CANCER + SURGERY

While I was admitted at the hospital, I had to do a colonoscopy test to get a biopsy to confirm that it is cancer. I also had to do endoscopy the next day to see if cancer has been spread elsewhere. I had at least 20 doctors come to see me every single day ok I'm exaggerating! but it was exhausting. After couple of days of confusion from different doctors, it has been confirmed that it was colon cancer but I also had another doctor who confirmed that I also have stomach cancer because they found something unusual in my stomach. It was very confusing at that time, I wasn't sure which doctor who has a better diagnosed but all of them agreed that my tumour located in my colon needs to be removed right away.

On January 1st 2017, I went for surgery at around 8:00 PM and I was back around 4:00 AM. Going into the surgery room, it was so scary. It looked exactly what you see in the movies. I don't want to get into details, I was put on anesthesia so I do not remember anything. Surgery went very well, they were able to remove 26 cm of my right colon but doctors confirmed that cancer has been spread to my abdominal lining. The following day, I was diagnosed colon cancer stage IV metastasized to my abdominal wall.

After surgery, I was on epidural for a couple of days. I wasn't able to do much on the first day, I tried to walk from my bed to the bathroom but I didn't even make it. I felt really nauseas. The second day, my strength was coming back slowly but surely, I was able to go the bathroom this time around although, the first try didn't go well, I almost fell on the bathroom floor. Thank God, the nurse and my sister-in-law came at the right time. Apparently, I looked so pale that in a second, I could've collapsed and hit my head along the way. I did a couple of tries again and I finally made it without any accident.

I believe on the third day, they want me off the epidural, I was so scared. The nurse gave 5 mg of oxycodone to start with because i'm so tiny, she was scared to give me more although, the doctor did advise to give me 15mg every 3 hours. why oh why did I listen to the nurse smh. Once they removed me from epidural, after a few minutes, 5mg of oxycodone didn't to shit. I was in pain scale from 1 to 10, my pain was 10 all the way. The nurse came after 10 min, that 10 min felt like an hour. I was crying, screaming and I just wanted the nurse to come back as soon as possible. She gave me 10 mg, still it didn't do it's justice. I was still in pain and asking for more pain killers. I believe she gave another 2 more dosage through the IV (I forgot the name) but the pain came back so soon and I needed more. The doctors decided to put me back on epidural and will try again tomorrow.

The following day, the nurse gave me 15 mg. It worked for 3 hours but I was still in a bit of pain so they decided to give 20 mg for the next round and that lasted 3 hours without pain. I was able to do round of walks and I was getting better day by day. I was able to go home on January 8th, 6 days after surgery.