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
Prayers for a successful surgery and a good recovery.
Prayers up for strength and fortitude.
Prayers up, KC Burke!!
Hope you have a successful surgery and complete recovery!
Prayers up for you KC.
O Father of mercies and God of all comfort and healing, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and minister to Your humble servant KC Burke for whom our prayers are desired. Please look upon him and his beloved wife through the eyes of thy mercy and grace; comfort him with a sense of your nearness and give him and his wife strength, courage, and perseverance during his affliction. In your good time O Lord, please restore him to health, and enable him to lead the residue of his life in thy fear and to thy glory in fellowship with his dear family and friends. Amen
Prayers and best wishes my FRiend.
Will do.
Prayers for you and your family. Im sorry you’re going thru this.
May the Lord be with you and give you speedy recovery from this operation.
Prayers for you and your wife and family.
My Prayers to your health and smooth recovery.
I too have undergone surgery, but mine were elective procedures, and nowhere near the critical nature of your
situation. Like you, I’ve had to get used to all my doctors, nurse practitioners and medical assistants being much younger than me. I go to the VA in San Francisco.
So far, I have been treated quite well, medically and person to person. These medical professionals have given me greater confidence in the Generation X, and Millennials.
Most know what they’re doing, but will answer my questions respectfully. I research (online) every new med I’m prescribed. Looking for side effects.
It appears that you KC, have done your own form of Due Diligence. You have a clear, tight perception of what is to occur. You have probably even visualized certain parts.
Athletes and actors will also visualize themselves going through an event and coming out successful, fulfilled.
Your experience and recovery will be helped by the fact that you have a very good idea of exactly what is going to be happening and when.
Hang in there. Get back here so I can annoy and disagree with you. Prayers buddy!
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He comfort your family during your ordeal.
5.56mm
You WILL make it through KC. We will be praying for you.
Fervent best wishes extended.
We are with you in thought and prayer.
prayers up
Prayers for your surgery and speedy recovery.
I wish you all the best. My 77 yo dad was diagnosed with stage iv cancer in late August. Liver, bladder, lungs, etc. Was healthy as a horse in July. We buried him Wednesday.
I hope you can and will fight it, but I also hope you help your wife and family plan for alternative outcomes while you have your wits about you.
Cancer sucks.
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