You don't know what tomorrow will bring

It all started about 5 years ago. Layne started having stomach pain, occasional bleeding in his stool and diarreah. We started seeing dr.'s about it back when we lived in kingston and as the years went on the symptoms continued to get more severe. All tests came back negative. Unfortunately they attributed his symptoms to irritable bowel syndrome and we were never given a CT scan or colonoscopy.

Over the last 4 months the pain started to become unbearable. We were finally referred to a gastroenterologist to see about getting a colonoscopy. It took us 4 months to get in to see him. The day he was scheduled to see him all hell broke loose. Layne had been in and out of emerge for the last week because he could no longer have a bowel movement. They had given him pain medication and laxatives and told he most likely had chrone's. The laxatives did not work. The day of his appointment he woke up in the worst pain he had ever been in. He still ended up going to school that day because he knew he had the appointment in the afternoon. Unfortunately the pain got so bad he could hardly walk, talk or breath. His mom had to come and pick him up outside of the library where layne was laying on the cement waiting for her. They went early to his appointment and after seeing the Dr., were told he was constipated and that he would be sent home with a stronger laxative and pain killers and maybe do a colonoscopy. Thankfully Layne's mom was there with him and informed him they would not be leaving until something was done. So they called down a surgeon who told us Layne had kidney stones. They were again going to send him home. Thankfully she again would not take that for an answer and after a lot of persuasion they agreed to do a CT scan.

During all of this I was at work and didn't get off and over to the hospital until 10 minutes before the results of the CT came back. The surgeon came in and informed us that Layne had a naval orange sized mass in his transverse colon. They told us it could either be a abscess of infection from Chrone's disease or a tumour. They admitted layne to the hospital and scheduled him for a colonoscopy the next morning. I think they gave us the idea of an abscess of infection to lessen the blow of a tumour because the next morning they started calling it a tumour and cancer before they even did the colonoscopy. Layne was able to receive a priesthood blessing right after he was admitted to the hospital from Cole, Connor, Uncle Bob and Rusty. For those of you who don't know what that is, as member's of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints we believe in continuous revelation from God and through the priesthood and through the laying on of hands the sick can be blessed. It was a nervous time for everyone and after Cole had given the blessing there was a calmness and a reassurance, that no matter what happened we would be okay in the end.

Like, you already know after the colonoscopy they determined it was a tumour and sent away biopsy's to find out what kind. The tumour was so big it had completely blocked off his colon (that was why he could no longer poo). He was scheduled for emergency surgery that night to remove the tumour and 90% of his colon. They did this because he had other polyps in his colon and by removing 90% of his colon, he was at a 90% less risk of developing colon cancer again. They also removed 58 lymph nodes to test them for cancer. We did not get the results back until 5 days later. They determined he has stage 3 colon cancer and 5 of the 58 lymph nodes had tumours in them. He will not be seeing the oncologist until next week to determine a treatment plan. He went up to Calgary yesterday to have a PET scan. This scan will tell us where else the cancer spread but takes a week to get the results.

Back to the night of the surgery... is was a whirlwind of a day. I would have been around 16 weeks pregnant and still feeling pretty nauseous. I don't think I have shook so much in my life waiting for him to come out of that surgery. They were worried the tumour was attached to other organs (Spleen, Kidney and Pancreas). It looked really close on the CT scan. The surgery ended up taking about 3 hours. Originally they took him in at 6pm but he had to wait until about 7:15pm. They called me back in to wait with him until they could take him back. Thankfully they did. When the anesthesiologist came in to ask for a medical history, Layne was so high on morphine he would have said no to every question. When they got the question asking about lung or heart problems I was able to tell them layne was born at 26 weeks and has bronco pulmonary dysplasia and had open heart surgery as a baby. (he told them he had no problems haha). They took him very serious from that point on, started a central IV just incase problems arised in surgery and told me after, they were able to sit him up a few times during the surgery to clear his lungs. It was just shortly after 11 when the surgeon came out and told us every thing went as good as it could. The tumour was not attached to any other organs and they were every aggressive in removing most of his colon and surrounding lymph nodes. He seemed pleased with how the surgery went and said we would be able to see him in recovery in a bit. My parents were driving down from Edmonton while all of this was happening and were able to get there right before we were able to see Layne in recovery. Layne's dad also came back from Montana just before Layne went into surgery. It was good to see Layne after the surgery but it was scary as well. I don't like seeing people so doped up on drugs. He was able to talk to me and i was able to tell him how the boys were doing. We have the best family on both sides of the family. They have been awesome with watching the boys and taking care of us over the last month. I was finally able to go home and get some sleep after I saw Layne. Unfortunately as soon as I lay down I wasn't able to stop thinking about things and probably for about a week had a hard time sleeping.

I will write another post about post surgery in a bit but I just wanted to thank all those who came to visit Layne, sent cards, text messages and emails while he was in the hospital. Also thank you to everyone who brought meals and helped with the boys. We are truly blessed to have so many people willing to help us during this difficult time!

This is Layne the night he was admitted to the hospital before surgery. Thankfully they were able to get most of the pain under control and he was able to get some sleep!