Neck Surgery by Dr Strange

Well I suppose it is time for another update/ramble. As my last ramble went on sooo long, I thought I should probably give a summary again for those who are time poor (ohhh I should find a new phrase as I know I am going to get into Time, Space and Super Hero’s in this one).

So the quick stuff:

Surgery and recovery in hospital for a few days from the 7 Aug 19, where “Dr Strange” (you will have to read below to find out why) will remove my neck lymph nodes at levels 3, 4 and maybe 5.
Dex – will be off the wired nasty junky stuff by 4 Aug 19 – YAY.
Drugs for life – Will start on ‘Alectinib’ sometime soon post surgery.
More tests/more scans – but all good – I love them sooo much I am falling asleep while having them (seriously, I feel asleep in a MRI machine!!)

Now the Ramble

Ok so now, I get the feeling that some are curious about the following questions:

Why is your surgeon called ‘Dr Strange’?
How will you manage not being wired and writing blogs at silly o’clock in the morning?
Will the ramble still be the same?
Why are you typing this at the Airport at a reasonable time in the morning and seem normal?
Why did you go for yet another MRI? Why are you waiting for surgery – surely he could fit you in earlier? – ohh yes he could but I said no!!

Ok to assist in answering the myriad of questions I posed above, its time to Ramble. This ramble is bought to you 2 mg of Dexamethasone, a second coffee provided by Airport Lounge and now some in-flight coffee and free plane WiFi.

Ok first things first, where am I off too? Well I am going on a “Mental Health week” trip. The Mad Scientist has named this trip, as I am catching up with friends around the country for few celebrations. The Mad Scientist will join us on the weekend ;-).

So let us start the full story/update.

Dr Strange

Well I got a referral to go and see an ENT Surgeon who I have named “Dr Strange” from the Marvel Comic/movies fame. Why Dr Strange I hear you ask – well he has a reputation for being an awesome surgeon and can do the fiddly stuff. These are signs for a great surgeon when you are working in the neck when lots of nerves, jugulars, and other important stuff is around. So just like Dr Strange, an awesome surgeon, before he has car accident (if you watch the movie – not the shaky hand Dr Strange post the car accident – that would be bad!!).

Now the other reason I have named him Dr Strange is that he has his very own complex theories about time. How did I get into a chat about the space/time continuum – I didn’t. His time theories are seen by the very first appointment letter you are sent, telling you to call about 30 mins prior to your appointment to ensure he is running “on time”. Hmmm so I rang an hour out and told to come in an hour later than my appointment. The Mad Scientist and I rock up an hour later. We see a sign in his waiting room asking for patience from the patients about running late. After thirty minutes of the first waiting room we get moved to a consult room. We wait for another thirty minutes and then Dr Strange finally arrives and ask us to move to his consult room. Hmm two hours past our appointment time – he has his own concept of time and thus the other reason for the “Dr Strange” name.

Surgery

So Dr Strange explained on Friday, the impact of surgery, but gets a bit concerned about my funky muscle that is not working in my shoulder. I keep on listening about possible spread of cancer into the brachial plexus, if it’s spread then perhaps when if he removes it, a side effect could be total permanent paralysis to my right shoulder (umm, excuse me, I use that arm to wipe my ….. well you know, and I drive with that arm, in fact I am right handed – I do lots of stuff with that arm – hmmm this does not sound good).

The Mad Scientist pipes up – “what about your nerve damage to your shoulder a few years back” (I am sure I saw an eye roll as well from her). Dr Strange looks over to me with interest, I do the “ohh yeah in 2015, I had nerve damage to this same shoulder and I had a paralysed major muscle for six months.” Dr Strange seems a bit more relaxed “Ohh that sounds like there could be another reason for it – let’s get an MRI of your neck and shoulder and come back and see me Monday – I can fit you in next week for surgery.”

We then asked for the next dates of surgery if I “missed” next week! Dr Strange explained then the next date would be two weeks away but he would think I would want to get this done ASAP. Hmmm Mental Health trip could still happen :). Dr Strange was not so sure I should delay. So where to from here.

Teddy Bear to the Rescue

After leaving the Dr Strange office, I shot an email off to the Teddy Bear (my Oncologist) to ask if two assumptions that the Mad Scientist and I had made were correct. The questions were simple – would delaying the surgery have a massive negative impact on the spread of cancer? Would you go for hardcore removal in surgery with possible quality of life impact or would you let other options like TKI etc do their thing.

Well the Teddy Bear was on fire, I had an email reply within 5 minutes – yep literally 5 minutes. Our assumptions were correct. So Mental Health trip here I am and no agreeing to poking around and paralysing my right arm!!

So an MRI on Saturday and back to see Dr Strange on Monday.

Rang again and found out we are the second appointment but he normally runs late (how – it’s the second appointment!!) we get there – twenty minutes later the receptionist lets us all know if we want to go for a coffee for 20 minutes we should as Dr Strange is late or is he – perhaps he is in another time/space realm. Finally we got to see him an hour later or in his world, “in time”!!

The MRI was clear and looked good and I had emailed him my past results from 2015 so he was happy with all of that. Dr Strange seems happy to progress with the surgery, gave me a great pamphlet to read on the plane (I read it that night). So all booked in for the 7 Aug and have Level 3 and 4 nodes removed with maybe level 5 (basically lots of lymph nodes around the neck will be taken out while moving the nerves, blood vessels etc out the way and have a good dig around to find any nasty cancer and cut it out).

What happens prior

Just for completeness I have a couple of other appointments to get sorted, after my “Mental Health Trip” and prior to surgery. This includes a Lung Function test and see a new specialist that I will have to allocate in my folder of medicalness – a Respiratory specialist. I have not met him yet, so will think about a name when I meet him. But he will make sure my lungs work as they should and hopefully assist me in getting the best bang for buck out of them (I only have 1 1/2 physical lungs left and some might be scarred now, so see what the go is).

I will also start walking/jogging and lose some of the Dex weight (now 6 -8 kgs gained) and try to get fitter prior to surgery, however compared to the other surgeries I have had, this should a lot easier as its not like 5 hours of surgery and an organ removed!!

The one that might seem left field is that I am also booked in for two more (had one the other day) dentist appointments, as ideally you want to get everything fixed prior to starting ‘Alectinib’ if you can, as it is classified as a Chemo drug. So after my quick appointment the other day to get a filling fixed, which turned out to be two fillings as a different one fell out when he was lightly poking around. So four filling replacements. Who would think that your teeth and fillings take a hit after you have a load of platinum based toxic chemicals, as well as high level of steroids are pumped into your body (you tell me how many junkies you have seen with great teeth – just saying).

Well that is it really. That is the end of the ramble and the update. Night all.