Ok, so the major surgery is behind me. One liver resection. One colon resection. One pelvic dissection. I have a scar that runs all the way from my breast bone to my pubic bone. It's definitely a relief to have it done and all three of my surgeons seemed pretty happy with the way it went. I'll know more once all the pathology comes back. I spent 11 days in hospital. It was on track to be a shorter stay but then I took a bit of a bad turn which then took a while to get over. I got home last week but sadly I'm back in hospital now due to some complications. Oh it has been such a fun week, I have to share, as usual probably too much...
Just a couple of days after getting home I started to notice some pain when I finished peeing. It got bad enough that I called the hospital after a couple of days and based on my symptoms (and a prior positive urine culture) it was determined that I probably had a urinary tract infection - pretty common after a hospital stay with a catheter. So I went onto some antibiotics and was told it should start to clear up within 48 hours. After another 3 days the pain was only getting worse and I was getting less and less pee out every time I visited the toilet. The hospital asked me to come back in for one night so they could run some tests - blood, urine etc. They were concerned that I might have an infection that could get out of control or that it might be otherwise affecting my recovery from the surgery. All the blood work looked good so I was discharged the next day but put on an additional antibiotic and the dosage of my other one increased. The plan was to wait for the result of a new urine culture to confirm exactly what the infection was. I went home on Saturday morning and we expected the result on the Monday.
Over the weekend the peeing pain just got worse and worse despite all the powerful antibiotics. To be clear, it was so damn painful to pee that I would get nervous when I felt the need coming on. My routine was to sit down for the 1st part of the pee which was generally less painful. Then for the second half, which was always much more painful I'd stand up and put one foot on the toilet bowl - because for some reason this provided some relief and because standing made it easy to breathe through the pain and brace myself. I joked to some friends that if anyone walked in on me in the bathroom I would have looked hilarious - one leg up and heavy breathing.
On Monday the culture results came back and they were negative i.e. I had no infection. Cultures aren't 100% reliable but the result showed my white cells were also totally inconsistent with infection. I was also getting desperate. The pain was persisting between pees now such that it was painful to even walk and it had got so bad that I actually wasn't able to pass urine anymore...at all. While I'd been in hospital my liver surgeon had introduced me to the head of urology "just in case" and he'd suggested that if the infection treatment didn't resolve my issue I should give him a call. So I set up an appointment for the next day and took a load of painkillers to get me through that night.
When I went in for the appointment on Tuesday I was very, very sore. The urology specialist did an ultrasound bladder scan and found a large volume of liquid. The conclusion was that for whatever reason - perhaps nerve damage from the surgery - I was unable to pass enough urine and the retention was causing the pain. They decided I urgently needed a catheter. I've never had a catheter inserted while I'm awake and I hope I never have to do it again. Having anesthetic jelly injected into your penis, and then a tube pushed down your penis into your bladder is not a joyous experience.
And then something strange happened. They were expecting a rush of urine to flow into the catheter but instead hardly anything came out. The new theory was that something else outside my bladder was causing the problem, but for that I'd need more testing. So...cue another hospital admission, more blood tests and yet another CT scan.
The CT scan revealed that I had a large fluid "collection" sitting right next to my bladder and it had grown to the point that so much pressure was being applied to my bladder that I could no longer use it. The ultrasound bladder scan was fooled and was actually picking up the liquid content of the "collection" and not my bladder. The only solution was to drain this fluid. A couple of hours later I'm prepped for surgery and rolled down to theater. I ask why we passed through the anesthetic bay straight into the theatre and the nurse tells me I'll only have light sedation for the procedure - a procedure where they stick a large wire into your abdomen and then a tube to suck out the fluid. Given my fear off all things medical and needles this causes me a mild panic attack but at this point the pain is so bad I'm willing to accept anything that will make it go away. So I lie back and think of Christmas. Luckily it turns out sedation with Fentanyl is pretty damn good and I barely remember the whole thing happening.
The impact was immediate. They removed about 200ml of fluid, which turned out to be blood (technically making this "collection" a hematoma), and the pressure reduction allowed me to pee normally and with much less pain almost right away. I've been sitting in hospital for the 48 hours with a drain to remove more of this fluid but that was removed this morning and I'm hoping that I'll be discharged later today. There is no guarantee that the hematoma won't just grow again and require drainage again, but my doctors think this is unlikely. Fingers crossed, but at least now we know what the problem is.
Next week I meet the oncologist to get my plan for the next rounds of chemo. I'm hoping I get a bit more of a break before it starts because the thought of starting chemo again right now fills me with dread. But such is the cancer game that we must play :)