Hope For Holly

As far as meetings go, especially to discuss getting your whole stomach cut open and 8 - 10 cm cut out of your colon, todays final prep for Friday’s surgery went pretty well.

I think that I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, we really like our surgeon. He has patience (get it, it’s a doctor joke), he is confident, he is extremely calming and, at least seems to be, a generally all round good guy. He describes this operation in the same manner that you or I would discuss baking chocolate chip cookies. Oh, we’ll just cut open your stomach, cut 8 cm out of your colon, reroute your small intestine out the side wall, throe in a dash of salt and bake at 350 for 8 minutes and viola, you’re good as new.

First off, I’m still amazed at what science can do for the human body. The fact that even 15 years ago this was more or less a death sentence and now they just cut you open and move some things around and put some things back is a little kooky to me and I grew up with a mom who worked in the local hospital. Secondly, Dr. Youn’s cool demeanor is just so solid. He is like the James Bond of colo-rectal surgery. I know that there is a joke there somewhere and given enough time I’ll come up with it. I suppose that if I’ve done this a couple of hundred times that I would have an equal coolness, but it is still really amazing to see.

My notes from the meeting:
- Once gas and liquid are passed to the bag, then she can drink liquids again. Thankfully, Starbucks is across the street from the hospital. Physically, I’m not sure it’s the best thing, but mentally, I know that she will need it.
- Our kids think that farting into a bag is the greatest thing ever and can’t wait to try on their own.
- Gum, sour candy and moving around trick the digestive system into working faster. These are all good things.
- Orbit Mint Mojito is the best gum on the market right now. It has nothing to do with anything, but it is really good stuff. Almost like a mojito.
- Getting addicted to morphine would be bad
- After the first day of cutting and stapling, he wants her moving around. The Bay to Breakers is right around the corner, but I think that would be pushing it.
- After a few days, she can eat soft solid food like pasta, rice, fish. After 2 weeks, she can eat pretty much anything. This is contrary to what we’ve heard from other people and it turns out that everyones digestive system is different and will react differently to all foods.
- After 6 weeks we get to go through it again to put Holly Wolly back together again.
- Did you know? That tumors grow much faster in people under the age of 50? Get checked out.
- Even though the surgery is supposed to take 3 hours, Dr. Youn said that on Fridays there are always back ups, there will be at least an hour of prep and an hour of doing something afterwards and strongly suggested that I didn’t hang around in the waiting room and slowly go insane. Mmm, 5 - 6 hours on a nice day with nothing to do. I probably shouldn’t go golfing either.
- We closed the meeting with something really deep. Even though there is about a 6 week recovery process, we are stuck with cancer for the rest of our lives. Even after the 5 year waiting period. Holly will always be a cancer survivor. She will always be willing to talk about it and will probably be part of a network that helps young women in the same situation that we are in now. These will be the constant reminders.
- The regular colonscopies will serve as a reminder less we forget.