One year later

OK, technically it's 11 months since my "Along came a spider" post, but well past time for an update.  The tumor turned out to be much larger than expected (10mm instead of 3-5mm) and it was found in the "sentinel node" (the lymph node closest to the tumour).  However, so little was found in the lymph node that they chose to treat her as if it hadn't been there.

She developed several infections after the surgery.  Unfortunately, because there were no external symptoms the surgeon dismissed her concerns, and only took it seriously when the infection got so bad her surgical scar burst open!  (Yeah, it was pretty disgusting.) We spent quite a few nights at the ER/A&E/ED (or whatever you call it).  Fortunately, we have friends who are ER doctors at Wellington hospital, so we were always well looked after.

The infections delayed the radiation treatment until January, because they needed the tissue to be stable.  By then, my partner had already resumed work, and every day after work she'd drive to the hospital for a five-minute dose of radiation, then drive home and immediately fall asleep.  She had almost no energy but after a month they pronounced her "clear" with a 1-2% chance of recurrence in the next ten years.

I said, "No more medical dramas" but of course she didn't listen to me (or perhaps did it to spite me).  I mentioned they accidentally found the tumour when they did a CT scan because she'd been having abdominal pains.  Those pains seemed to go away while she was dealing with the cancer, but came back with a vengeance in March.  She had several attacks where she was simply doubled-over in pain, unable to move.  Over the next two months we had several more visits to the GP and the hospital, and the consensus pointed to gallstones but she did not have the classic symptoms (such as pain after eating a fatty meal).  During one attack, they wanted to do an MRI to try and catch the gallstone in action, but it took the MRI team three days to fit her in, and by then the attack had stopped and -- not surprisingly -- they didn't find anything.  (An ultrasound had confirmed she had gallstones, but I later learned that most women over forty have gallstones; only a small percentage of them ever develop problems.)

By then we'd decided there really wasn't a down-side to removing her gallbladder--the surgery was routine, and the gallbladder is really a vestigial organ--so we might as well try it and see if it worked.  I know that sounds a bit callous, but she was in a lot of pain and nobody had a plan B.  For the second time in four months, we called her private health insurance company and they were just as amazing as last time: She was scheduled for surgery in less than four weeks, at the end of July.  Had she stayed in the public system, it could have taken a year or more.

It was an overnight procedure, and my partner was very leary of the general anaesthetic.  She is a real lightweight when it comes to drugs, and after the cancer op it took her almost 24 hours to recover.  The anesthetist was a sweetheart and he said he'd put her on the lightest medication possible, and she was alert an hour after the op.  She had no complications apart from a nagging pain in her ribs, which might have been a lingering issue from the radiation.

(She did have one bout of pain; her GP thought it was an internal bleed, and the surgeon thought it might be a small hernia.  Either way, they thought it would pass on its own and it did after about a week.)

So she is back to work (again) and slowly rebuilding her muscles after a year of medical traumas. (I called it, "Our year of living medically.")  She is walking home from work and swimming and looking great, although she still gets tired quite easily.  We have family visiting soon so she is taking five weeks off work to spend time with them; it will be interesting to see if the tiredness still plays a factor.

I'll end this with a photo of my partner, circa 1974. :-)