You concentrate on getting better.  Purrs and prayers are with you.

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

Purrs on the way to you, Christina.

Jill

IIMHO waiting for the surgery is the hardest part.  When you leave the
hospital you will find you can do more than you think.  When I had my "H"
I was in the hospital 10 days.  On the day after I cam home, I sat on a
kitchen chair and mopped the kitchen floor.  The more you move around, the
easier it gets.  So don't be afraid to move..  It will hurt, but move
anyway.   Purrs for a quiet mind until it is over.   MLB

I am not comparing what you will have done to what I've had done, but I've
been through several abdominal surgeries.  I had a total hysterectomy.  Low
horizontal incision about 10 inches across.  Other that several hours of gas
pain I did think would kill me, the pain was not off the charts.  And there
was quite a lot of digging around involved and I had fibroids all over the
place.  When the doc asked before surgery about my ovaries, my answer was
"your damn right they are coming out if you are in there".  Family history
of ovarian cancer and I'm most relieved they are gone.

I had the pain meds where you have it on an IV and you push a button when
you need a dose.  That worked wonderfully.  Knowing I didn't have to call
someone who may or may not want to be bothered to give me pain meds was
great.

The same with the other two surgeries.  The first was laproscopic type
surgery and not too bad healing from that.  More pain getting rid of the gas
thats all over you insides than from the cutting.

The second left me with an incision all the way down the middle.  (I've got
three navels now)  And it did take forever to heal.  Again there was lots
and lots of digging around to take care of adhesions and to repair my
diapohram as well as redo the fundoplasty that had failed.  No it wasn't a
picnic.  But the pain was nowhere near what I would have imagined.  Plenty
of other complications, but the pain part I could face again if I had to.

Pain is a strange thing.  One time I shared a room with a woman who had a
total mastectomy.  The doctor was concerned that she wasn't using much pain
med.  She said she really wasn't in much pain.  I think sometimes they
manage to temporarily block off some of the nerves that would register pain
when they do surgery and by the time the nerves regenerate you have healed.

Just want to reassure you that the pain doesn't have to be all that bad.

Jo

I am not comparing what you will have done to what I've had done, but I've
been through several abdominal surgeries.  I had a total hysterectomy.  Low
horizontal incision about 10 inches across.  Other that several hours of gas
pain I did think would kill me, the pain was not off the charts.  And there
was quite a lot of digging around involved and I had fibroids all over the
place.  When the doc asked before surgery about my ovaries, my answer was
"your damn right they are coming out if you are in there".  Family history
of ovarian cancer and I'm most relieved they are gone.

I had the pain meds where you have it on an IV and you push a button when
you need a dose.  That worked wonderfully.  Knowing I didn't have to call
someone who may or may not want to be bothered to give me pain meds was
great.

The same with the other two surgeries.  The first was laproscopic type
surgery and not too bad healing from that.  More pain getting rid of the gas
thats all over you insides than from the cutting.

The second left me with an incision all the way down the middle.  (I've got
three navels now)  And it did take forever to heal.  Again there was lots
and lots of digging around to take care of adhesions and to repair my
diaphragm as well as redo the fundoplasty that had failed.  No it wasn't a
picnic.  But the pain was nowhere near what I would have imagined.  Plenty
of other complications, but the pain part I could face again if I had to.

Pain is a strange thing.  One time I shared a room with a woman who had a
total mastectomy.  The doctor was concerned that she wasn't using much pain
med.  She said she really wasn't in much pain.  I think sometimes they
manage to temporarily block off some of the nerves that would register pain
when they do surgery and by the time the nerves regenerate you have healed.

Just want to reassure you that the pain doesn't have to be all that bad.

Jo

I can see where you're coming from re the financial thing:
as one who survived an inferior wall M.I. (heart attack)
7-8-03 and is living w/2 coronary artery stents keeping major arterial
foodlines to my heart open, I kinda feel like a living time bomb
sometimes...but don't spend it all, kid.
The only major surgery (completely discounting dental or
maxillary) I've experienced was total hysterectomy (they took it *all*) for
reasons other than cancer. I can tell you that you will be premedicated just
before you go into the OR which will make you sleepy and mellow....of course
you will feel no pain during operation....and after I had so
much narcotics shot into me that after I woke up moderate discomfort is
honestly the worst I felt. That pain was less than after child delivery,
which for normal delivery of course they don't shoot you full of
dope.....now read this next part carefully, Christina: I just happen to have
a bad reaction - kinda like allergy - to
opioids (heavy-duty narcotics) but had never known it
till I began barfing bigtime and feeling very aggressive and obnoxious (my
deceased sister had the very same reaction to painkillers before her death)
and I staggered to the nurses' station and demanded that they give me a
much less strong painkiller...the nurses gave me wierd looks and informed me
they'd have to clear that w/my surgeon...I insisted they do it immediately.
Surgeon said,
"Sure" and prescribed something w/much less painkilling teeth in it. I got
back to normal, happier, and in spite of increased discomfort was not in any
kind of big pain, even when I coughed, sneezed, or laughed (all of which
usually aggravates gyno symptoms). Now don't worry about having *my*
reactions to painkillers...I was told this is only 10% of USA population
reaction to opioids
(too bad, we might have less dopers here, LOL).
I would think your surgery would be similar to what was removed from me:
total hysterectomy.
Hope to have encouraged you. Good luck w/the homeopathic treatments, which I
know nada about but
glad they helped relieve your pain.

Tweed, do they have at-home nursing there?  I know here in the states a lot
of insurance policies will pay for a nurse to visit your home several times
a day if you need care and are not in hospital - could you find out if maybe
there is some equivalent there?  It might help take some of the strain off
your aunt and uncle (not that is should be that hard for them, I imagine
after the first few days you should be able to get up and around (they had
me up and walking the same day that I had my hysterectomy - I know that what
you'll be going through will be worse than that, but getting up and walking
around - even when it hurts - is better for you (helps pass the gas someone
mentioned) than staying bedridden is for you).

Anyway, you might want to check on that.  We'll all be praying and purring
that everything goes well for you, so try to have faith that things *will*
go well.

Don't worry about keeping up here or posting a reply to every post -
everyone here knows what you're going through and we don't expect any more
from you than you are able to give at the moment.

Hugs,

CatNipped

Try to find out if there is a pain management team at the hospital, and
talk to them before surgery if at all possible. With modern methods,
there's no reason you should be in great pain postoperatively.

Sometimes, something that you don't expect to be a problem will turn out
to be most uncomfortable -- so it's best to be open minded, keep good
communications with the pain management people, and know that you are
entitled to good care. If you have a problem with the staff, a good
comeback, certainly in the UK, is "What would Dr. Dame Cicely Saunders
have thought of that?"

As an example, though, when I had coronary artery bypass surgery, I
expected my chest, where the sternum had been split, ribs spread, etc.,
and various tubes over days, to be most painful. Much to my surprise, it
wasn't.  What did bother me a lot was my leg, where they had stripped
out a shallow vein from ankle to groin -- that's the saphenous vein,
which was used for the bypass grafts.  It was on fire, probably because
skin nerves had been affected. I was aware of the chest while I was in
ICU for 48 hours, but was sedated enough that it wasn't a problem.

There wasn't a problem getting enough pain medication to deal with my
leg, but it still was a surprise.

A good pain management team will do a couple of things. One is to put
you on a regular dosing schedule, keeping a high enough dose of
painkillers that you are never craving the next dose.  Oddly enough, if
the doses are done regularly, most patients actually need less drug than
if they had to ask for doses "as needed". For this reason, until you are
well into recovery, don't turn down the medication. If it has side
effects, tell the staff and change the drug.

If you get a mixture of drugs, such as a narcotic with paracetamol
(acetaminophen/Tylenol in the US), that's good. The drugs work
differently and complement one another.

The more of a sense of control that you have, the more comfortable you
will be.  Someone mentioned the Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) pump,
which delivers a low costant IV dose of morphine (usually) or pethidine
(meperidine/Demerol in the US). The PCA also lets you press a button and
get an extra dose (up to a limit) if you need it.

Patients on PCA use less drug than if they have to ask for injections,
because they have more of a sense of control. In like manner, if you are
on oral pain meds at home, and on a regular schedule, you should have a
small extra supply to know you can deal with "breakthrough" pain. You
may never take it if you know it's there.

Tweed, we are praying, purring and lighting candles for your quick and full
recovery.
Jazz & his mama

I hope you'll believe me when I tell you that the pain will be a lot
less after your operation.  I'd learned to live with my abdominal pain
to the point that I didn't realize how much I'd hurt until after the
operation when the pain from the operation was so much less than what
I'd had.  Does that make sense?  I hope so.  I'm also a wimp about pain,
so I'd worried about hurting before the operation.  Most of what I had
was a dull ache and that was easily managed with pain medications.

Rob had flash headaches before his tumors were discovered.  They were
much worse than any pain that he'd had from his operation.  He didn't
even receive pain medications other than tylenol for the incisions.

Believe me you'll feel much better after the operation.

Pam S.

Please don't worry about replying, Tweed. We all understand what is
going on. Hope you have the energy to at least read some funny stories
here and look at cute pics to keep your spirits up. That's the most
important thing now. When I was diagnosed with the big C, a nurse told
me so. I know it seems impossible to keep in good spirits when you have
that big dark thing hanging over you, but try to just blank it out every
now and then. Go to Flippy's catpage and read a lot of the funny stories
in her Cat Philes. http://www.flippyscatpage.com/catphiles.html Or
anything else that might take your mind off it for a while and maybe
even make you laugh out loud. We're purring for you.

You are going through all of these things and you are worrying about not
worrying about us????

<slaps Tweed with a cold sardine>

Stop it, you are being silly. Any purrs you send out in our direction will
be soundly spanked and told to go home where they are needed the most. :-)

Otherwise, I"m glad you are having fun and have people to care for you, but
please, there's nothing wrong with concentrating on yourself right now. Its
what you are *supposed* to be doing.

*hugz*

Yowie

[snip]

You have my sympathy - I've been through some fantastically painful problems
with my eyes (I had NO idea there were such pain nerves in eyeballs!) and my
vision is steadily deteriorating (have to get new glasses ever 6 months,
now). They haven't done any cutting on the eye yet, but it won't be much
longer.
Ain't it a shame Lazik surgery can't fix everything?

Sweety, the thing you need to focus on now is YOU... you need to save
your energy for your own fight, and not worry too much about ours -
keep on reading all the good stuff though... :) You're in all our
prayers and the cats of the world are sending you purrs 24/7 to get
you through this thing!

~Karen aka Kajikit
Crafts, cats, and chocolate - the three essentials of life
http://www.kajikitscorner.com
*remove 'nospam' to reply

Christina --

I've only been taking brief peeks at rpca lately, so I only just saw
the posts about your health.

Please know that you are in my thoughts, and that I am directing
healing wishes to you several times a day.

SNIP> I have some savings which I intended to keep until I retired to
supplement

I hope things turn out better than what you fear will be the case right now,
Tweed.  It's absolutely normal to feel frightened when something like this
drops on you, I know I would be.  Right now, I think you taking care of
yourself is the most important thing.  You know we're behind you with
purring cats and lighted candles and waves of good wishes for rapid healing.
If you don't feel up to communicating with us regularly, we'll all
understand why, and no one will think less of you for it.

I can't remember who said it, but I agree with whoever it was who
encouraged you to take heart and assume there was hope even amidst bad news.
Cancer treatment IS getting more sophisticated all the time, and if the
diagnosis is the one you're dreading, remember, you're better off with
having it now than you would have been even five or ten  years ago. (Not
that facing serious illness is ever fun, and I don't want you to think I'm
minimizing this, or denying your reality.) Think of Magdi whose situation
was so serious, but whose stem cell transplant worked.  My friend Kim, who
spent most of 2004 in the hospital with a recurrence of her Hodgkin's
Lymphoma also went through a stem cell transplant in early January. Now
she's getting stronger all the time, and is planning a summer trip to the
beach to make up for essentially missing any fun last summer.
(((Hugs)))
Melissa

I'm glad that you've got someone to look after you. As for the pain, take
the painkillers, and don't focus on the pain, focus on what you need to do.
My nurses taught me how to concentrate on breathing when I sat up or lay
down, and not to think about the pain. The worst of the pain from the
incision itself was over within a few days, as long as you move carefully
(and don't jump to your feet ten days after the op to chase your cat around
the garden and rescue the baby bird he has in his mouth! ;) )

Jeanette

Many hugs and purrs for a quick recovery.  Rememeber they have pain
meds and pain meds are *gooood*.  I have much empathy and sympathy -  I
just underwent my second eye surgery (sort of an emergency) and was
quite upset before hand, as well.  I hope you have a quick recovery and
are back to it in no time.

-L.

Nobody here expects you to be able to reply to every post, even under
the best cicumstances it's difficult. All we expect from you is you
enjoy your life to the full for as long as possible, hopefully many
years. Post when you can we love to hear from you, when you can't we
understand. Continuing healing purrs.

This is the time you need to focus on yourself, Christina.
We are here for you, thinking of you, sending lots of best wishes and
comforting purrs,

<snip>

Dear Tweed,
I don't have the words to adequately express my sorrow at what you've
endured to this point.  Please know that purrs and prayers for your
suffering and worries to ease quickly are coming to you from all over the
world.  We're here for you.
Sam