No news yet

It’s Monday afternoon and I’m sitting at home with both my cell phone and the home phone close by. Last week our home phone went on the fritz and no on could call in, but we didn’t find this out until Thursday night. It wasn’t fixed until late Friday afternoon so we aren’t sure what if any phone calls we missed, so for backup we now make sure that the doctors’ offices have both home and cell phones on record for us. Late Thursday I spoke with the nurse from Dr. Hanto’s office and arranged for copies of my CT scans from Mt. Auburn to be burned to CD for Dr. Hanto to pick up Thursday night. I was very busy at work on Friday and never got around to calling to check in, so by late Friday night Pat and I were resolved that we wouldn’t hear anything further until today.

We were proven wrong however, and it’s just one more reason why I am feeling confident with our choice. Dr. Hanto called me at home on Saturday evening to let me know there had been some problems getting my CT scans and he was unable to connect with his urologist so he would not have any more information for me until Monday. He also still wanted to talk with Dr. Nauta and Dr. Karian. I was floored – it was 6pm on a Saturday night and my surgeon was calling to tell me he was sorry he hadn’t called back sooner. Whoa...I didn’t get any information, but at least I know what the hang up is and I know that he is covering all his bases. This surgery and I are so a-typical that he wants to make certain he has every piece of information before cutting me open. I’m certainly not upset with that.

I actually spoke with Dr. Nauta on Thursday to let him know that Pat and I hat met Dr. Hanto and had really liked him. Dr. Nauta sounded relieved – guess I’m hard to please sometimes (smile). He gave me some more information about why he chose to go this route this time – seems that Dr. Nauta is looking ahead at my future surgeries, which might include a small bowel transplant something that Dr. Hanto would be perfect for. So Dr. Nauta wanted him to begin to get familiar with my insides. Good to know – though hopefully a few years down the road. Dr. Nauta also indicated that while he felt I was in more than capable hands, he would stop by the surgery if he could, otherwise he would meet with me and Dr. Hanto afterwards for the follow up. I really am lucky to have people like this on my side.

We talked at length with Dr. Hanto about what he plans to do. Fortunately there were some diagrams on the walls and he was able to show us exactly how he would go about disconnecting my kidney and why it was the sort of procedure done by transplant or vascular surgeon (involves disconnecting and reconnecting to 2 main veins). He also indicated that he felt the tumors came from the mass of scar tissue at the base of the bladder. Dr. Nauta is still going with the, tumor on outside of ureter, has penetrated through. We’ll find out for certain when they open me up. Dr. Hanto knows that he has to be vigilant in removing the scar tissue by the bladder, but he is concerned about having to remove more bladder. I’ve already only got half a normal bladder, and he doesn’t want to leave me with something so small that it’s of no use. However I expressed my desire to avoid a uretocomy (basically bag on the outside of my body to serve as a bladder.) He listened to me when I explained certain quality of life issues that are important to both Pat and I. Hopefully it won’t be an issue.

I’m spending this week getting myself mentally prepared for the surgery and getting stuff ready around the house. Finding my comfy pants (very loose waist for over the incision), stocking up on cling wrap to cover the incision during showers, getting some mindless reading stocked up, and video games dusted off, chick flicks saved to DVD. Loading up some new tunes to the iPod, puttering around and generally trying to ward off the nerves. The good news is that I don’t have to do bowel prep before this surgery so that means I won’t spend the night before crying on the floor of the bathroom. Instead I get to eat jello, broth and lots of clear liquids the day before. This also means that I should be able to eat after surgery and not have to spend weeks on TPN waiting until I pass gas before eating anything. Wow – what a difference for me. Hopefully will make the entire process more bearable.

OK, now that I’ve babbled on long enough its time to find a new way to calm my nerves. I’ll post the surgery date as soon as its set – my vote is for March 7. This way I can help Pat eat his birthday cake on March 5th.