Once again, the surgery to undo my ileostomy and open my colon has been postponed. My surgeon has finally taken my complaints seriously and it's obvious now that I have at least a partially prolapsed rectum, and that we have to deal with this before we can do anything else.
My physical condition has worsened and I can only stand for two or three hours a day before my bottom gets too swollen and inflamed to do anything but sit in my big chair. Working is out of the question, other than paper and computer work. With spring upon us, it is very frustrating. But with the help of Susie, who now pulls the plants and packs them for shipping, we are still managing to get orders out. Also we have some volunteer help and little bit of paid labor to get some other stuff done and keep the nursery functioning. It kills me to delegate so much work in my little one man venture, but it's absolutely necessary now.
Apparently, my situation is quite unusual and a first for my surgeon. The prolapse was probably due to the radiation that was quite heavy and right at the floor of my pelvis, thus weakening the tissues. I am still not clear if the prolapse is inside the anus, which is typical, or outside the anus and bulging the wall surrounding it, but my guess is the latter. We will find out in two weeks after my appointment at a specialty clinic for another ultrasound and some other tests to see if surgical intervention is required. My guess is that it is. Then I suppose my surgeon will have to decide whether to do two surgeries or try to repair the damage and open my colon at the same time.
Of course, the thing no one wants to think about is that it may not be possible to repair the damage and save the reconstructed rectum. This would mean a permanent colostomy. That doesn't really scare me since I have lived with an ileostomy for eight months, which is actually more trouble than a colostomy, but it would mean a colossal waste of a fantastic hi tech surgery, eight months of my life, sixteen weeks of chemotherapy that could have been avoided, and about a quarter of million bucks down the tube. No one can predict these things, and complications can happen; at least I'm still alive and should return to a pretty much normal life at some point. The good news is that the cancer is completely gone.
I will try to post more often, but without getting my hands dirty, it's really hard to focus on bonsai right now. Hopefully, we will have a plan by the end of this month and by summer I will be on my feet again and feel like I'm on the road to recovery. In the meantime, thank you for your continued support and patronage and keep those orders coming!
