Trachea Tube

Good evening everone,

Big news. Yesterday (Aug3), I had the Trachea Tube removed after 34

months. Dr. Filatov decided not to stitch up the hole in my neck from

where the tube was taken out, deciding instead to let the hole grow

smaller naturally over the next 8 days. Dolores stayed with me for

the balance of the day and with the help of some of the senior nurses

they experimented with different types of bandages/dressings to find

what would be the best. I have a very strong cough and I blow most of

the dressings off after one or two coughs. Finally, they tried using

an ostomy set which is round and is about three inches across and has

a 1/4 inch hole in the centre. The smaller hole is covered with a

folded 2" by 2" dressing and it is held in place with a rectangular

bandage. This dressing holds well as long as I Cover the hole with my

finger when I cough or try to talk. The ostomy portion of the rig

stays in place for a number of days and the outer dressing is replaced

as required, 2 or 3 times each day. As the hole in my wind pipe

closes, the amount of air escaping through the trachea hole will

reduce. We have an appointment with Doctor Filatov at the Vanderhoof

hospital next week (Thurs. Aug 11) and he will likely stitch up the

hole in my neck at that time.

Two weeks ago Dr. Klopper removed the tissue surrounding the area on

my forehead where I had the Basel cell skin cancer. Yesterday while I

was in the hospital he stopped by to see me and told Dolores and I

that the margins around the sample that he took were clear indicating

that all of the cancer cells were removed. This morning he removed a

stitch, which had not dissolved, as it should have from the area where

the cyst was below my left eye. The scar tissue was inflamed and

there was a small pustule. Tonight the area looks much better and the

swelling and redness are almost gone.

I am quite tired tonight. Last night was a restless one for me. The

sleep apnea has returned and it bothered me quite a bit. We'll have

to deal with this as time goes on. I had trouble swallowing/eating

yesterday but today it was much better. My throat is sore when I

swallow but, that is improving as well.

On the farming front, David starting cutting the production fields on

Monday. Our weather has improved with lots of sunshine and warmer

temperatures. Today it got up to 26C with a nice breeze. David needs

another 7 to 10 days of good weather to finish the cutting and then

the baling. In total there are about 360 to 400 acres of hay to cut

and process. It's a huge job.

Milton is now cooking at new camp northwest of Fort St. James, B.C.

Not only is the camp an hour and a half closer to the farm, he got a

$50 per day pay increase at the new camp. He works 5 days on with 2 days

off. He is home most weekends. Dolores is really enjoying her retirement

although the cool, wet weather in June and July has really impacted on her

garden. With Milton away, it means a huge amount of work for her. We

wonder why the weeds always seem to grow, regardless of the weather

while the vegetables need just perfect weather. I admit that I'm not

much help to her in the garden.

Well, that's it for now. Talk to you soon.

Love to everyone,

Rick

July update

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Sorry to be so long in posting. All is well here in Vanderhoof. I'm

doing fine, gaining weight (174 lbs) and eating 3 meals a day. Some

of the vegetables I can eat with out putting them through the blender

but nearly all meat except for fish have to be ground up.

Over the past 3 weeks I've weened myself from the narcotic pain

killers and I have become more aware of my surroundings and stopped

sleeping 4 to 6 hours every day. I am now out walking three times

each day, up to 6 kms, and next week I'll start riding my bike. My

left shoulder is still sore and very weak and my upper left chest area

is numb and painful to touch.

The two 6 inch scars are nicely healed and cause no trouble and are pain free.

Biggest news is the trachea tube is coming out Aug. 3rd here in

Vanderhoof. I'll be admitted overnight for observation only. The

removal takes less than 30 seconds and 5 to 7 minutes to stitch the

hole in my neck. Since the operation in April, the cough has gone and

I have not thrown up at all. The operation appears to have been a

complete success. I saw Dr. Filatov five weeks ago and he thinks

my ability to swallow will improve once the trachea tube is removed.

As it is, I must thicken all liquids, water, milk and juices, so that

I can swallow them easily.

Dolores and I travelled to Kamloops (678 kms) June 21st and spent the

night at the Sleep Centre at Royal Inland Hospital to see if I still

suffer from Sleep Apnea. I wore a plug over my trachea tube and was

wired up 7 ways to Sunday. I tried to get a normal night's sleep but

the technician said I didn't achieve REM sleep all night. On Friday

this week I'm going to see Dr. Campbell here in town and she will give

me the results of the test.

As you can see, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into

place. We may have to go to Vancouver in October to have my food tube

removed and while we are there I will have a Video Fluoroscopy,

swallowing assessment. That may not be necessary if I continue to

improve with what I can swallow particularly the fluids.

Dolores and the rest of the family are well and keep encouraging me to

be more active. It doesn't look like I'll ever be able to chop wood

again so we are going to buy an electric wood splitter and I will get

my exercise using it and stacking the wood in the wood sheds."

Last week (Friday, July 8), I had two cyst like lumps removed. One from the

left side of my forehead and the other from under my left eye. The

tissue samples were sent to the lab for analysis and the results from

the forehead lump came back positive. It was "Basel" cell cancer.

Luckily this type of cancer does not migrate, it always stays in the

same place and never "metastasizes". The tissue sent indicated that

all of the cancer cells were not removed and on July 25th I go back to

the hospital and they will open up the area around the first incision

and clean up that area and hopefully get what cancer cells are left

around it. The second lump was a benign cyst.

The results are back from the sleep lab. While not conclusive, the

Doctor at the sleep lab suspects that I have severe sleep apnea. Dr.

Filatov will have to decide if it is safe to remove the trachea tube

in light of this new information. He has said in the past that he

does not know weather I could tolerate a "C Pap" machine because of

the radiation damage and the lack of thin saliva glands. Once again

we will have to wait and see what transpires.

The weather here has been cold and wet, so wet that David has not

been able to get the hay off the fields. Environment Canada says that

this will change in the next week or so and it will be warm and sunny

until September. Everyone here hopes that that is true. Without hay

there will be now feed for the cattle during the winter. If that happens

the cows and calves will have to be sold at the fall auction. I will

keep you posted.

That's all for now.

Love and hugs,

Rick

What it is really like!

Good evening everyone,

We're at home. I was discharged from Vancouver General Hospital Tuesday afternoon (April 10th) and we spent Tuesday night and all day Wednesday at the Cancer Lodge with me resting up for the return trip to Vanderhoof. We left Vancouver at 9:30 AM Thursday morning and drove to Williams Lake where we stayed the night. On Friday the 13th we did the remainder of the trip home. We stopped in Prince George and visited Dolores' sister-in-law Janice at Prince George Regional Hospital where she had been for 6 days. Her blood pressure was extremely high and her electrolytes were very low. She was in good spirits and looking to be discharged later in the day.

The trip was terribly long and I suffered with severe pain in my left shoulder for most of the trip. But, It is really good to be home. Now for the best news of all. I am able to eat, yes eat pureed food and drink thickened fluids. I still have three tubes a day all when I'm sleeping at night but I eat breakfast, lunch and supper. The operation was a success and we will only have to go back to Vancouver to see Dr. Yee if after three months my throat/esophagus is swollen. The Dr. says this complication arises in 1 out of 10 cases like this. I am enjoying the sensation of eating and tasting my food. Swallowing is sometimes challenging because my epiglottis is still so swollen but, it is manageable.

Most everything here at the farm is good 83 of the 86 cows have calved and are healthy. There have been some calf deaths but, that is to be expected. The farm well system is not working as it should and we will have to have the well looked at by the professionals. Yuk! is the only way to describe the water situation. Mother is well and fine at 93 and perking along her usual vigor and Milton is well and looking forward to going back to Camp in June.

I will have 6 to 8 weeks of rehabilitation for the surgical wounds and the pain in my shoulder to get better and most of my daily chores are on hold during that time. Dolores is is fine and once again she took really good care of me while we were away. Today we both had a very lazy day recovering from the trip home. I will have to walk 3 or 4 times a day to the hay yard and back (approx. 1/2 a km). I,m taking Hydromorphone for the pain so no driving for me in the near future. But, I will still be eating.

That's it for now. Love and Hugs to all.

Rick

current stay at Vancouver General

Hi folks,
This is Dolores blogging for Rick. He was admitted on Thursday last week for the reconstructive
surgery on his tracheo-esophageal fistula. We have been fortunate to have two of the best surgeons in the province doing his surgery. A muscle was needed to repair the esophogus so they decided to take it from his left pectoral muscle. they stripped a 1 inch strip about 8 inches long ,left it attached at the breast bone for blood supply. Then the breast bone was spared from being split and theytook one of the lumps at the base of his neck and sawed it off. the collar bone was unattached to make room for them to do the repair. The trachea ot the wind pipe also needed
to be repaired but it is not as flexible as the esophogus so they cut it off, took out the fistula and then reattached the two pieces. They had 4 units of blood on hand,but didn't need to use any.
He was kept in post anaestheic overnight for one to one observation.Many tubes and wires for fluids and telemetry. All was well, he was moved to a step down unit on the twelveth floor A side.
Here he has close observation for 5 more days as this is a very tricky surgery and things can go sideways in a heart beat. He has sequential compression stockings on to help prevent blood clots,a
central line for fluids as he is a hard i.v. start,foley catheter for you know what, continuous
humidified oxygen for the trach,intrathecal for pain meds. All in all they have looked after all aspects of his care. Dr.Yee the thoracic surgeon is pleased with his progress. If all goes well we hope that he will be out of there by Saturday or Sunday.I am thankful for the reiki and prayers that people have sent on our behalf. We may be able to have Rick eat by years end. What a great thing that would be and we healthy folk just take it for granted. We had him up walking today, not far but a start of all good things. Take care Dolores

What's up

Good afternoon everyone,

Sorry for the long delay between updates. Since coming home from Vancouver and the Hyperbaric treatments my health has been up and down as has my outlook on things.

Today is Good Friday and Dolores and I are starting to get ready to go to Vancouver on Monday (April 25). We will stay the night in Williams Lake and continue to Vancouver on Tuesday. On Wed. the 27th we have an appointment at Vancouver General Hospital, Pre Operation Clinic at 9:00 AM where we are briefed about the surgery and go through the pre-op tests. At 1:00 PM I'll have my J-Tube replaced with a more permanent one and then we'll go back to the Jean C. Barber Lodge (604-879-9131). We are to report to VGH at 5:45 AM on Thursday the 28th for the surgery. I am scheduled as one of the first patients that day.

I must admit that the prospect of the surgery (5 1/2 hours) has been daunting and has weighed heavily on my mind these past few weeks. I was back in the hospital in Vanderhoof with Aspiration pneumonia earlier in the month and it took some time to get over that. I have had trouble with vomiting at night since we came home from Vancouver and we don't know why that is. Maybe the new J-Tube will help. We have also been tweaking the meds I take to try and stop the vomiting. I think it is triggered by coughing spells and I have gone back to sleeping in my chair in a more upright position. It seems to help.

Dolores is going to ask the surgeon (Dr. John Yee) if he can arrange to get me back to the Vanderhoof Hospital by Air Ambulance. It would be so much easier on me than the two day drive home. While we know that the re-cooperation time in the hospital after the surgery is 7 to 10 days we have not been told how long I will have to convalesce at the Lodge in Vancouver before we can drive home.

I will ask Dolores to keep the blog up dated while I am in the hospital.

That's it for now. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Love and hugs to everyone,

Rick

Home Again

Good Afternoon Everyone,

We arrived home yesterday (Sun. Jan. 21) at 3:00 PM after driving from Williams Lake. We left Vancouver on Saturday at 10:00AM and drove to Williams Lake arriving there at 5:00PM. Both were easy drives on dry rods for the most part although we ran into rain and snow both days. We shared the driving so we were in good shape when we arrived both at Wms Lake and here.

Today I have been outside twice and found that I got winded very easily so I'm splitting up the chores into more bite size pieces. I'll go out more often for shorter periods. It is still winter here lots of snow and -4C last night. Today its up to +5C and was sunny up until a few minutes ago (it's now 4:00PM). There is +/- 3 feet of snow on the ground and huge piles on the side of the driveway to the house from the highway. It will be some time before we are golfing or sunning our selves outside.

I am in good health now and I am going to concentrate on building up my strength and weight with daily exercise and protein shakes. I lost 5 lbs while I was in the hospital in Vancouver and I must get that back. I'm a little bit worried about the surgery on April 28th it will be a tough one. I will be in the hospital for 7 to 10 days afterward. We still don't know weather I'll have to spend more time at the Jean C. Barber Lodge, after my release from the hospital, recovering.

It was good to sleep in our own bed last night and we both slept really well. I seem to be coughing more at night and I don't know why. It wakes me up from time to time but it bothers Dolores much more.

Well that's it for now. More later.

Love and Hugs,

Rick

April 27 & 28, 2011

Good Evening Everyone,

I'm back to the Jean C. Barber Cancer Lodge, 604-879-9131 extension 2534. I was released Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM. By the time we got our stuff packed up and got to the main entrance and into a cab I was exhausted. Once we were back into our room (34) I was ready for a nap. Yesterday (Sat.) I felt much better and today I am back to feeling like I'm ready to get back into the hyperbaric chamber tomorrow (Mon. Mar. 7th). I've been taking an antibiotic, Amoxi/Clavulin and it has helped to clear up my lungs. I've also been taking Sudafed extra strength cold and sinus pills and my sinuses are really clear and I'm able to clear both ears.

On April 28, I will have surgery to repair the hole between the esophagus and the wind pipe. It is a major surgery 5 to 51/2 hours and Dr. John Yee will do the main surgery while a plastic surgeon Dr. Bristol will do the skin grafts and the patch which will cover the hole between the two tubes. I will be in the hospital for 7 to 10 days after the surgery but, we don't know how much time I'll need after the discharge until I will be strong enough for the trip to Vanderhoof.

On April 27th I will have the J Tube (food tube) replaced with a more permanent tube but, it is likely that we will have to come to Vancouver every 6 months thereafter to have the tube relaced. We will have to see if this can be done in Prince George. It is a really easy procedure if the hospital has the right equipment. We will also have the pre-op meetings and tests on April 27th.

More later, stay in touch.

Love and hugs,

Rick