Updates and Liver Surgery Plan

4.28.25
Tomorrow is the big day! I have mix of emotions- excitement, nervousness, fear, relief. I am so ready to get over this major hurdle but after going trough 2 surgeries (colon and port placement) in the last 4ish months and the process being so fresh in my mind- it stirs up a lot of feelings.

Here is the technical verbiage for the surgery plan-
Cholecystectomy, Insertion of Liver Pump (prototype in the photo above), Hepatectomy, resection liver; partial lobectomy, Ablation- open- of 1 or more liver tumors- radiofrequency, Ultrasonic guidance- intraoperative. They estimate the surgery to take about 5 hours. Basically they will remove my gallbladder (because the chemo they are sending to my liver will make it hard), they will put the pump on the left side connecting it to a branch in the artery, they will cut part of my liver and ablade another part of my liver.

I was anticipating to have to do another round of chemo (round 8) before the surgery but at my last appointment with Dr. Kasi he said they would be holding off until after surgery and it was such a big relief. I was able to enjoy most of the month of April without feeling crummy. And I got to have some fun one on one time with each of the girls while they were off school for spring break. We went to the mall, the park, the girls rode scooters, and we had the most relaxing Easter. 

My understanding for after surgery is that they will put a "cousin" of the 5FU Chemo in the pump for 3-4 rounds. Every 18 days they will fill the pump alternating between chemo and saline in order to keep the pump continuously full. Then they will drop the Oxaliplatin and give the irinotecan through the port (every 2 weeks for 5 rounds). Once I am 6 weeks out from surgery they will start the Avastin (immunotherapy) back up for the remainder of the rounds. 

During my break I was also able to check out Music Therapy. I am really looking forward to incorporating it into my healing and think it will be a fun experience. I also got to get a hair cut in the salon. I thought that the break from chemo would mean a break from my hair shedding but it has picked up.  

Up next on my list of things to try at City of Hope is acupuncture, spiritual care, massage therapy, and they just started a young adults support group that I am looking forward to checking out. I love that City of Hope offers so many additional ways to get support through this journey. It truly helps take away some of the stress of this whole process.