For everyone that knows Larry, you know he LOVES baseball and LOVES his White Sox even more. Since he was a little boy the White Sox was his team, while the entire rest of the family cheered on that North Side team. He recruited me young to join his side and I have been a dedicated White Sox fan ever since. Now my brother has recruited me to fill everyone in on his journey to beat Colon Cancer and once again I'll be dedicated.
So, this is the official site of all things Larry Matson. I will use this to keep everyone up-to-date on what's going on his life. Some days there will be important information to convey and other days there may not. Nonetheless, I will keep you informed.
Larry and I talked yesterday about the blog and he wanted me to start by catching everyone up on what has happened so far...grab a drink and a snack, sit back and get ready for a wild 6 days.
On Wednesday, July 11th Larry was constipated. (side note....be prepared now to hear all things dealing with the functions of the human body - as most people know I am not one to hold back) On Thursday, July 12th Larry was still constipated but now in pain. His solution - to have Chipotle for lunch. Yep, that's right Chipotle. "Laur, it has beans and beans make you poop" is what he later said to me. But that didn't work. So, that night after registering at Bed, Bath and Beyond with Livia he tried a nice 1/2 pound burger with fries. No luck, still constipated. After hearing this my mom said, "is he his father's son or what???" On Friday, July 13th the constipation continued and the pain was getting worse. It was so bad that he decided to have chicken noodle soup for lunch and he couldn't have much. He called my mom who had him take a fleet enema that night and told him to go to the ER if it didn't work - still nothing just more pain. The pain got to be so unbearable he and Livia walked to St. Joseph's Hospital at 2:30 AM on Saturday morning. And he has been there ever since.
At the emergency room, they did a CAT scan and it showed a blockage in his bowel. Antibiotics were ordered thinking the blockage was an infection but they didn't work. His colon was measured at 7 cm. dilated and a normal colon is 2 cm. They admitted him and we waited for the antibiotics to do their job. They didn't. At 3:15 PM he went into surgery. What was suppose to be a 1.5-2 hr surgery ended up to be over 4. The surgeon told us that he he felt a mass in his colon that looked like cancer so he went ahead and removed 2 ft. of infected intestine to be proactive- they would not have to open him up again.
It was then a waiting game for the pathology to come back. He also has to recover from an extensive surgery.
His scar originally was supposed to be 6 inches- 3 inches above his belly button, 3 inches below. He now has a pretty cool scar from below his breast bone all the way down to his pelvis. (picture to come). Not only does the scar have to heal (and boy is it painful) the area that was operated on has to heal. The wonderful surgeon, Dr. Adajar did not want Larry to have a colostomy bag, so he thought outside the box. Think of a clipped garden hose as Lar's large intestine. There are two ends to the clipped hose - one end of the hose is not infected so it's a normal 2 cm. in diameter and the other end is infected so it's 7 cm. in diameter. The surgeon connected the two different ends in an attempt to save him from 'the bag'. So far, the connection has worked! It typically takes 7 days to make sure it is fully going to hold. The most important part of his healing is to WAKE UP his insides. During surgery his intestines, bowels, stomach, etc. went into 'hibernation' which is normal. Well, now we want them to wake up so he can start eating and drinking. He has had an NG tube through his nose down into his stomach since surgery. This tube helps him out while his insides start to wake up. We will officially know his insides are awake and he can start eating when he farts. I have never been more excited for my brother to fart in my life!!!
On Sunday, he got out of bed and sat in a reclining chair and on Monday he walked. The moving (sitting, walking, etc) is so important because that is what will wake up his insides. His catheter came out on Tuesday and he was able to walk to the bathroom and pee on his own. He tries to take 4 long strolls around the unit a day.
On Wednesday evening Dr. Solti, the oncologist surgeon on Dr. Adajar's team, came to tell us what the pathology testing showed. He explained that the mass in the colon was cancer (we were prepared for that). Cancer was also found on an area that was removed from his abdominal wall, and 2 of the 15 lymph nodes that were removed showed cancer. To say the least, we were not prepared for this news. We are dealing with the news, but our first step is for him to fully recover from surgery and to get out of room 1044 and home. That will happen when he farts, he then can have liquids/food and if he tolerates that he can come home. We're anticipated that to be Friday night or Saturday.
Looking ahead->->->->->Lar will need a PET scan to scan his entire body for cancer - they don't want to start chemo until they know exactly what they are dealing with. He will also need a Colonoscopy which can't be done until that intestine connection is fully healed. We also have to choose an oncologist team-again we are waiting until he is ready to come home. Dr. Solti also does a cutting edge cancer surgery for colon cancer that we are also looking into.
Well...I think that gets you all up-to-date. So far, we feel very fortunate for the team of doctors we were given. Their bedside manner and their knowledge has been simply amazing!!
More to come later.... If you do have questions/comments please post and I'll try my best to answer. And if anyone else can answer the questions please do! I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV - just doing the best I can with what I hear.
sox it to it Lar....
