Jill’s surgery went exactly as Dr. Hawkins hoped it would today! They removed the right side of her liver and now she is officially “tumor free!”
Her pain level was A LOT better after this surgery than the “trifecta surgery” she had to undergo in May.
She will be in the hospital for 5-7 days then recovery at home for 6-8 weeks.
Panther Dan and the St. Louis Jill Mac Mafia Team thank all of you for love and support!
Throw the booze back, Jack
Drink like a man, Stan
It’s not a toy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Get hit by a bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just watch for Hep C, Lee
And get yourself free
Surgery will take place Tuesday December 1st, around 1pm.
December is known as the month of many things… Hanukkah, Christmas, Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, New Years Eve, Winter Solstice, and now… The Liver Surgery (removal of the right lobe).
My parents will be coming in town for this exciting event. My dad arrives this coming Sunday and will be here for the first week, while I’m in the hospital and my mom will arrive next Sunday, for the next week at home after the hospital. Between them, Kim and the gaybors, I should be well taken care of. Hopefully there will be some hospital entertainment.
The surgery consists of removing the entire right lobe of my liver and a little of the left. At this time, my left liver has been growing and learning the functions of the entire liver. It has not really been tested, but maybe in future… That green thing, is a gallbladder, that will be gone too. One less thing to worry about. Blaming everything on the gallbladder seems to be all the rage these days.
Apparently I’ll be off work for 6 weeks again and will be faced with severe fatigue for 2-3 months. If being tired was a sport, I’d be the world champion. I’ve learned that your liver stores your energy for the day. Well, when you have only half of a liver (or less), you have less energy. I can count on 30 minute bursts. I just hope to be able to stay awake for day time soaps while on this 6 week vacation. I’ll catch up on Netflix…. Reminds me of the time I finished surfing the entire internet…
What a great time for such a surgery. I’ve been fattening myself up for this one. In years past I had to watch what I ate around the holidays. This year, not so much. I’m beginning to resemble my little dog.
She too, eats everything in sight.
Stay tuned for updates post surgery…. And no, I’m not scared. I plan on blazing through this one too. Ha. C’est la vie.
Dear Cancer, see you next Tuesday…
I have my CT scan tomorrow to determine if surgery is still an option, late in the morning. I’ll see the doctor in the afternoon to go over the scan results and hopefully have an estimate for a date for surgery, if I’m still a candidate.
Time will tell…
Stay tuned. I’ll update when I can.
Cheers… (I’ll also maybe ask him if I can drink ever again… maybe not…)
Up down, up down, up down
Cause all I do is win, win, win
Round 12 is in the books folks… a slight delay… you could say I didn’t exactly “make weight” Friday. I think my doctor just wanted to say “See you next Tuesday”.
I’m trying to look more like Gina Carano:
And less like Karen Carpenter:
Apparently my white blood cells were up enough to have chemo yesterday (thank you for the “prayers for my immune system”-Megan, Marni, Jenn, and M&D).
It was a long day yesterday, I think they had to count the cells one by one before they could hook me up, but it’s done. Now I recover (avoid anyone that is remotely ill) and in 4 weeks I will have a CT scan to see how things look. If I’m a candidate for surgery then it will be scheduled. There is no date set as of yet. Let’s just estimate for November.
I’m back at work today, anticipating the big Wild Card game tonight… I sure love pirates, sorry cubs fans.
Anywho, GO CARDS!!! Thanks for all of your encouragement. Stay GOLD PonyBoy. I’m not sure there will be many updates between now and scan time, so hopefully Angela will post some past videos and I will try to make some new port videos. For real this time…
Cheers!!
Chemo #12 is NOT in the books folks, that’s right, it was a no go because my white blood cell count was low today. Let me be clear… not as low as my tolerance level for babies screaming on long flights or of people who pick their noses at stop lights…but low enough that they want to wait until Tuesday. Amazingly, The Captain’s blood alcohol level was higher than my white blood cell count this morning… well… maybe not that surprising.
Every time I turned around the Captain was sleeping (or slipping on banana peels). I guess she had a long night:
She even fashioned a protective breathing mask into an eye mask, to ward off the evil light that seemed to make her hangover worse. Quite impressive.
As for the low WBC’s, I haven’t felt great this week so I may be fighting something off…who knows. Do my tonsils look ok? 
It really only hurts when I jump on trampolines in cowboy boots…ride llamas backwards at Grants Farm…or when laugh… like this… and sometimes laughing like this makes me get gum in my hair…which is very annoying.
A weekend reprieve isn’t such a bad thing…I’m “not so secretly” happy, actually because now I can frolick around freely all weekend like a red lipped bat-fish in an ocean reef…yes it’s a real thing. 
Lovely lips don’t you think? It was a long appointment this morning regardless because we got stuck in a room waiting to be seen…which of course can get quite boring after your 1,000,456th doctor’s visit in 10 months…not that I’m counting. We tried playing games…like peek-a-boo. I mean I’m not sure why kids like that game so much…I got bored after like 35 minutes and the Captain quit getting scared when I peeked out after 30 minutes. 
I decided if I could only create a diversion in my room the doctor would surely come in quicker to check on me… loud popping noises perhaps?
Apparently the staff at the Siteman Center is used to hearing loud popping noises…I guess it is St. Louis after all they probably just thought it was gunfire or fireworks… needless to say they didn’t come to check on me any faster. We got bored with that game too after the 67th glove exploded… but then the great idea of filling one with the foam hand sanitizer came to mind! Who knew how bad it burns in the eyes and how bad it tastes?
Here is a frame by frame recap:
I mean, look at her jacket. The entire room was covered in spray from that stupid idea. What an idiot. The room has never been cleaner since we left…
Anyway, we’ll try again on Tuesday and hopefully that will be my last round of chemo for quite awhile… at least until after I recover from surgery. Anyone that can make it to our Halloween Party at the Top of the Met on October 31st, here are the details or go to my Facebook page.
Nobody puts Baby in a coroner… Oops, I mean on a manual bike…
Here I am: 
Thank you to Joe and Kathy Mohr, for providing the sweet wheels for the ride. Very thoughtful.
Pedal The Cause 2015 was a success! Our MacDonald/Sharpless team started and crossed the finish line as a team (it was nice to ride the same week as Brent’s birthday 9/21). Thanks to all that supported and participated. It was an amazing event and a beautiful day for supporting such a great cause.
I ran into my liver specialist there. He had ridden 50 miles like a champ. He informed me that he was quite happy with my scans from last week. I’ll have round 12 of chemo this coming Friday, followed by a four week break (necessary to rest and recover for surgery). After four weeks I’ll have another scan and surgery will likely be scheduled and performed maybe early November. Pretty exciting.
More to come….Cheers to all.
Good news!!!!
i received my scan results Monday. I was informed that there are no new tumors at this time (anywhere)… Which is always good to hear for obvious reasons… But also, good old Lefty Liver grew as well. As hoped, the left liver (or my Future Liver Remnant), has been growing. And growing quite well. Sometimes growth can be slow or just doesn’t take place if your liver isn’t very healthy. Well amazingly, this little liver of mine, really wants to shine.
i also pranced around the hospital, pretending I was a doctor
Apparently the amount of growth appears ( visually) to be enough to go forward with surgery to remove the right lobe completely. I’ll still come back and consult with my liver surgeon there, but it sounds like things are moving along as best they could be.
Im very lucky to have things progress as well as they have. I blame all of you. So thank you.
I have another consultation tomorrow with the colon specialist. Just to go over scans and options in the future. The facilities here in Houston are top notch. MDAnderson is quite the place, as is the entire medical campus. I feel pretty lucky to have had the opportunity to come down here. I appreciate the support there and here during my stay. Thank you all. Everyday I eat fresh oysters from the gulf for you:
I also visited Galveston. I rode every ride and jumped off the pier twice. Jk. I also walked along the beach in the warm Gulf waters that have been threatening flesh eating bacteria thru June. Live on the edge. Sometimes by accident.
One last thing, Nikki Christ’s niece (Emily Linneman), is in need of a miracle, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I shared her GoFund me on my fb page if you’re interested in donating or even just wanting to read her story. Thank you in advance.
Cheers fools!! I’ll be back Thursday afternoon.
Howdy ya’ll. I made it to Houston this morning. I’ll be gone for a week. My travel partner, Kim, will make sure I get to all of my appointments on time. I can’t believe that Angela is letting me out of her sight…
On that note, keep Angela’s family in your thoughts. Her dad took a bit of a spill off of a bulldozer the other day, she’s down in southern Illinois checking on our dear old Doyle. She may actually be acting as an interpreter for Doyle. Hopefully she hired and interpreter for herself too. An interpreter for the interpreter… It’s like a Seinfeld episode. For those of you who know how Doyle and Angela communicate, this is warranted. Mumblers. “What teacher?”
Alright, back to me… So I have a scan and some blood work scheduled for tomorrow. This scan should show any healthy growth and results of the last procedure I had in July. That left lobe should be large and in charge. Following this scan I will have an appointment with the colon specialist. This appointment will likely be next week Monday or Tuesday. I won’t know until after tomorrow. I do have an appointment scheduled Monday morning with a liver specialist. Also, this is just a second opinion. There are no plans to seek or change treatment, just getting another opinion and opening up options for other clinical trials if necessary in future. I also just didn’t want to work for a week because I’m lazy and I hear Houston is beautiful this time of year.
Ill update you all as I know things. Stay tuned.
I feel pretty darn good for having no working right lobe of liver.
Tuesdays procedure was slightly painful, I won’t lie… Yet.
They load you up with some feel good drugs (not enough) and then go on with the procedure. They fill some veins with some sauce (like caulking shut an opening), for you Home Depot lovers or weekend warriors. This does what we said earlier, causes a sort of heart attack to your one side of your liver, as you’re blocking off it’s blood supply.
I guess some people fall asleep during the procedure. I, of course, did not… Again…, like when I got my port placed. However the port placement was not painful. This time they go about the procedure and administer pain meds based on your discomfort. .. Oh and they remind you to lay still, as you have a needle or two running through a major blood supply, under your ribs. Ha. Anywho, some people do not experience pain. I was lucky to have a little. About 30-40 min later I was good to go, they get it under control pretty quickly. Then I felt fine for the next few days, taking very few (if any) pain meds..
There were a few false alarms in the hospital with nausea, but that subsided really quickly. It was brought on by small amounts of food or drink, combined with any quick movements. If you laid still, which is impossible for me, then you were fine.
Ive been tired a lot and started experiencing some cramping pains over the weekend. I only include this because NOWHERE on the internet does it say that people would experience pain. Pass it on, it’s normal. It comes and goes and is tolerable, like my friends. I had been expecting flu-like symptoms only (fatigue, fever, aching, a little nausea). I know they say not to believe everything you read on the internet, but there was really no info on this. So here it is now…
Anywho, just a short update. There are slight fevers randomly once a day. Pain here and there. The diaphragm is involved and areas are inflamed and irritated in there, so deep breaths, laughing and other full lung inflating requirements are not restricted, but avoided. 😉 I am trying to avoid addiction to pain meds also, see the following:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o6yVRIF6jl8
(Click on link above)
I should be returning to work tomorrow (Tuesday 25th). I’ll have chemo this Friday, coming up. I’m not due for any scans until mid to late September. I go to MDA (Houston) September 18th I think. I’ll stay there about a week to get a second opinion and touch base with some different doctors. Nothing major will happen there. Just trying to get some other options in place, if ever necessary, way down the road. My next liver surgery could happen in as soon as two months. They would be removing the entire right lobe. That will all be dependent on how things are healing and growing from this embolization. I’ll know more in about a month hopefully. Stay tuned.
angela was kind enough to let me wear her hat in the hospital:
Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, as always.
J
Well….I always knew this day would come…but I naturally assumed it would be caused from drinking copious amounts of alcohol…today is the day I officially killed half of my liver! Definitely an occasion to dress up for!
Contrary to popular belief…killing a lobe of your liver with a portal embolization is a lot faster than drinking with the Gayborhood in the Tiki Bar everyday of your life.
The 2 hour surgery was performed by a interventional radiologist and consisted of inserting a needle into the right lobe of my liver…something I completely recommend that everyone try on their enemies at least one in their lifetime…it was not on my bucket list.
A catheter was inserted into the needle that contained a hardening type substance they put into the portal vein. This substance hardens and blocks the blood flow to the right side…causing what the doctor described as a “heart attack” in the right lobe…which sends extra nutrients to the left side to make it grow…grow lefty!
It’s true folks…my liver suffered a heart attack today! Like…who can even say that?! I must be special…so much so I have received the following awards by Barnes Jewish Hospital…
1. Patient of the Year – January 2015 to Present
2. High Pain Toleranxe (high pain in the ass also)
3. Most Liver Lesions (currently at Barnes)
4. Most Organs Resected/Removed in One Surgery – May 19, 2015
5. Most Likely to Cause Nauseau and Vomiting in Nurses – 1978 to Present
6. Honorable Mention – Most Accurate with Bed Pans – 2015
7. Most Likely to Confuse Colastamy Bag with a Chocalate Pudding Snack Pack
My parents will be so proud! Panther Dan and P Kitty you raised a real winner!
I’ll be in the hospital overnight and have been given this advice for my recovery in the week to come. 
Going slow takes time…so to ensure I monitor myself I stole this lovely clock from the 14th floor…rolling like Flava Flav!
Assuming all goes as planned, my next surgery will be in 6-8 weeks. It will be a big one…to remove the whole tumor filled right side of my liver that we murdered today. As Dr. Hawkins says…tumors can not hurt you if they’re in a bucket on the floor!
He’s a very no nonsense doctor…you will be happy to know that he writes children’s books too! If anyone is interested…one is called “Don’t Cry You Sissy!” and the other one is “There’s No Excuse to Be #2 – You’re the First Loser!”
His own autobiography, “How Dodge Ball Changed My Career Path – Surgeons Rule” should be out any day now. I hope he mentions me in the acknowledgment section.
Anyway…he motivates in special ways no other doctor has….he treats my liver like a punching bag and I keep coming back for more!
Cheers! Thanks for all the love and support!
