After a roller coaster month, and Tony’s colon cancer surgery last Tuesday, on Friday we received the best news we could have possibly have gotten. I wasn’t there when the oncologist came to see Tony, but basically he said “we took out all the cancer and I see no reason for you to do chemo.” Hallelujah! Prayers from relatives, friends and all of your positive thoughts paid off and we could not be happier!
But, he still had a rough weekend in the hospital. If anyone has spent more than a couple days in the hospital, you know that its the last place that you can get any type of rest. His vitals needed to be taken every four hours because his blood pressure was high, he also has high blood sugar which is typical after his type of surgery, so he’s been getting insulin as well.
The problem with the type of surgery Tony had is that it takes a long time for things to start, ahem, moving in the right direction. One of his doctors described his surgery as a tornado. Say you are in your house and a tornado rips through your town. The storm passes and you walk out and you see trees uprooted, debris all over. It takes time to get things back in order. Sadly, if it can’t go down, it goes up and out – so he was sick most of the weekend. 🙁
I have to give a shout out to my office who sent flowers and sent a card to the house:
They have been so supportive of my absence from work and have picked up the slack – and thankfully a trial my boss was supposed to have in March got postponed indefinitely, which was huge! It’s nice working at a smaller law firm because its much more familial than the huge law firms I worked at in Chicago. 😀
But I have a confession to make. It was actually a comment that Debbi made that I couldn’t let slide:
Who sticks to their diet when their husband has surgery?! You so rock! Hugs!
Um, while I had every intention of staying on program, and even eating the WW food at the hospital – it was once I got home that all bets were off. Below are just a sampling of items I had last week that somehow didn’t make it on my eTools.
![1ared 005](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1ared-005.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1crap-food-008.jpg)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1crap-food-006.jpg)
And Saturday, after spending the morning with Tony, he was super tired and told me to come home for a few hours and take our dog for a walk. There is a place on the way home from the hospital called Mr. Beefy’s – they have the best chicken pitas, and the fries come with it! 😀
![1acrapfood 004](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1acrapfood-004.jpg)
After I ate lunch and took our dog on a half hour walk, I came back and knew I wanted to make a soup to bring back to the hospital for dinner. A quick check of the deep freeze, fridge and pantry, I ended up making a cauliflower cheese soup with bacon.
Cauliflower Cheese Soup with Bacon (printer friendly version here)
- 4 servings – 1 1/2 cups per serving: 242 calories, 12 fat, 12.5 carbs, 3.6 fiber, 16.9 protein = 6 PointsPlus
Ingredients:
- 1 20 oz. bag frozen cauliflower
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup skim milk
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 4 ounces cheese of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 4 tablespoons bacon bits (for garnish)
- 4 tablespoons chopped cooked asparagus (for garnish)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (for garnish)
Instructions:
- Microwave the bag of cauliflower and press “frozen vegetable.”
- Heat olive oil over medium heat and add garlic and cook for a couple minutes.
- Add chicken broth, milk and cooked cauliflower and cook for 10 minutes.
- Using a stick blender, puree soup. Remove from heat and add the cheese (I used 4 ounces of cheese ends), salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted.
- Spoon into 4 bowls. I had leftover cooked asparagus, so I chopped the asparagus, zest and bacon bits and divided them equally between the bowls.
![1acrapfood 016](http://biz319.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1acrapfood-016.jpg)
I found out where the microwaves were in the cafeteria and heated this up for my dinner Saturday night – so much better than hospital food! 😀
And now I have to thank all the wonderful nurses who have been taking care of my Tony. I can’t imagine how difficult it has to be to put your trust in the kindness of strangers when you are lying in a hospital bed. Each and every one of them has been kind, gentle and happily get Tony’s sense of humor! On more than one occasion a nurse has come back on a shift, walked into the room and said “so the wise guy is still here!” I will forever be grateful for them taking care of him when I am not there. 😀
Still not sure when he will come home yet – but hopefully in the next couple of days. Thanks again for your continued support, prayers, emails and cards – what a wonderful blogging community! 😀
THANK GOD! I’m so happy for you guys! 🙂
Woo hoo!!! Wonderful news!!
I’m so happy about your good news!!!!
SUCH WONDERFUL NEWS!!! I’m so happy for you guys! And i’m with that commenter – you’ve done quite a great job at sticking to the diet!! The new soup looks great, too. 🙂
Yay!! Best news ever!
I hope he gets to come home soon so that he can get some real rest.
WHAT FANTASTIC NEWS!!!!!!!!!!! Whheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
And who cares about the diet. Cut yourself some slack – you’ve had way more important things happening in your life right now. You’ll get there!
such great news to report! Wishing Tony as speedy and painless of a recovery as possible and for your lives to get back to normal as quickly as they can!
Biz, I am so thrilled for you and Tony!! Give him a hug for me and tell him that I’m so happy because chemo is a pain in the… :).
I saw something that made me think of him this weekend, so if you feel comfortable sharing your address, shoot me an email and I’ll send it off. If you don’t, I won’t be offended, but I was thinking of you all!
Yipee for answered prayers!! What awesome news for you both! Keep hanging in there and Biz I think you should “eat” anything you wish 🙂 Focusing on your sweet hubby is all you need to do! Have a blessed day 🙂
No chemo! That is SOOOO fabulous. VERY happy to hear it 🙂 And stinky that Tony is not able to get much sleep and has been so sick to his tummy. I hope he is feeling better and better each day. Junk food happens. You’ll get right back on that horse- I know it. Glad you have so many loving & caring people if your life <3
I am so happy for you guys!!! What truly great news :).
No worries about not sticking to your diet – you had WAY bigger things to worry about. You’ve been a loving and supportive wife throughout the whole ordeal and that is 100% what matters most.
– Beth @ http://www.DiningAndDishing.com
Still sending prayers your way Biz. That is positively fabulous news!
That is amazing news, Biz! I’ve been keeping you guys in my thoughts.
Such great news for Tony!!! I thought of you a lot over the weekend!
How wonderful Biz! That is the best news ever!
I was so happy when I saw the title of this post! Sounds like he had one of the “best” kinds of cancer. I hope for a speedy recovery. So glad all the comments from everyone helped, nothing like having a whole mess of invisible friends to help!
Make him some of your carrot/chipotle soup. That’s hot enough to get anything moving!! 🙂
BEST NEWS I HAVE HAD ALL WEEK! [why, yes I am screaming over here in VA – can we add a HALLELUJIAH! too- and no, I evidently can’t spell either.]
That rocks Bizzy.
Tell the wise guy to get better soon and get home. 🙂 Love and hugs to you all.
yeah for tony, i was wondering from the begining why chemo when usually for this just surgical,tony will be back to normal sooner than you think, just gettting him home, my girlfriends husband had the same surgery and he had more bowel almost 80 percent of his bowel removed and within a month he wasnt even following his diet restrictions..have you gotten the list for that, im sure you will come up with some great ideas to make tony happy, even you can make the blandest of bland better..so happy to see he is getting better…i agree all bets are off on diets when hubby in hospital, yes food is a great stress reliever and if thats what you need right now, go for it..thanks for the update, i know being at hospital and worrying leaves you drained and you still find the time for us..thank you…
YAY!!!! No chemo!! That’s great news! And you have incredible will power to have thrown out some of those fries 😀
Yay! Thats awesome Biz, what a relief that is to hear in regards to no Chemo! I will continue to keep praying for you and your family 🙂 PS the pizza and soup look amazing!