Recovering at home

We officially got to go home on Sunday. I had to do a bladder test first though. The nurse filled my bladder through the catheter with 200 mL of saline, then took the catheter out. I then had to pee out at least the 200 mL. Let me tell you what, peeing out cool saline is such a weird sensation. But I officially passed!

Getting home was pretty uneventful. I was able to take my first shower since Tuesday morning and my hair had enough grease in it to fry some chicken. My sister Lauren told me it was so bad I had to use shampoo twice....

Wil and I waited until Monday afternoon to pick up the kids from daycare. I was feeling good enough to go with him. As soon as Wil got out of the car , Wilson saw him from the playground and starting yelling "My daddy!!!" Then he saw me and he started yelling "My daddy!! My mommy!!!" He was very curious about my boo-boo and tried to lift up my nightshirt to see it....

Wilson has found a new toy in my incentive spirometer. This is a device used to make you expand your lungs after surgery to prevent pneumonia. He loves to blow into it to make the indicators bounce around.

The rest of the week has been spent in bed with my Mom binge watching the last two seasons of Real Housewives of OC. I haven't had much of an appetite, so I'm losing weight.

Now onto the bowels... I've had pretty severe diarrhea, like every 20 minutes or so. Dr. Skinner gave me the go ahead to take Imodium. Then it evened out. Wednesday after about noon, I didn't have any bowel movements or farts... Not a good thing. I was having pretty severe abdominal pain/cramping with no relief. Then at midnight, after trying to take a Zofran, I started throwing up . Keep in mind that my abdomen is held together from a vertical incision with 27 Staples. I felt like I was being ripped apart. Then another vomiting episode at 2:30.

I called my oncology nurse, Lauren, the next morning . She talked to Skinner and I was sent to get some x-rays done to make sure nothing was wrong. All they showed was my bowels needed to get a kick start, so here comes a suppository. I did thank Skinner for violating me from afar. All is good now !

Now that everyone is up to date on my bathroom habits .... I went in today to see Liz one of the practices' PAs (and one of my favorites ) to get my staples removed. Wowza, that wasn't fun at all... Thankfully I was the only patient there at the time because I yelled a couple of times pretty loudly. I feel better now that they are out though.

So game plan, I still can't drive until I can twist around, stomp my foot, and laugh without holding my stomach. I've already started the new medicine (aromatase inhibitor) to stop the conversion into estrogen. I'll follow up with Dr. Skinner on December 2nd.

A big thank you to all of our family that has stepped in to help take care of me and the kids. Thanks to my parents who have stayed with us this week, helping with me, the kids, laundry, and chores !  We couldn't have done this without you ! And especially to my hubby Wil, he slept every night at the hospital with me in the most uncomfortable sleeper chair imaginable. He wiped my butt (since I couldn't bend around to do it myself), was patient with me, encouraged me, and prayed for me when I couldn't find the words.

I would like to thank all of you praying for us and for my recovery. I love all of my cards, texts, meals, and gifts.

Prayer requests:
1. That God continues to show us glimpses of His goodness in this cancer journey.
2. For my abdomen to continue to heal and for more mobility .
3. For my bowels to even out and no more vomiting episodes .

Praise reports:
1. Staples are officially gone.
2. Great medical team on my side that helps with any need that comes along with compassion and humor

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

Hospital recovery

Whew y’all .... what a week. The days and nights are starting to blend together but I’ll try to give you the highlights.

Bowel prep Monday was as fun as ever. Only clear liquids to eat and pounding a whole bottle of miralax in Gatorade. Uggg getting nauseated just thinking about it.

The kids left Monday night to go to Wil’s parents for the week. We had to wake up super early for a check in time at 5:30 am at the hospital . After getting checked in, changed into my hospital attire, I had to say goodbye to my family in the hallway to preop and will came back with me. We had to sign all the consents and meet with all of the doctors. Our team was amazing and I was blessed to have an old ICU coworker set me up with a great CRNA. She gave me some Versed and I don’t remember much after that.

In surgery, my docs found more than what was expected from the scans. My surgeons took out about two feet of small intestines and part of the large where the one mass was seen. The lymph node was taken out as well. Then there were places on my bladder that had to be removed, the largest one about the size of a thumbnail. The good news is that they were able to remove the tumors, I had less adhesions than the last surgery, and no illeostomy!

So they left the catheter in to allow my bladder to stay decompressed and allow to heal. The game plan is to remove it today and then allow me to pee and then scan my bladder to ensure I’m fully emptying it.

The first room they put me in was hot as hades. Apparently the lady wh8o was in it before me had it set to 80 degrees, so I became very nauseated. So after engineering came in and couldn’t get the air to work , I was transferred to the room next door.

That day is still really foggy. The following day I was advanced to clear liquids, which backfired. I was throwing up all night and extremely nauseated. Dr. Stuart took me back to ice chips and started some medication to help my bowels to move. The first day that I wasn’t sleeping all day and felt more like myself was Saturday. Today is even better. I have only been on Tylenol for pain for several days and medicine for gas. I am on a regular diet and handling it well.

Dr. Skinner just did rounds and I'm going home today! Just waiting on orders and getting this catheter out!

Thank you all for the prayers and support. God has answered a lot of prayers. Please pray for continued healing.

Breakfast on Sunday

Pancake socks since I couldn't eat

Apparently I took a selfie after surgery

Going for a walk

Sunrise on one of our morning walks

Just one of my many bruises

Waiting in pre-op

Pre-Op

First of all, we are blown away from all of the support, prayers, texts, cards, and offers to help we have received since posting the blog. I honestly wanted to put our story out there to help other survivors and to show God's goodness despite how dark your circumstances may seem. 

I have been told "you are so strong" but I don't completely agree with that statement. I'm certainly NOT strong but I have a strong God on my side. He is fighting the battles for me. I have been praying since I found out the diagnosis that God would use this situation to show His power and love through me. 

I wanted to feel normal, feel productive, and see my friends... all good reasons to go on a work trip but in hindsight, probably not the best timing on my part. We got the news on a Thursday that my cancer was indeed back and I left the following Monday for a regional meeting in Tampa. 

The flights down to Tampa were uneventful and I settled into my hotel easily. I was able to see my other Medical Regional friends and relax. The next day I got sick, something that has been happening every week and a half or so. I missed a lot of the meetings since I was in the restroom. I finally waved the white flag and went back to my room for a few hours. I was able to rally and come back for the afternoon sessions. I know that I worried the pants off of Wil being so far from home and ill. Thankfully, I have a good support system with my work friends (big thanks to Lisa and Erin for looking out for me). The rest of the week was uneventful from a health standpoint but I was ready to be home and back with my family. 

Tuesday rolls around and Dr. Skinner took the time to call me to let me know that her and Dr. Stuart went through my scan. She had some good news that it looked like the surgery wouldn't be as involved as originally thought but I would learn more from Dr. Stuart. I can't tell ya'll how much it means to have such an amazing oncologist on your side. She is never rushed during our appointments, makes sure to let us ask all of our questions, jokes around with us, and is intelligent and an amazing physician and surgeon. 

Wil and I went to see Dr. Stuart, who Wil calls "a good ol' boy like me." He is down to earth and was a surgeon I worked with in ICU when I was there at the start of my nursing career. Dr. Stuart was always kind, even when I had to call him in the middle of the night about one of his patients. 

The good news we received was that the tumor on my colon is on the RIGHT side where my appendix was removed from the first surgery and not the LEFT side where the initial bowel resection was. If the cancer is just on the right side, he doesn't think that I will have to have an ileostomy. We take this all with a grain of salt since there is always a potential that the surgeons find more when they open me up than what is shown on the scans. 

Surgery is officially scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th. That means I have bowel prep on Monday (think of a whole bottle of Miralax in 2 Gatorade bottles- YUMMMMY). The hospital stay will depend on what is found during surgery. 

Prayer requests: That nothing else is found during surgery than what is seen on the scans, for a quick recovery and short hospital stay, for Wil as he will be taking care of me and the kids while I recover, for God to give us some of "glimpses" into His good plan at work this time just like He has so generously showed us during previous legs of our cancer journey, and for my dear friend Erin from work who is also battling this terrible disease. 

Third time’s a charm

Not again, not now. Those were my first thoughts when the pain started. I tried to ignore it for weeks, hoping it would just go away. I had a sinking feeling that the cancer was back but kept praying that wasn’t the case.

In September, Wil and I made our way to my oncologist for my six month check up. I told her about the pain I had been experiencing. My exam was completely normal but she ordered a CT scan. After waiting for insurance to approve it, I went in for scan. Then I got the call from my doctor. I had an enlarged lymph node in the area my cancer has been before. She was ordering a PET scan which would shows cancer as “hot.” We continued to pray that it was not  cancerous, but God had other plans.

I got a call the day after my PET scan from the scheduler saying I needed to come in the next day at 3 pm to see my oncologist. I felt like I had been punched in the throat , my breath was knocked out of me. I immediately tried to called Wil who was trying to call me at the same time. I knew he was upset too. We had to continue to wait, which sometimes is the worst thing.

The next 24 hours seemed to creep by. I just wanted to know what was going on in my body. I wanted the action plan, I wanted to fight this thing head on.

Wil and I prayed in the car before we went into the cancer center. My dear friend prayed for me the day earlier and it stuck with me. “Dear God, if we had the immense love for Katie that you do and the wisdom of the future that you did, we know that we would want the same thing Lord.” I continued to pray that God’s will would be my own.

As we walked into the renovated waiting room, I saw pictures on the wall of survivors, myself, and my dear friend Tracy who has already gone on to be with the Lord. I missed her with an intense hurt especially going through this again.

We were escorted back to our exam room and waited some more. Dr. Skinner came in and sat down and told us “this isn’t the end of the world but we have work to do.” She went through the whole scan and explained it all. When she scrolled down to my pelvis, that lymph node lit up like a spot light, not a good thing. She explained that there was also a place on my colon that had tumor pressing into it. This would mean open abdominal surgery, the third one in 7 years. A general surgeon (who helped with my first surgery) would be doing the bowel resection. We will meet with him on 10/22 for more information. There is a chance that I may have to have a temporary ileostomy to allow my bowel resection to heal properly.


Since my cancer has historically been low-grade (meaning it doesn’t grow quickly), new research has shown that chemo is not very effective. The plan is to send the tumors to pathology to make sure it hasn’t mutated to high-grade (quickly growing). If it is still low-grade, then no chemo and I will start an oral medication to stop the my body from making estrogen from adrenal glands (which feed my cancer).

My blood marker (CA-125) has never been very reactive to my cancer so it isn’t a good indicator for me. My doctor ordered a different blood level (HE-4) that may help to monitor me in the future.


As soon as we walked back to the truck, I lost it. I was mad and angry about having cancer again and mad that I may have to have an ileostomy . I literally folded over in my seat, crying and screaming. I was crying out to God. I yelled my prayers, I screamed for peace, I sobbed not to have to have the illeostomy. There were tears and snot everywhere. I screamed and cried so hard I actually broke blood vessels all around my eyes. Finally I composed myself enough that Wil could drive me home.

My husband was in protector mode. He was trying to do what would be best for me. He made sure to notify our families so I didn’t have to put it into words. We decided that we wanted to get the kids from daycare since that would help preoccupy our minds. I called my friend Erin from work who is also battling ovarian cancer. Since she is in the medical field, she understands the ins and outs of the disease. It's really good to have a young survivor that understands the journey.


Needless to say, we've seen God move mountains many times in our lives and we know he will do it again. We will enter this sword fight armed with stones knowing that God's power is sufficient for us.

We ask for prayers that the spot on my colon is small and won't require an ileostomy, that the recovery is quick and manageable, and the cancer hasn't mutated to high-grade.