Bob I think you said March 7th

The best way to avoid the pneumonia is get up and move. The walking was great for me. A bit challe nging at first, but each day I could feel myself getting stronger.....again.....avoid allergies, colds, and funny people because coughing and laughing are a whole new level of pain.....if you can basically heal before you have a belly laugh.....great.....but I made my wife laugh after her C section on our first born, and she got even.....repeatedly after my lung surgery.

After my wife broke her leg and they put a fifteen inch steel pin in her leg a year ago yesterday, the ortho guy had her walking immediately, and two days later she went to her girlfriends breakfast club where about ten of her high school friends meet once a month.....they were amazed as she rolled in with her walker, but a year later she has lost eighteen pounds and she is stronger than ever. You will get stronger by the day, but do not baby yourself and be too sedentary. If it hurts stop...........but when it stops hurting.....get up and walk. I am hearing great things on artificial knees where they are putting slow release pain meds in the knee and people are walking out after surgery and recoveries are vastly improving.....exercise reasonably.....it will help, but do NOT exercise muscles around the incision.

2seaoat wrote:

On another note Bob.....the damn weather lady told me we were going to have rain on Saturday and it was going to be clear on Sunday....I just spent two hundred bucks to rent a piece of equipment from Saturday to Monday, and this morning they tell me the front is getting here late and it will rain Sunday......I would like to throw a dart at them.....but then they would have none when they guess on the weather.

I don't pay any attention to tv "weather girls" (or "weather boys" either).  If I was going to do that I would get my doctoring from tv "doctor girls" as well.  But I chose not to have Sue Straughn do my surgery.

Here's the forecast provided by the National Weather Service.  You'll be fine for Sunday...



http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=30.44&lon=-87.19#.VuFsoubhOyw

Bob wrote:I hurt bad from the time I left the hospital on Tuesday until last night when I took both the oxycontin and the tylenol.  Until that time I had been taking the oxycontin every 3 hours and it barely cut the pain.
But then last night I took both together.  I just woke up (it's now 3:30) and I'm feeling a lot less pain and don't even feel the need to take more painkillers now.

Either the combination of the two things somehow broke the pain or it's just a coincidence and the pain started to let up after 36 hours (probably the latter).
But either way I'm just happy cause the pain has finally broken.  Yippee!!!

Hooray for no pain! I found after surgery that plain ol' Tylenol worked best for me. The pain meds whacked me out and I still had pain. I could do a commercial. Hang in there, Bob. So happy the surgery went well.

Bob wrote:Here's a question.  Since pneumonia is a possibility following the surgery,  why would the doctors not be encouraging patients to get a pneumonia vaccine shot before the surgery?   I got one just because it seemed logical to me.
But is there something about the pneumonia you can get after surgery that is different from the pneumonia the vaccine protects you from?  I don't get it.

Bob the pneumonia vaccine is to hopefully prevent you from contacting a particular strain that causes pneumonia. Pneumonia and atelectasis (blockage of tiny air sacs within the lung are blocked and cause a collapsed lung.) are secondary complication of surgery..it may occur because you tend to shallow breathe and you are immobile. Shallow breathing does not allow you to expand your lungs completely, thrrefore, you get accumulated fluid in your lungs which causes pnemonia.

Bottom line.....move around to prevent blood clots, deep breathe and cough to prevent lung complications.....each day you will get better. You must eat so you can poop.

I had a root canal a couple years ago and they prescribed oxycodone for that.
The prescription ran out so I went to the dentist's office to get them to refill it.
It was late on Friday afternoon and the dentist had left.  The nurse told me their office advised patients to take 3 or 4 ibuprofens when they ran out of the oxycodone.  I thought she was bullshitting me until I had no choice and switched to it.  That gave me more pain relief than the oxycotin. 
I think when I need pain medicine again today I'm going to take 3 ibuprofens and skip the oxycontin and see what happens.

ibuprofen......good stuff. After the rigid bronc where they debulked my four new tumors last month, I took one prescribed pain pill because my tongue had been burned in the procedure and was painful, but I do not like taking pain pills because the liver processes them, and I have found ibuprofen gives me great liver pain relief when I am having a bad day. If I take three, any pain is reduced, and with the liver pain the ice pick sensation usually is moderated and I can sleep. I really do not get much bump from norco and can understand what you are saying. I got off pain pills as quick as I could, and I will tell this story again......I had decided to drive.....it was a while after the surgery and I knew that I should not drive when taking prescribed pain pills, but I also did not fully understand when the body is under a great deal of pain, the mental facilities are strained....almost like falling into shock. Well I went on a street which had once been one way(five years before) and drove down the far left side of the road. I was at the traffic signal and all these people were honking and waving at me....I just waved back thinking it was Seaoat appreciation day, but then I realized I was in their lane of traffic.....I went home and did not drive for about a week after that.....so be very careful when you decide to drive again. I know you will get stir crazy, but make sure you are pain free, comfortable, and have all your senses operating within the normal range.

I've had a remarkable recovery from the pain since yesterday.  That robotic surgery is a marvel.  Without that I'd still be in the hospital feeling the pain.
I may not even need the ibuprofen by tomorrow.  The constipation is gone,  my appetite is back,  and I can cough and suck on the spirometer with hardly any pain.

Bob wrote:I've had a remarkable recovery from the pain since yesterday.  That robotic surgery is a marvel.  Without that I'd still be in the hospital feeling the pain.
I may not even need the ibuprofen by tomorrow.  The constipation is gone,  my appetite is back,  and I can cough and suck on the spirometer with hardly any pain.

Bob, I am sooo happy that you are on the mend, I do enjoy your free style comments here as you do them so like no one else . . . . stay on the healing path and carry on!

Hallmarkgard wrote:I still think you would have been better off if you had went to Red Cottons T & W  Cancer Clinic and tire repair.  How do you know that damn robot did not leave a RF chip in you?  

Don't make him paranoid for goodness sakes . . .

knothead wrote:

Hallmarkgard wrote:I still think you would have been better off if you had went to Red Cottons T & W  Cancer Clinic and tire repair.  How do you know that damn robot did not leave a RF chip in you?  

Don't make him paranoid for goodness sakes . . .

Now we can all tune in to Bob.

Joanimaroni wrote:

knothead wrote:

Hallmarkgard wrote:I still think you would have been better off if you had went to Red Cottons T & W  Cancer Clinic and tire repair.  How do you know that damn robot did not leave a RF chip in you?  

Don't make him paranoid for goodness sakes . . .

Now we can all tune in to Bob.

LOL!  You people are a stitch.

Seriously, Bob, your tale of triumph over the pain and discomfort gladdens my heart tonight.

Hallmarkgard wrote:I still think you would have been better off if you had went to Red Cottons T & W  Cancer Clinic and tire repair. 

Actually lung surgery and tire repair are not all that much different.  When you get a bad spot on a tire you cut it out and patch it,  same as the robot did on my lung.  In fact,  the first thing they do after surgery is make sure your lung doesn't have any leaks (no kidding).  lol

I was really anxious to know what the method was for sealing up the lung after they take a hunk out of it.  Found out it's actually just a form of adhesive.  And the adhesive joint is held tighter by being reinforced with staples.  And those staples will always show up on x-rays.  I'm wondering if they'll set off the metal detector at the airport.

They loaded my neck with two brackets and a bunch of screws but I go through the airports fine.

I had wondered the same thing.

My wife has yet to go through a metal detector since her birthday last year when she broke her leg and they put in a 15 inch stainless pin and screws....a great deal of metal, but she was walking almost immediately.

Bob, I hope you are walking and getting exercise. When do you go back for a consult and review the pathology. Did they talk to you about clear margins and did they take lymph pathology?

I get the results of the pathology on the tumor and the lymph nodes when I go back to the surgeon next Tuesday.

About the margins,  seaoat.  There's something about today's lung cancer that seems to be a relatively new school of thought.
Before now,  the universally accepted therapy for a lung cancer was to routinely remove a whole lobe of the lung.  But the new school of thought which seems to have taken over is that studies have shown when the tumor is less than 2 cm in size,  there is no difference in morbidity between removing a lobe vs only doing a wedge resection.  And since the wedge removal is preferable in every other way,  that's why I didn't lose a lobe.

The reason I believe this is new thinking is this.  My oncologist is less than 50 years old.  He looks to be about 40.  Before the surgery he told me I would definitely be getting a lobectomy because they always do that.
Thank god the older surgeon was more up to date than the young oncologist.

PkrBum wrote:They loaded my neck with two brackets and a bunch of screws but I go through the airports fine.

I had wondered the same thing.

OMG what happened to you, if you don't mind telling a newbie?

RealLindaL wrote:

PkrBum wrote:They loaded my neck with two brackets and a bunch of screws but I go through the airports fine.

I had wondered the same thing.

OMG what happened to you, if you don't mind telling a newbie?

I had hurt my neck playing football in hs and then was rearended a few times over the years... it bothered me but I just took ibuprofen. Then two years ago I noticed weakness and numbness in my arms and then a muscle in the back of my shoulder just disappeared... atrophied they said. Turns out the vertebrae and discs in my neck were compressing my spinal cord by half. They had to fuse c3 - c7... four levels. They removed the discs, filled the space with cadaver bone... and framed it up with the brackets. It really hurt... and I do have some residual nerve loss... but it fixed the problem and living without a pain in the neck is much nicer... lol.

The bad part has been that I'm not able to play competitive tennis anymore... something I've loved since I was eight years old. But I was seriously losing the use of my arms... having trouble even putting the cap back on the toothpaste.

So I didn't really have any choice.

Wow, Pkr, you have really been through a lot, and yet you keep on keepin' on. Good for you! An inspiration. Thanks for sharing.

I'm actually very healthy... no high bp, no high cholesterol, not overweight, only med is naproxin (to get off ibuprofen. So many others here have real and lasting issues and problems... they are who I worry about. I've just had a little bad luck.

Thank you tho.

Looks like Blue Cross has refused to accept my surgery and is refusing to pay for it.

When I had that Mega Health and Life policy my co-pay on that last sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery ended up being about $18,000.   I'm paying that off to Sacred Heart Hospital at the rate of $200 per month.
ppaca said this robotic surgery might cost as much as $75-100,000.  I wonder if they'll let me pay that off for another $200 per month?

WTF, one of a couple things happened and I doubt the first one I list happened because they want to get paid.

The doctor's office lied when they told you the robot was pre-approved.

The doctor's office coded it wrong.

Or the insurance company wants to see how long they can draw this out before having to pay.

At any rate please call the doctor's office tomorrow and ask them what the pre-approval number was, then let me know.

We will have to gather everything that will start coming in and get our person to work on it.

ppaca wrote:WTF, one of a couple things happened and I doubt the first one I list happened because they want to get paid.

The doctor's office lied when they told you the robot was pre-approved.

The doctor's office coded it wrong.

Or the insurance company wants to see how long they can draw this out before having to pay.

At any rate please call the doctor's office tomorrow and ask them what the pre-approval number was, then let me know.

We will have to gather everything that will start coming in and get our person to work on it.

After re reading that letter a few times I think coding may be wrong, it certainly wasn't investigational to remove a tumor and it was not experimental. They are going to have to re code and explain why they couldn't cut you open because it was too close to the heart. But I do want a copy of that letter. Seems I can't save it here.