Posted on 11/29/2019 10:39:28 AM PST by KC Burke
This post is to ask for prayers for a very serious surgery I am scheduled to have this next Wednesday. It is a 4 to 7 hour long gastrectomy to remove my stomach with its related stage three cancerous tumor, now dead from chemo.
I was diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer in July.
The current “best practices” calls for four component FLOT chemotherapy, scan for lack of spread, gastrectomy if the patient can endure it, then a follow-up second four rounds of chemo. I have been undergoing cardiac evaluation the last week to see if I have a strong enough heart to endure this surgery. They could cancel or delay the surgery and that won’t be final until Monday afternoon or Tuesday.
At the time I started chemo there were a few posters to whom it was appropriate to mention the challenge I was involved in, but since I had a very good team locally, I didn’t want to create the impression that I was looking for healthcare alternatives or did not have good guidance, thereby prompting a nine month thread of comments that I would have trouble keeping up with and doing justice to the thoughts that others might contribute.
I am fortunate to have the Honor Health / Virginia G. Piper Cancer center for the home of my aggressive young Oncologist. He coordinates with my M. D. Anderson surgeon who has a Sloan-Kettering oncological surgical fellowship and is the top Gastric Surgeon in the west half of the US as far as I can tell.
At 71 years a four to seven hour surgery is no small undertaking, especially with some cardiac disease. I hope to make it through, continue my wonderful life with my beloved wife (the angel of my life) and enjoy my children, step-children and ten grandchildren (with another one due in February).
Hospital stay is four to seven days, and recovery is six to eight weeks as the digestive track has to accustom itself to very small meals. Some adapt easily, others with difficulty.
I am enjoying a modest retirement, that I took at close to 67, having a romantic juggernaut with my wife of 22 years and enjoying old and new friends. Twenty years of Free Republic has been no small part of a larger fellowship of faith and like minds. I thank you all for making that great and I remember fondly those that have gone before me.
KC Burke
God bless you and your family
May the Good Lord comfort you with both of His hands.
Prayers up for you and your family!
Lots of prayers your way FRiend. Sending strength & ((hugs)).
In my Prayers
OMG, you know it: Prayers up!
Prayers for you and your family!
Praying for you FRiend. May Jesus send his angels to guard you and have His hands guide all of those treating you.
Praying.
Prayers for Jesus our Divine Physician to be in complete charge of your care. GOD bless.
Prayers up!
Prayers!!
May the HEALING HAND of our LORD touch you...Amen
Prayers out
Best of luck to you, neighbor.
Oh dear. Bless you. Prayers up.
Comforting thoughts:
"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!" - Robert Browning
I wish you and your wife the best and never give up. Fight, fight, fight!
KC,
I wish you the best. Keep your attitude positive. It sounds like you have a great team behind you.
(I hate the stress ECG/EKG tests too.)
Be tough.
-Read
Dear KC - praying for God’s healing mercies to come to you and help you to get through the surgery successfully and to recover completely. May God be with the surgeons and the nurses and other medical personnel to guide them all.
Praying also for your wife and family.
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