The Surgery

My son was born on September 23rd, 2009. Six weeks later and after about four months of chemotherapy, the doctors decided the tumor had shrunk down enough, and that it was time to go ahead with the surgery.
I was told the procedure would take four to five hours; and that it would be done laparoscopically, meaning they wouldn't have to slice me open, but instead they would cut a few small holes in me and using specialized equipment and a high resolution camera placed inside my body do the operation. The goal was to cut out the cancer and also a border around it for safety. This meant cutting out part of my stomach and part of my esophagus, and then connecting them forming a new stomach. This stomach would be up higher towards my chest and would be smaller than the original. It was a scary thought, but when weighed against not doing the surgery, to me it was a no brainer.

I woke up after what I was later told was a seven hour operation, and was out cold for who knows how long after that. I had a breathing tube down my throat and a my arms were cuffed to the side of the bed.  I was in the ICU, a large room with windows so the nurses could always look in. I don't remember if there was anyone else in the room. In fact, after they pulled the tube out of my throat and unchained me. I don't remember much else. For my wife and family, those who were waiting for me to emerge from surgery and wake up, it must have been agony.

The tumor it turned out was larger than first thought. While it was shrinking, there was a whole other part to it growing out the other side. The scans and endoscopies can only see so much, I was told, and you can't always get a full picture until you actually go inside. The laparoscopic camera saw it clearly in high-resolution. The tumor, thought to be about the size of a grape, was actually the size of a lemon.

Laparoscopic surgery was now out of the question. They were going to have to do it the old fashion way: Open me up. This meant a cut from my chest to past my belly-button. A large cut going down the side of my my back, and for fun and to get a clear area to operate they sawed off the end of one my ribs and collapsed one of my lungs. They were able to remove the tumor. They also removed my spleen, part of my pancreas, and attached a piece of my esophagus to part of my stomach, giving me a brand new little, very little, stomach.

I had chemo yesterday, so I'll leave it off here. There's more to come, and not all of it is bad news. I think. It's hard to tell with cancer. That's its nature. And I'm sure we'll hear from Jonathan's Cancer again as well. I'm going to lie down now.