I have made what I believe is the hardest decision I have ever made in my life. On February 21, I am going to have a prophylactic total gastrectomy, ie. I'm going to have my stomach removed. As much as I don't want to do it, all evidence indicates that it is better than the alternative. I think what really made me decide to do it was not so much the not wanting to die from stomach cancer (which I don't want to do), but more the not wanting to live the rest of my life in fear. If I don't have the surgery then every time I don't feel quite right, I would be wondering "is this the cancer, is this the cancer". I don't want to live my life like that. And I have always taken doctors' advice about surgeries or procedures to have or whatever, so why was I questioning it this time and thinking I somehow knew better than the doctors. This will be life changing, no doubt about it, but I have read several blogs online and talked to one person on the phone who is 4 years post surgery and there are plenty of people that have had the surgery for this exact reason and are living a "normal" life.
The surgery is on a Tuesday, but all of the pre-op appointments (surgeon, anesthesiologist, cardiac, x-ray, lab) are the Thursday before, so we will actually be headed down on Wednesday, February 15. We are going January 5 to have another endoscopy done as it will be almost a year since the one we had down there last April and the surgeon wants a more recent one than that. If we had it done at the same time in February, it would have to be the Tuesday before so they would have time to get pathology back and I just couldn't see being down there for a whole week before the surgery. Also, Keith's vacation resets January 16, so by doing it in early January, those two days can be on this year's vacation time instead of next year's.
For more details about the actual surgery, I recommend this blog by two sisters who both had the surgery done in April by the same surgeon I will be using at MD Anderson.
The surgery is on a Tuesday, but all of the pre-op appointments (surgeon, anesthesiologist, cardiac, x-ray, lab) are the Thursday before, so we will actually be headed down on Wednesday, February 15. We are going January 5 to have another endoscopy done as it will be almost a year since the one we had down there last April and the surgeon wants a more recent one than that. If we had it done at the same time in February, it would have to be the Tuesday before so they would have time to get pathology back and I just couldn't see being down there for a whole week before the surgery. Also, Keith's vacation resets January 16, so by doing it in early January, those two days can be on this year's vacation time instead of next year's.
For more details about the actual surgery, I recommend this blog by two sisters who both had the surgery done in April by the same surgeon I will be using at MD Anderson.
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