Well, it has been 4 days since I underwent the NanoKnife Operation! 😅
On Wednesday night about 10 PM I received a call from a lady anesthetist asking me questions about the medications I was taking. No anesthetist has ever asked questions, let alone phone me, and at night yet. She was also the first doctor I talked to before the procedure on Thursday and had a whole checklist of questions we went through. She was very thorough and she put me at ease (somewhat). I was impressed! 😅
Then the radiologist came and talked to me. It was the same man I had been examined by in May. He explained that the liver tumor had grown and that he could see it easily now and that he would be able to perform the procedure all right, but that he could not guarantee that he would be able to get it all. Was I OK with that? I said: sure, let's go for it. And with that I was wheeled into the operating room. There were at least 5 or 6 people in the room: one ultrasound technician, 2 or so CT scan personnel, the anesthetist and the radiologist who also had an assistant. I was to lie face up on the CT apparatus "bed" (Siemens) and hooked up to the ultrasound machine (Phillips) as well. (I am keeping track of the equipment now! 😏) Then someone put an oxygen mask over my nose and mouth, the anesthetist said: "You will go to sleep now", and it was lights out for me. Easy Breezy😅
What happened next I can only deduce from what I see on my body. I have 4 small lesions on my right side that are healed already and one slightly larger one that is oozing a bit still. I imagine that these lesions are from the probes that reached into my liver. NanoKnife is not the same as ablation; apparently ablation for liver lesions works with radiofrequencies or heat or cold, whereas NanoKnife "works on the principle of irreversible electroporation: a cell is subjected to a powerful electrical field using high-voltage direct current (up to 3kV); this creates multiple holes in the cell membrane and irreversibly damages the cell's homeostasis mechanism, leading to instant cell death." (source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Irreversible Electroporation for Treatment of Liver Cancer) The computer determines the perimeter around the tumor so some healthy cells are involved but not many.
I was wheeled into the recovery room at around 2PM but was so groggy and could not focus till about 8PM. The amazing thing was that I felt no pain in the location of the operation. What was a bother, but understandably so, was that I had a breathing tube in my nose and also a catheter. Both were removed the next morning. I asked for some Tylenol because I feared that the pain might kick in at any moment but that never happened. 😅
Even though there was no pain from the operation as such, it has taken a good 3 days to recover. I have been laying in bed most of the time. Today it finally feels like I am getting my energy level back, probably also because my appetite is slowly returning.
A week from today I am getting lab/bloodwork done. I hope that the numbers will be starting to head in the right direction by then, although, from what I read, that it can take up to 1 month, so I may have to be a patient patient.😒
All the staff were wonderful! I am so relieved and grateful that this is behind me now!!! 😅😅😅
Just to clarify: The Nanoknife procedure was performed on me because the liver tumor was close to arteries and bile ducts which made it practically impossible to treat, iow I had no choice: it was either that or go on palliative treatment (more chemo, no thanks).
The 3 + 1 small "pinpricks" you notice right underneath the bra is where the Nanoknife procedure occurred. But even though the invasion was minimal, it still took me a week to get back to normal, mainly due to having an upset stomach. The site itself never gave me any problems.
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