Laparoscopy take 3?

This Last Week

This last week was hard. I had a few episodes of very distressing pain, along with vomiting, to the point of thinking, in the wee early hours of the morning the other night, that I should go to the hospital. But we managed to resolve it enough to avoid that. Short and sweet, I’m having stomach acid/ulcer pain, and gas pain in my intestines.

The A-ha Moment

I woke up early yesterday morning way before everyone, laying there feeling the feelings in my belly, and I got really clear that what hurts so bad, is that gas builds up, and builds up, and builds up, hurting more and more, and finally manages to escape the little pod of intestine it’s trapped in, and then there’s relief. Well if that doesn’t sound like strictured intestine, I don’t know what does.

So maybe the Rubraca has nothing to do with that problem. But my stomach sure doesn’t like having that pill in there, so I’m off of everything at the moment, including solid food. Which is hard to take. I messed up and tried solid food too soon after feeling better and man, did I pay for that!

Talking to the Fellow

So yesterday I called the “fellow-on-call” number at the hospital for the gyn-onc department. I got a call back from a doctor who ran me through a bunch of questions, and we decided it is not yet an emergency, because I am still passing things, but I told her I was ready to have Dr. Guntupalli do the laparoscopy treatment for adhesions. This is getting ridiculous, miserable, and I’ve lost all kinds of weight I don’t really have to lose.

Various articles I’ve read have said that adhesions are extremely common after abdominal surgery, sometimes years later, and that laparoscopic treatment has a very high success rate with a one-time treatment. Opening up the abdomen further for a more extensive surgery, not so much. So hopefully, I can get on Dr. G’s books for a quick procedure and start healing up from this.

In any case, the doctor I talked to suggested antacid meds (famotidine) that are different than what I had been on (omeprazole) as the latter causes gas, and an anti-gas med (simeticone), both over-the-counter. Grant had had me use activated charcoal to cut down on the gas the night I thought I’d have to go to the hospital, which worked, and good to know…. However I read some stuff online about it not being studied well, except there was an article from UCLA saying it is actually even more effective to pair the charcoal with the simethicone. So I’ve just braved our little local grocery store to get some. We’ll see how that goes. I’m also trying to eat (or more correctly drink) a low-FODMAP diet in order to prevent the formation of too much gas.

The Fellow also said that if it does become an emergency (no passing of anything) then go to them, an hour away, rather than someone local, who doesn’t know my history. So that’s good to know.

She also confirmed that the acid stomach and acid reflex is something like in pregnancy, where the pressure from below pushes up, and moves stomach acid where it shouldn’t be. So dealing with the gas seems to be the main point.

Hungry!

I continue to torture myself with watching cooking shows and envying them all their, “MMmmm, oh, that tastes SO good,” etc., but in some ways I suppose I’m eating vicariously.

Yesterday I only drank water, and today I felt much better. But I’m hungry. I have a low-grade hunger headache.

All I know, is I have HAVE to get my digestive system back on line. I can’t keep going on like this. My health will deteriorate as much or more from starvation as from cancer.

At least Dr. West should be happy that I’m doing so much fasting and starving the cancer cells! Maybe this is all a blessing in disguise.

And then there’s COVID-19

I’ve read that the peak of COVID-19 should be happening here in Colorado on April 17-18. So I’m hoping I can get this done before then so hospitals can be doing what they need to do then. We’ll see how Dr. G’s schedule is. And really I just need it to be sooner than that for my own sake too. Hopefully, having this done won’t tax the system too much, or expose me to this virus, either one.

So That’s What I Know

So that’s what I know for now. I should hear back from Dr. G’s office tomorrow about scheduling either an appointment with him, or maybe they’ll be willing to just go straight to scheduling the laparoscopy.

Will keep you informed! Thanks for your attention and concern!