Tuesday, 7 March at 11:45am(ish), I’m having surgery to remove cancerous areas in my esophagus and stomach.

Surgery was originally planned for March 9th, but I started getting calls last Friday about surgery on Tuesday the 7th not Thursday the 9th. Turns out the surgeon’s office/nurse neglected to notify me. Yet more stress, worry and anxiety.

The plan is that the surgeon will do an exploratory laparotomy which is a few small incisions. If that goes well he will continue to an open procedure. Hopefully just a five inch midline incision in my upper abdomen. I scar badly so smaller is better.

They will be removing lower part of my esophagus, upper part of the stomach and local lymph nodes. There is a small chance that I will have my whole stomach removed (total gastrectomy).

“Surgery to remove some or most of the esophagus is called an esophagectomy. If the cancer has not yet spread far beyond the esophagus, removing the esophagus (and nearby lymph nodes) may cure the cancer“ (Cancer.org).

Partial gastrectomy / proximal gastrectomy will remove a portion of stomach below the esophagus. Lymphadenectomy will remove approximately 15 near lymph nodes. The reason my cancer was stage 3 is because I had one lymph node that cancer had spread to. The goals here is to get negative surgical margins. While open the parts removed will be sent to pathology they check the margins check to see that there are no cancer cells there.

The good news is the tumors responded well to chemotherapy, more on that later. I’ll go over postoperative issues in another blog post.

On a positive note surgery is similar to bariatric surgery, so I’ll be much smaller when you next see me.

RECOVERY.

After surgery I will spend somewhere from 3-7 days in the hospital, barring any complications.

My kids (cats) will miss me as they get anxiety also. I hope to get back to my place on day 4!

My contract here in Fargo North Dakota ended on 11 February. I decided to stay here for continuity of care. This includes chemotherapy, surgery and possibly more chemotherapy, and associated recovery time.

It is estimated another 4-6 weeks before I can return to work after this surgery

It is very possible I will need more chemotherapy after surgery.

Chemo is Horrible! I’ll fill you in on that in another post.

I was able to work through the first 8 weeks of chemo, side effects from the last cycle were pure hell. I’m unsure if I could work through it second time around.

A dear friend started a GoFundMe.

I’m so humbled and extremely thankful for donations that have been made.

I’m trying not to tap too far into my retirement funds or worry about money while I concentrate on healing and recovery.

Please help if you’re able:

• https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-lou-smash-cancer
• https://paypal.me/loucabales?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
• Zelle LOU E CABALES, 310 259 1978