Big News

First, I want to inform you all my biopsies came back negative.  I had been pretty anxious and had it all worked up in my head that I’ve had this aggressive cancer growing inside my stomach that I nearly burst out in tears when my gastroenterologist told me everything looked good when he was doing the scope.  Such a sense of relief in my mind. It’s then than I realized I’ve been more anxious and worried than I realized.  One thing on my list of things to get lined up is speaking to a counselor/therapist.  I’ve seen one several times in the past and they are so helpful in so many ways.  

Anyway, more exciting news is my surgery date has been moved up!  Originally I was scheduled for March 21 but it turns out my surgeon (Dr Davis at the NIH) is going to be out of the country for most of the month of March. They gave me the option to move the surgery up a month or back a few weeks. After much deliberation and talking with family and work, we’ve decided moving it up to Feb 21 is what is going to work best for our family.  Plus when we were in Maryland a month ago I had been wondering to myself if I should have just had the surgery then. Kind of regretting my decision to wait until March. There are so many factors that weighed on our decision but I think one of the most influential was the idea that if we waited until April my daughter would be out of school for summer break for the last portion of my 8 week recovery. I thought that would be exhausting have both kiddos home all day.  Anyway, so now it’s crunch time. 

I’ve put 2 stomach farewell parties on my calendar. One with work family where we are going to restaurant hop. We’ll start at one place for appetizers, then head to a yummy taco joint for delicious tacos and margaritas, then head to a local ice cream shop to finish off our meal. The second party will be with close family where we will hang out at the Orchard in Phoenix that has a couple restaurants to grab food from and a treat shop with lots of goodies. They have an outdoor courtyard area the kids can run and play while we enjoy good fresh food.  

So my hubby and I will be headed to the NIH the week of Feb 18 to prepare for surgery on Feb 21.  I’m so ready to get this done and move on with my new stomachless life. I know the road is going to be long and rough but what better time to start the process than now. I feel I’ve had ample time to physically and mentally prepare and why wait any longer.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m so nervous!  Such a major surgery and all of the unknowns are plenty enough to cause lots of anxiety and stress.  But no sense in worrying and getting all worked up in those things I can’t foresee or control. I did my due diligence in selecting a surgical team I know will take the best care of me.  Random thought...do you think the OR staff and my surgeon will let me have a mini dance party before they take my stomach?  I think that would be so fun.

Okay, I’ll be back in a couple weeks to fill ya in on surgery prep, how I’m feeling, and how much fun we had at the stomach farewell parties.