TheBanyanTree: Off on a New Adventure

[A. Christopher Hammon]

I am off on a grand new adventure at the out set of this year and 
decade. It is not one I would choose, however, but it seems to be the 
one that I have drawn to be my next grand adventure.

A microscopic trace of blood in my urine sample during a routine 
physical before Thanksgiving prompted an abdominal CT scan the beginning 
of December to check for any problems with kidney and bladder. That was 
an interesting experience and included my first ever experience with an 
IV. The last time I was in a hospital as a patient was for a 
tonsillectomy in 1957, when they still used ether...that was traumatic. 
As an aside, I had my second experience just before Christmas for a 
combination endoscopy and colinoscopy. I couldn't resist asking the IV 
nurse to be gentle, it was only my second time. To which she promptly 
shouted out for all to hear, "Hey, I've got almost a virgin here." Gotta 
have some fun with this stuff.

The abdominal CT turned up no problems with the kidneys or bladder, but 
much to our surprise we discovered mucinous material secreting from a 
tumor on my appendix; apparently a rare condition known as pseudomyxoma 
peritonei. This is not good. The good news is that it is very treatable 
(you just have to recover from the treatment) and that it is typically 
benign. It is a "Trouble with Tribbles" story where cells we need on one 
side of the intestinal wall were reproducing on the wrong side of the 
intestinal wall ... where they had no place to go except to accumulate.

The next stop for getting started on this grand adventure was to meet 
with my lead tour guide, the surgical oncologist in the area that 
specializes in the treatment for this. He is a great doc; a prof at the 
medical school with a rep for being really slick in the OR

The most successful approach to this in current practice is to 
surgically debulk all of the mucinous material gathering in my abdomen, 
remove the appendix, gall bladder, areas of the colon where the mucinous 
cells have gathers (in my case, most likely the right half), and a lot 
of the omentum. Then as part of the surgical procedure to introduce a 
heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy that they slosh around in the 
abdominal area for a little over an hour. This generally gets it and 
life goes on once you recover from the surgery. My job, the big part of 
the adventure ahead, is to recover. And then they added that the big 
side effects of the surgery/chemo are that it zaps all of your energy 
and depletes your immune system. It will take time, patience, and 
perseverance, they say.

So it is "game on" for this grand adventure; we have the surgery 
scheduled for January 13.

The good news is that with the exception of this I am in very good 
health and should be able to get right on through this fine. I 
anticipate plenty of stories coming out of this and hopefully I will 
find the energy to write them down before they get away from me. I have 
loaded up my Kindle with fun reading while I recoup and my iPhone with 
plenty of music. I also have myself a stack of DVDs to entertain me. 
Most important to me, though, is that I am gathering the energy of 
friends and family as cheerleaders to help me sustain my energy through 
the journey. Family members have opened up a Facebook group where they 
will be posting updates, if anyone is interested (Updates on Chris Hammon).

And now, like it or not, I am off on this grand new adventure to see 
where my journeys take me and to learn what I might learn along the way. 
In the meantime, I made my reservations for the week long bicycle tour 
of Indiana State Parks in September that includes bicycling all of those 
Brown County hills. I still plan to make that.

Cheers and bon voyage,
Chris
 

/_________________________________________
A. Christopher Hammon, D.Min.
Director of Online Learning and Publication //
Wayne E. Oates Institute
Integrating Spirituality, Ethics, and Health
http://www.oates.org/

/Affiliate Faculty, Doctor of Ministry Program
Drew University Theological School/