Tag Archives: HIPEC surgery

My Battle with Bowel Cancer

Life Changing Surgery – Part Two (Phil’s story)

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I was in Intensive Care for three days, but I can’t remember much about it as I kept drifting in and out of consciousness, but here is Phil’s story…

“The day of Karen’s operation was the longest day of my life. We were told that the operation was to take about 12 hours, but if there was nothing that could be done then we would hear from the surgeon a lot sooner than that. So when the time edged past 11.00 AM, I knew that the operation was going ahead. I had told friends and family that I would contact them as soon as I heard any news, but some couldn’t wait and messaged me wanting to know if I had heard anything, I couldn’t really blame them.

I went to work as I couldn’t face sitting at home all day and needed something to take my mind of it. The day went past very slowly and at last at about 10:30 PM I received a phone call from Dr. West, the surgeon, to say that the operation went well and Karen was in recovery. The relief was immense and I telephoned the family to let them know. The next morning I passed on the good news to our friends.

We didn’t know if I could visit Karen in Intensive Care so we didn’t really make any arrangements, but I was told when I phoned up to see how she was doing that I could visit, so I went there that afternoon. Before I saw her, I was warned by the nurses that there would be a lot of machines and drips and tubes so I was to be prepared to be shocked. They were right, there were about seven drips, five machines and tubes from anywhere there could be a tube and in the middle of all this was Karen.

I didn’t recognise her at first, she had ballooned and her skin was really tight, we were both emotional when we saw each other. I would be talking to her and she would drift off to sleep, so I would watch all the machines and take note of the numbers that were being shown.

The nurses in Intensive Care were fantastic – Karen had two nurses looking after her at a time, they were washing her, taking her blood pressure, doing blood tests, cleaning her teeth, moving her into a different position every two hours so she wouldn’t get bed sores, just chatting to her when she was conscious, nothing was too much trouble for them.

The part of the Intensive Care Unit that Karen was in, there were no windows so she didn’t really know what time of day it was, her bed was right next to the Nurse’s Station and I noticed that they were always keeping an eye on her. I noticed as well that Intensive Care was very much no thrills, there were no comforts, no bedside table, no cupboard or drawers to put things in, but I suppose people aren’t supposed to spend a long time in these wards.

Each time I visited Karen she had less tubes and drips which I assumed was a good sign. She was still sleepy, but we could have a conversation now.

One morning I received a message from Karen to say that she had been moved to the High Dependency Ward which was a relief as that meant she was getting better and when I went to visit her that day, she was actually sat up in a chair next to her bed and that was only four days after her operation!“

My Battle with Bowel Cancer

Life-Changing Surgery – Part One

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I was admitted the day before my operation, Monday 10th July, 2023, at 9:00 AM in the morning. After completing my admission form I was left mainly to my own devices until people started turning up at my bedside: McMillan nurse, doctors, the anaesthetist followed by the surgeon.

The talk with the anaesthetist went well until he informed me I’d be having an epidural whilst awake before the operation. That I wasn’t expecting. But by far the worst talk was with the surgeon who gave me a long list of things they will be doing during the operation: removing both my ovaries, my uterus and my rectum! Plus taking out the infected bowel and re-connecting it. He said that they were going to do the HIPEC surgery, filling my bowel up with chemotherapy, leaving for 90 minutes and then flushing out. The hardest thing to hear was when he told me that if the cancer has spread to my stomach lining then he would simply stitch me back up again and that would be that.

Phil came to visit me and we went down to Costa for a coffee where we discussed what was said, we both were very upset about the possibility if nothing could be done. I think the hardest thing was saying goodbye to him, not knowing for sure if I would ever see him again.

I was nil by mouth, only being allowed to sip water and some Fortisip, then the nurse came and informed me I need to have an enema. I thought that was just going to be a torpedo-shaped tablet put up my bottom, but boy was I wrong. It was a tube of lubricant or something, I’m not sure what it was, but I know it hurt like hell and as soon as she finished, I made a dash for the toilet and stayed there for a good 20 minutes. “At least that’s over,” I said to myself but unfortunately it happened twice again, each time hurt as bad as the last!

Time to try and get some sleep, which you can imagine was very difficult, not just because of the operation but also because of the noisy ward. I woke up at about four o’clock in the morning and had a bad case of cold feet, not wanting to have the surgery at all, perhaps persuade them to postpone it but then I thought about the enemas and I certainly didn’t want to go through that again.

I woke up again at seven o’clock and was given some cream to have a wash in to sterilise myself and then I was visited by the two surgeons who were performing the operation. They just wanted to say hello and make sure I was feeling okay.

I walked to the operating theatre with a theatre assistant who warned me not to get overwhelmed by the amount of people in there and when I entered the operating theatre she wasn’t kidding, there was loads of people. I sat on the bed and waited for my epidural and was asked the question by one of the theatre staff, “What would you normally be doing on a Tuesday morning?” “Watching Homes Under the Hammer,” was my reply and we had a conversation about buying and selling houses!! Meanwhile they were fiddling with my lower back preparing me for the epidural, which I have to say, didn’t hurt at all.

I noticed there was a huge blue screen down one end of the room and when I asked what that was for I was told. “All the machines we will be using are there, we don’t want you to see how many there are.”

I laid on my back and was told that I would soon be drifting off to sleep and seconds later I was asleep.