I met with the surgeon (and team) this past Monday. The day started off bright and early with a sigmoidoscopy, and I feel like that gave a more positive perspective on what chemo + radiation has accomplished inside my body. I should start by saying that being wide awake for a sigmoidoscopy is …. an unsettling experience (just google it). But after the camera went in, I was surprised to see … no tumor. Way, way different from how it looked in the past sigmoidoscopy, back in May (before I started treatment). That initial procedure described “a fungating and polypoid partially obstructing mass.” By contrast, in this week’s sigmoidoscopy, that scary-looking mass was gone, replaced by white scar tissue. This was honestly encouraging for me. I get that there is still some tumor remaining (embedded in the layers of tissue that surround the rectum), hence the “moderate response” terminology in the recent MRI summary. Next month’s surgery will take care of that. It was just encouraging to see that visual contrast in the sigmoidoscopy results.

All in all, very positive meeting that day with the surgeon and the nurses who work with him. The nurses provided me with a binder of information (like a 100 pages) on preparing for the surgery, and life after surgery, etc. A week before the surgery, they advised me to start adding Immunonutrition shakes to my daily diet. My dairy allergy doesn’t allow me to take the Ensure Surgery product they recommended, but they’ve worked with me to determine how to get what I need via alternate means: additional protein, fish oil supplements, arginine powder. Just ordered the arginine powder on amazon, it’s apparently a product favored by body-builder types. This photo was in the amazon listing for the arginine powder I ordered, so I fully expect it to make my arms look like this:

The next nurse I met with is an ostomy nurse; a very helpful and informative session about preparing for life with a temporary ileostomy. This surprised me: she had me lift up my shirt, she pulled out a marker and made a couple marks on my belly where they’ll do the ostomy incision. She put stickers over those — the plan is to keep those marks on me until 1/3 — kind of strange. And she gave me an Ostomy Home Skills Set© (yes, it has the copyright symbol) — which includes another marker that I can use to re-do the marks on my belly.

The surgery itself will have me in the hospital 3-5 days. Jan 2 (the day before the surgery) will basically be the same process as prep for a colonoscopy, along with a few other minor elements. I’ll be taking the entire month of January off (FMLA + short-term disability) to allow sufficient time for recovery. I’ve been in the process of sharing this information at work.

For now, I’m continuing to enjoy the month of December — post-chemo, pre-surgery — a nice respite.