ALF - Only 4 Days Remaining

I met with the surgeon Thursday - there were no strictures or lesions in the colon so he has given the "go" for the scheduled reversal next Wednesday.  That means Wednesday morning between 9 - 11:00 a.m. we will finally bid farewell to our beloved Alf.  It been (9) months of a one sided relationship and i will be glad to see him go.  Although ALF has provided quite a few memories over the last 3/4 of a year - unfortunately they are not worth remembering or repeating - so c'est la vie.

The surgeon will not repair the hernia's - there is too much risk involved to do both the ileostomy and the hernia's at the same time so instead the plan is to reverse the ileostomy and remove the power port from my chest - so the good news is there will be only (2) surgery sites instead of (4)- i still would prefer to just be knocked out and have them go for everything.

Kidney stone - plan is to ride it out and hope it passes by itself with minimal discomfort - so i'm sure that won't happen.  There is a back up plan involving a urologist but hopefully we won't need to go there.

Next steps

Looks like i should be in the hospital for 2 - 3 days after the surgery - they treat it much like a crohn's flare up - a day of NPO and than work your way toward solid foods - bottom line is you don't leave until you prove you can handle solid foods.  Unless there is a complication they will not need to go back through the wound - bonus for me - needless to say i am hoping for no complications.  Sounds like the chances are pretty low they would need to open up the wound.

Lots of monitoring from the Oncologist - especially the nodes that were identified in the left lung and liver so that will be ongoing for the next (3) years at least. Apparently the cancer if it does return typically never returns to the same site - it usually will show up in the lungs or liver hence the monitoring - if it does best to catch it early.

Other than that it is back to making friends with my Gastrointerologist - hopefully i can disprove his theory that the Crohn's will return within a week of the ileostomy reversal.  Need to go through some testing with him as well to monitor the Crohn's so that will be a future update.

Looking forward to getting back to work rejoining that thing called LIFE!!

Stay Healthy

Best

C-