Time for surgery

[Guest guest]

Just to let you folks know that I will be going in for surgery to

place a feeding tube in the unused portion of my stomach, as I am no

longer able to swallow, due to the effects of my radiation treatment

for tongue base cancer. Dr. Lee, who certainly knows more about post-

bariatric anatomy than anyone else around, will be performing the

procedure, and it will be an open procedure, not the usual

percutaneous punch or even a mini-lap. Thus, I will be in the

hospital for four days. I also suspect that they will be hydrating

me by I.V. as well, since I have not been able to eat nor drink

almost anything for the last four days. So, I will not be here to

post or to read in this group until sometime next week...when I have

to also have the mask I use during radiation treatments re-done (I

have lost so much weight that it no longer fits well enough to serve

as a guide for the computer-targeted radiation), and another session

of chemotherapy along with the radiation.

So please keep a good thought for me as I try to get through the

next three and a half weeks of therapy. Then two to three months of

recovery, followed by neck dissection surgery to get what we hope

will be the last of the cancer. Good luck to everyone.

Randy

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