Mary Anne Rosely

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On February 1, 2019 I went into the hospital with uncontrollable abdominal pain.  What they determined was that I had a kidney stone.  However, when they did the CT scan they found a mass in my abdomen.  After further tests and a laparoscopy surgery the next day, they diagnosed me with Low Grade Appendiceal Mucinous Neoplasm.  What is this?  It is a form of cancer that started in my appendix.  During the surgery they were able to remove my appendix which had a large mucus sac protruding from it.  Unfortunately the sac leaked mucus tumors into my abdomen.  These tumors are different from other cancers in that they only attach to things and do not grow into them.  This is good and some do not even consider this a true form of cancer.  


What does this mean?  Well unfortunately it will require a major abdominal surgery.  I am scheduled for surgery on March 4, 2019.  It will be a long 8-10 hour surgery where the surgeon will make a large incision from my pelvis to my sternum.  She will then explore to see if there are any tumors that did not show on the scan, specifically looking at the small and large intestine.  We know that she will have to remove the top layer of the abdominal wall, the gallbladder, the fatty tissue in the abdomen that I do not recall the name of and all my reproductive organs.  Hopefully it has not attached to the intestines because if it has, she will have to remove parts of the intestine (large and/or small).  After the surgeon has removed all that is visible, they will fill my abdomen with a heated (104 degree) chemotherapy bath for 90 minutes.  They w ill then drain and clean out the abdomen and sew me back up.  


I will be in the hospital for 7-14 days.  They will watch me very closely for incision infection (higher risk with abdominal surgery and the chemo bath).  Also, it takes a long time with this type of surgery for your bowels to "wake up".  The total recovery will be 3 months before I feel myself again.  They say the hardest thing is eating (loss of taste and appetite) and stamina and the desire to get up and move around.  Hard to believe that I will not have the desire to get up and go!  Brad seems to think that my recovery will be less.  They do say that 6-8 weeks after surgery you are back to normal activity but you just tire much easier.  i am most worried about the recovery process.