So much for a successful shoulder surgery

I had wanted to blog about something other than cancer after winning the all tournament goalie award at the Las Vegas tournament but it was not to be.  I have had numerous surgeries over the years and have not ever had any complications.  Well, that streak came to an end on Monday when I had a severe case of carcinoid crisis in the middle of my shoulder surgery.

It should have been a routine surgery with me in and out of the operating room in less than an hour.  Surgery started out just fine and the orthopedic surgeon was able to scope my shoulder and determine that there was no rotator cuff tear and no arthritis.  He was just then going to begin to treat the bursitis when one of the nurses asked if I was supposed to be red.

One of the things carcinoid tumors forces upon those of us with advanced liver tumors is carcinoid syndrome.  This manifests itself in many different ways from frequent diareah to flushing (redness of the skin) to a rapid drop in blood pressure.  Numerous things can cause the onset of syndrome including stress, alcohol, and exertion.  I have never had significant syndrome up to this point and thus it was not much of a concern.

Flushing and a huge drop in blood pressure is exactly what happened to me at this point.  My skin turned beet red, my heart rate shot to 130 and my blood pressure hit the floor.  At this point, they laid me back down, closed up the incision, and attempted many things to try and restore my blood pressure including chest compressions.

Finally, my body returned to normal and they took me out of the OR.  Naturally, this was very scary for the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and all in the operating room.  I, of course, had no idea what was going on and I feel incredibly sorry for my wife who had to endure this all alone at the hospital.

So, where do we go from here?  My shoulder still needs work but we will probably be putting that off indefinitely.  Next week, I go see Dr. Nutting in Denver and will be talking to him about treating the liver tumors with the radioactive SirSpheres.  Liver tumor burden is what generally causes carcinoid syndrome and carcinoid crisis.  The reason is that the tumors are able to inject histamine and other endocrines directly into the blood stream without any filtration.

Another day at home and I hope to return to work on Thursday.