Life just gives you time & space; it's up to you to fill it.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Dad's Cancer Journals - 3

The D-Day arrived. Mom and I were preparing ourselves for the long day ahead. We went to the hospital all positive even though I was shit scared and the weather outside didn't help either, it was a wet day pouring heavily intermittently. The other thing was the 2 doctors who were supposed to come from India to overlook the surgery, were delayed by 7 hours which meant that they would only arrive after the surgery was completed, not of much use to dad. But, in spite of all these shortcomings, dad was very positive and that was contagious. The nurses started preparing him by 10 and he was made to lie on a stretcher to be taken to the Operation Theatre. Mom, Uncle and I wished him luck and his answer was - "I will be fine, you guys don't worry". I was shocked!

We waited outside the OT for almost 7 hours for some news about the surgery. Mom, Uncle, Aunty and I took turns while the other took a short break to stretch. At about 3 we found that the flight taken by the Indian Doctors - Dr. Nandakumar (Dad's family doctor) and Dr. Neelamegam (Liver Specialist at Chennai) was arriving in a short while. That was a change from the monotonous wait. Although that didn't matter much since we expected the surgery to be
nearly done. We were told by Dr. K. C. Tan's assistant that the colon surgery took 2 hours and the liver another 2. By 5 pm when the Indian doctors just arrived, we heard back from the OT and they said that Dr. Tan had completed and the other doctors were stitching dad up. We met Dr. Tan and he explained to us that even though the PET/CT scan had only shown 3 active nodules of tumor, when they opened there were in fact 4. They were able to remove 3 of these
using Wedged Resection of 3 segments and did an RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) to burn the other small tumor. He suspected that these tumors may have been necrose (meaning dead cells), but had to confirm that with a few more tests. I guess the future treatment would depend on this and the presence of any micro particle of cancer (which I hope does not exist). The wait unfortunately is still not over.

Dr. Tanvir showed us the specimen of the tumor in the colon and the 3 segments of the liver resected. It was interesting to see the villains which caused so much pain to dad. They were pretty big in size and ugly to look at. I wanted to take some snaps, but he said that they would give us snaps later. All this while dad was being dressed and prepared for the ICU. Gleneagles Hospital has a separate level for Liver patients and understandably a unique Liver ICU. It looked like a state-of-the-art room with all sorts of machines and gadgets. Soon dad would be a part of it.

We were advised that only 2 people could visit him at a time and also his immunity level would be extremely low after the surgery, hence it was better that not many people flock around him, anyway he would be sedated. So, the Indian doctors, Uncle and Aunty decided to leave for the day. Mom and I stayed back and waited till the nurses had done all the necessary procedures. When we finally went in, we saw dad in terrible pain. Poor thing was shouting "its paining, its paining". The nurse increased his Morphine dosage so that it relieves him a little bit. When we
spoke to him, he half opened his eyes and started asking how the surgery went and all the technicalities as though he was fully conscious! That amazed me again. Due to unbearable pain, he started asking how long the pain would be, we were at a loss and had to say not too long (which I really wish is true). Once dad started drifting to sleep we left the ICU. Had I stayed there any longer I am sure I would have cried :-(

We decided to go to the Perumal Temple at Serangoon to take our minds off the whole thing. Today being Varalakshmi Nombu, there was a big Puja happening there. It was good to see a ritual being performed so piously outside India.

I just hope that Dad's pain reduces tomorrow so he can be moved to a normal ward, but the bigger hope would be that he is totally free of the beast!

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4 Comments:

  • So much emotion in one day, my god. Fighting this demon mentally is our great hope and looks like dad is a good warrior. I'm sure Monday will also be very positive day like this Friday and give us the good news. I'll go to the temple today to pray for that.
    Vidya, you are doing very good job. I'm really proud of you. Support and mental strenght is all he needs and I'm sure he is getting it from you all.

    By Blogger Babs, at 8/25/2007 12:36 PM  

  • I am glad to know the operation was successful to remove the dead cells. I can imagine your situation vidya. take care and our best wishes are always with all of you. I must say u have found a very good way of expressing yourself through this blog. take care and be brave God is with all of you.

    By Blogger Expedition of life, at 8/25/2007 2:25 PM  

  • As always our wishes r with you and your dad. It's good to know operation was a success. I am sure putting your thoughts over here is very therapeutic 4 u. I must admire your dad for his fighting spirit and with that kinda spirit battle is half won already. You be "like father like daughter" :-). Take Care.

    By Blogger Praveen, at 8/25/2007 10:06 PM  

  • Thanks very much for the prayers and best wishes! It really makes a lot of difference to us right now. We would not know if the operation was successful until we get back results next week about the tumor. We are just hoping that the doctors managed to remove all the cancer cells from dad's body.

    By Blogger Ace of Space, at 8/26/2007 12:24 AM  

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