Hi Mohrfamily, I know I’m probably a bit weird in this regard, but I just want to give an alternative view for what it’s worth. I’ve been at this thing for just on a year now, and surgeries are easily my preferred part. I’ve had a liver resection, a low anterior resection with ileostomy, and am lining up for my second (and hopefully final!) liver resection and stoma reversal in a couple of months.
Now when I say “preferred” I don’t mean that I enjoy them, but compared to chemo or radiotherapy they have been a breeze. I have also been very fortunate to have had quick recoveries without complications, which I know not everyone does (and I don’t want to be insensitive to this).
The most important thing for me is that if all goes well - you have surgery, it hurts a bit, they give you good painkillers, you have lots of nice people taking care of you, then every day is a little bit better than the last. Every day you get more strength, more energy, a bit less pain, a bit more mobility. Yes there’s definitely tough periods, but within a couple of weeks of both my procedures I felt pretty human again. You also have a LOT of say over your own recovery efforts and can really feel empowered to heal well. I’ve made a minor study of this now and always happy to share notes
. Compared to the unpredictable rollercoaster of chemo, or the tedious weeks of radiation, I’ll take surgery anyday. And most importantly - it removes a HUGE proportion of cancer in one fell swoop! As they say, there’s no cancer that can resist cold steel. And as others have said, whenever I get nervous, I just remind myself how grateful and fortunate I am to have a surgical option (twice...).
Anyway, call me mad (perhaps we all are a little down here), but I just wanted to put this out there. Best of luck to you guys, I’m sure you’ve got this.
Rob