Three years ago today I had my surgery for tongue cancer. I went in very early on the morning of Wednesday, May 7, 2008 with my husband and kids by my side. Luckily, I didn't have to wait too long before they starting drugging me. I don't even remember much about that morning. I was kept asleep mostly for 2 days. My family says I woke up and they talked to me a few times, but I don't remember a thing until I woke up on Friday. From then on, I remember a lot.
I had a 12 hour surgery which is described by daughter in the archives (arrow down the page for all of the May posts) if anyone wants to go and read about it. I was in ICU for 6 days, and stayed in the hospital a total of 12 days. I had never in my life been away from home for that long.
I had an amazing team of doctors which I now see every three months. My two year check up is on Tuesday, May 11. After that, they said I may be able to space my visits further apart.
Dr. Ghali went in after putting the vent in, and started cutting out the part of my tongue that had the cancer, and then they would check each piece he cut out until they got to a point where there were no cancer cells. That was a long period of time.
Dr. Kim did the reconstruction by taking a piece of muscle from my forearm (called the flap), and rebuilt my tongue. He also took the big vein in my left arm. Looooong ordeal!
I also had 50 lymph nodes removed in my neck. Praise God, those were cancer free, and I didn't have to take chemo or radiation!
As soon as they took me off the vent, and I could cover up the hole, I could talk. I was shocked to even hear myself speak. I thought it would be a really long time before I could speak again. This was Day 9. Amazing, huh? Just another one of God's blessings.
It was a very long recovery, but I managed to go back to school that August, and teach until mid-term when I retired in January 2009. It wasn't easy, but I made it with the help of my wonderful family and friends.
I go for my 3 year check up on Tuesday, May 10, so please keep me in your prayers.
I have been out of town for a few days, and I'm way behind on a lot of things. I hope to catch up with my blogs very soon.
6 comments:
Praying for a healthy report for you on Tuesday. God has brought you so far...and will continue to carry you thru! So glad we met in the blog world!
Praying that all goes well on Tuesday. I know everything is going to be just fine for you.
You will be in my thoughts and prayers. What an ordeal you went through and what great doctors you had.
Deb
I will definitely keep you in my heart and prayers...scary stuff that cancer is and certainly gives us all a moment to pause.
Thanks for sharing and keep us posted on the outcome!
Will be praying....What an amazing testimony
You will definitly be in my prayers.
~Kimberlee, www.TheSpunkyDiva.com
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