MAYO VISIT

Well, besides the day feeling extremely long on Monday, it was a pretty good day!!

 I started out the day with my endoscopy which went AMAZING as I wasn't awake and didn't feel anything compared to last time. Haha. I let them know I remembered everything about the procedure from last time so they gave me extra meds in my IV and that definitely did the trick. :)

Met with my GI doctor and that went well. She said the scope looked perfect, but of course they did the mapping in my stomach so once the biopsies come back, she will know more. We went over a few different things and it was reiterated that THIS IS GENETIC and as much as she wishes eating healthy, working out, or taking a specific supplement would help clear me of the 83% chance, it just won't. She even thought that because my grandpa passed from stomach cancer and my mom that my chances might even be higher than 83%. Eeek!

One thing that hit close to home and I read about MULTIPLE times on others blogs was that she just had one of her patients last year do the endoscopy and it came back clear, but she knew she had an 83% chance of stomach cancer, so she still went ahead a few months later and had her stomach removed. They found cancer cells...thank goodness they took her stomach when they did as this cancer doesn't grow over a few years....it's a few months as this type of cancer is very aggressive. Crazy!!  That's exactly how it went for my mom....scope came back clear, but 6 months later...there it was and had engulfed 80% of her stomach.

I met with my surgeon, Dr. Kendrick, and he was AWESOME!!!! He was super kind and didn't push me out of his office...he went over EVERYTHING and stayed until all my questions were answered. Haha. Plan is to do surgery in August still...will have a for sure date in May/June. He's hoping it will be laparoscopic and that I'll be in the hospital for only 2-3 days. If problems arise during surgery and it becomes an open surgery, then I'll be in the hospital for about a week. With laparoscopic, they make about 5 different incisions (4 about 1in incisions where the tools go in and do their magic and 1 a bit bigger below the belly button to get this crazy stomach out). After surgery, I'll stay down in Rochester for a few more days just in a motel to make sure everything is good before heading back to Bismarck. Some things to look for and be aware of is strictures which is where the esophagus and intestine are attached as it might try to close on me due to scar tissue. If so, they go in with a scope and inflate a balloon type deal to open it back up. Some people never have this and some do a couple times and it's very rare if you have to go back in more than the 2x. Other thing is "dumping syndrome" and that is exactly as it sounds lol. Food travels too fast through your system to cause....well....dumping. Other things to "deal with" are getting the vitamins and supplements needed. B-12 shots monthly along with calcium and daily vitamins are a must. "Dealing with" that is NOTHING compared to what I'd have to "deal with" if I waited on this cancer to make up it's own mind. Dr. Kendrick said I will not have to go back for any other follow up visits as long as all is going well for me and I'll have NO WORRY about EVER getting stomach cancer!!!! :) He, also, said he expects my life to be "normal" about 1 year post surgery as that seems to be the rough time frame when his patients have figured out what works and doesn't work for them.

So, that's what I know.....lots of great info and most I already knew from reading into this so much, but glad it's all consistent.

Now, up next is the MRI of my breasts and that should be in the next few weeks. As long as all is good there, surgery will go as planned in August.

So, there's my extremely long update....glad the day and drive back home are done.