Update and Thanks for the Support!

Hi All!  It feels like it’s been a long time since my last update.  First of all, I want to just say how much your love and support for me and my family and enthusiasm for our initial efforts to start ‘Love Your Buns’ has touched my heart.  I am so excited to begin our journey together!

Friday, August 31 – Surgery

There is no way to prepare yourself for surgery – even if you’ve gone through it already. You already know all that your body is about to go through; anesthesia, incisions, pain management, blood draws, constant monitoring, drainage tubes, ‘Foleys’ and ugh, hospital beds.  Literally nothing about this process is fun.  However, the doctors, nursing staff and facilities manage to keep up with all of these functions and help manage patient’s struggles and emotions with a friendly demeanor.  This was especially true at Memorial Sloan Kettering.  There are too many individuals to thank from MSK – but thank you, thank you, thank you, for all that you do!


Saturday, Sunday

Over the weekend my main issue was dealing with nausea.  I have difficulties with both anesthesia and narcotics.  Throughout this experience, and with any of my previous procedures I have struggled with the side effects of opioids/narcotics when trying to manage pain.  They definitely do reduce pain, but the nausea is never really worth it for me.  Maybe it’s a blessing?  There are so many people out there struggling with addiction to opioids, and although there are many out there that also truly do need opioids to manage their pain, it is a shame that these drugs get pushed so heavily as the first line pain management. 

By the end of the day Sunday I was doing some walking, but with the struggle of weaning off the narcotics, pain became a bigger issue.  Especially in my back.  Again, I hate hospital beds!  Jarod ran to Bed Bath and Beyond to get me an egg-carton foam mattress pad – but this did not help, sadly.


Monday – More Pain Management and Crafts

Pain continued into Monday, but day by day I was feeling better, so we ventured further on my walks.  One of my longer walks allowed us to check out MSK’s wonderful recreational center designed for patients and their families during treatment.  The rec center has crafts, music, dance therapy, a sun deck, conference room, puzzles, and most importantly a place to gather with others dealing with the same issues.  In short, it is a small sanctuary to take your mind off your pain. We met and talked with some very interesting people here!

On Monday I was allowed ‘full liquids’ which was probably enough for me at the time.  Chocolate pudding!

 
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Tuesday – Surprise!

Tuesday yet again had waves of positive and negative changes, but everything was headed in the right direction.  We went further on walks, spent more time at the rec center, and ate solid food!

In the afternoon, my surgeon stopped by to check on my progress and spoke to me briefly about how the surgery had gone and when I could expect to be discharged.  As Jarod mentioned, the surgeon again spoke about the overall success of the surgery and going well to the plan.  He was very pleased with my progress and even commented: “you don’t really look like a patient recovering from liver surgery, you look like someone visiting a patient recovering from surgery!”  That was great feedback of course!  Follow up appointment with him will occur next week, at which point we should have received the full pathology report.  They are also doing genetics and germ-line testing of the tumor, but those results are not likely to be received until about 5-6 weeks out.

Just a couple hours later we received a crazy surprise.  ‘Your insurance company doesn’t really feel like you should stay here one more night…but we are happy to fight them on that…unless you WANT to be discharged?’  Well, that sounds great!  I was ready to go, and after talking it over with a very helpful and friendly Nurse Practitioner, it looked like I was meeting all of the criteria to be good to go.  So… we had to hurry and get our hotel one night early.  But it was worth it!  I was still hurting a fair amount, but the comfort of being in a private (and not so cozy) hotel room instead of a hospital bed was indeed a very welcome surprise.

 
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Wednesday – TV, walking, and more TV

Today has been a lot of wanting to get out and experience New York but having to realize that I’m still in the early stages of recovery.  No scaling the Chrysler Building just yet.  Time to catch up on TV, allow Jarod time to catch up on work, and get really emotional over missing my sweet children. 

All for now – back in a few days with more updates.

With Love,
Sara DCamp

Love Your Buns is a non-profit initiative aiming to remove stigma and improve awareness around rectal cancer, its prevalence and its symptoms. A growing epidemic in young adults, rectal cancer is easy to remove if caught early, however due to a variety of reasons, young adults are not likely to seek screening options like colonoscopies. This gap in screening is leading to more advanced disease at diagnosis and more challenging and strenuous treatment. We're working to Educate young adults to increase awareness of the signs and increasing prevalence of Rectal Cancer and to Empower informed decision making and Improve quality of life in Survivorship.
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