I started writing this yesterday and got interrupted. It may sound a bit disjointed and you may see a shift in tense.
Before 7am I have received numerous heart felt messages wishing me well today. A friend of mine sent me a message Isaiah 41:10. I can not recall if I had mentioned this before but I have read the whole Bible from start to finish to better understand it. I do not believe that you can criticize something without reading the source material. It is also why I have read Twilight and will read anything before I criticize it. The message is around divine presence and not being alone. I think that the morning was a very clear example of this. They took my phone away at 7:40 because i would be going into surgery soon. Momentarily. 90 minutes later I went in at 9:15. I was sitting there and I was tired as I did not sleep well the night before. A friend of mine came to visit and when she asked if she could come see me they asked her if I would want that. She replied I think so. I under that a lot of people try and hide things like this and do not want people to know. At HSN I think I am the opposite. The more people that know the more help I can get from people. The message from Isaiah is intended to show comfort when you are going through difficult times. I felt the presence of everyone offering their support. Mel’s parents found a church to pray on for me. When do many people believe in God and are offering support for me, how can I not beat this.
When the nurse was getting my vitals prior to me going into the room they asked who was picking me up. I said I was supposed to be staying overnight and it was my wife Mel. They said that normally when it is a spouse they indicate that. I asked what number they had on file and made sure that they had both of them.
I beat the odds leaving Vietnam, surviving capsizing of our boat. Even getting from Malaysia to Canada. Within the last 5 years I have had major health scares and we managed to get through it. Whenever I was out of work something would work out in our favour. Mel’s grandparents would pray for during that time. I believe that it does not even matter if I believe or not when I have so many people that believe. I appreciate everyone that reached out for support. My phone had a ridiculous amount of messages so my apologies if I did not text back. A lot of people were texting Mel for updates as well. I had intended to update but I was struggling. That is why I wrote those 2 words. Most people would understand what that meant.
When I arrived in the room there was a new resident who was supporting. She tried to give me an IV several times and failed and the main one took over. I told her I did not mind her practicing on me because that is how you get better. They gave me oxygen and I do not remember much after. I was chatting with the nurses and they told me that they would call my contact. I asked if they would call my wife or mistress and they said whichever one is on file. Then fade to black.
I was quite out of it and struggled to stay awake while they were doing things. They said I would be there for at least 2hours. I asked for my phone and earbuds, put it on and fell asleep. My mellow sleep musicis not my angry music and tends to be acoustic or softer songs. The doctor at some point came and spoke with me and said that things look good so they removed the tumour. It had not gone I to the bowels and there was no visual evidence of spread. The doctor gave me the option of staying in the hospital for 1 or 2 days or going home once I recovered. It was pretty clear which option I was going to do. I had to pass 3 criteria and at that point I failed them all. I thought what would Jesus do and it became crystal clear. Get up and go home.
Even though it was all clear they extracted some fluid to send for pathology. There was presence of Chylous ascites. What this means is that this is a white fluid that comes from blocked up lymph nodes or the lymphatic system. The presence can be caused by trauma but it is also a strong indicator for cancer. I am not sure what that will mean going forward as it may potentially indicate that it could seed somewhere else. When you have this it impacts eating and vomiting. We need to figure out the pathology before we make the next game plan. Even if widespread since it has not seeded I think that there will be options and we can deal with them as they come up.
I must confess that this is rather painful and I did not expect to have so much difficulty. I have been sleeping in 2 hour chunks since yesterday, which means so has Mel. I appreciate her patience with helping me out with all of this. She helps me sit up out of bed and with fluids. I have a lot of respect for health care workers and some of them that do things like this are vastly underpaid. Nausea has subsided much more but the pain is ongoing. It is an interesting combination between dull and sharp pain all at once. He had the option to put a mesh in to help heal but he decided against it since I believe he knows that he will be going in again at some point and the mesh will just make things harder. They took out my abdomen wall and stitched it together. When I am lying down it is a dull pain that is somewhat manageable. Movements results in shooting pains and a lot of tightness. 1/10 do not recommend. I called my mother to tell her the news and she was happy. When she dropped off food I told Mel I did not want to be disturbed and she listened to me. After talking to her I called her back a while later because I had to talk to her and pretended that I had not spoken to her yet. She was confused and asked if I was all right and I told her I was just teasing her. This made her feel happy as if I was teasing her then she knew that I was getting better.
I appreciate everything that people have done and all of the offers to help. As I am exhausted I am stopping now and will provide more tomorrow.
Quoc Hao