ALPPS Non Event

On Wednesday I woke up in intensive care. I was sore, but I was alive was my first thought. My second thought, something is not right as I looked at clock and the time showed only 1pm. Also I did not feel sore enough for such major surgery.

Soon after my wife came in and told me that when they opened me up, they found 10 micromets, 1-2mm in size in the peritoneum and the ALPPS surgery did not proceed for that reason.I pretty much figured all of that out for myself, but was still devastated. I was warned about this possibility, but I did instruct the surgeon to proceed with surgery even if micromets were found. Again too much red tape and regulation it seems.

The positive outcomes were a drain to deal with the ascites fluid buildup, and they took 3 biopsy samples to send to dr. Nesselhut for future dendritic cell priming.

The next step I was offered was Removab injected peritonealy to try and deal with the ascites issue. I have been in a Czech Hospital for 5 days now, to recover and waiting to see if Removab can be ordered. (The food is terrible btw.) As it is not approved in this country this is proving to be more difficult than the local oncologist thought, so am considering a trip to Germany for this. I should know later today.

I have still not given up on ALPPS, just need to get creative.

The drain that was put in is making my life miserable too. It is seeping from the side which they fixed by putting in an ostonomy type bag over it. Not the most comfortable thing to do on a fresh wound. The drain line also keeps getting clogged all the time. Its draining about 2 litres each day, but they keep pumping IV electrolytes into me at the same rate so it seems self defeating at times. Bad news is that the fluid drained contains lots of protein as well and this is not as easy to replace.

About Ren

I have been diagnosed with stage 4, metastatic colorectal cancer in October 2012, 3 days after my 44th birthday. There is no cure, but I am determined to go down the road less travelled to find one. I have setup this blog to document my journey and hopefully help others in the process. My view is that if there is a cure, it does not lie with traditional chemo, but with the immune system. Time will tell.
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