so small he missed it the first time. Dr Pedersen and Dr Hughes called DKR at home expressing their optimism and trying to figure out how Dennis came to have an endoscopy at such an early stage. Dr Kim, the cancer surgeon, painted another picture saying this cancer tended to line the organs in a form called linitis plastica and told us this form of cancer is uncurable at present and is very aggressive.
The ct scan didn't look bad, according to the female radiologist, but there was thickening at the cecum. The PET CT was negative.
Dr Kim had DKR get immunizations for the flu, meningitis and pneumonia. During the physical, he felt an enlarged axillary lymph node and noted things didn't feel right at the cecum. The plan was to take out the lymph node first. If it was cancer, surgery wouldn't help. If it was clear, the next step was surgery by laparoscopy to look for tumor spread. If that was clear, he would remove the stomach.
We went to a local home show where they demo'd adjustable beds. I'm not one who would buy something like that, but the thought of DKR without a stomach made me think he would do better with a bed like that. They sell for$8000 plus tax, delivery, mattress pads, , pillows, and set up. They wanted $5300 but when DKR said that was very expensive, he dropped it to $4800.
Two weeks after Duella died, DKR had his scopes. The next day we got the terrible news, stomach cancer, adenocarcinoma with a signet ring cell component. We were very hopeful as the gastroenterologist said that the tumor was very small, so small he missed it the first time. Dr Pedersen and Dr Hughes called DKR at home expressing their optimism and trying to figure out how Dennis came to have an endoscopy at such an early stage. Dr Kim, the cancer surgeon, painted another picture saying this cancer tended to line the organs in a form called linitis plastica and told us this form of cancer is uncurable at present and is very aggressive.
The ct scan didn't look bad, according to the female radiologist, but there was thickening at the cecum. The PET CT was negative.
Dr Kim had DKR get immunizations for the flu, meningitis and pneumonia. During the physical, he felt an enlarged axillary lymph node and noted things didn't feel right at the cecum. The plan was to take out the lymph node first. If it was cancer, surgery wouldn't help. If it was clear, the next step was surgery by laparoscopy to look for tumor spread. If that was clear, he would remove the stomach.
We went to a local home show where they demo'd adjustable beds. I'm not one who would buy something like that, but the thought of DKR without a stomach made me think he would do better with a bed like that. They sell for$8000 plus tax, delivery, mattress pads, , pillows, and set up. They wanted $5300 but when DKR said that was very expensive, he dropped it to $4800.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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