We've Got A Situation

I'm not gonna lie - I love the MTV show Jersey Shore. I've got my favorites (JWoww, Pauly D, Vinny) and my not so favorites (Angelina, of course). But today, I channeled Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, the Jersey Shore cast member who notoriously lifts up his shirt to flash his "Situation" (his killer abs), to show you what I'm workin' with these days.

The most prominent of my new abdominal attributes is my incision, which is probably the first thing you noticed when you saw this picture. It's such a striking piece of work that you almost didn't notice that I don't actually have a belly button. I, for one, am very impressed by the craftsmanship of the incision. Instead of just stapling my wound shut, which is what most surgeons would do, Dr. Sugarbaker carefully and elegantly sewed me back together, using only two long threads for the entirety of the stitching. Because of his careful work, this incision is going to look pretty awesome and more streamlined when it becomes a scar.

On my side abs, you can see a couple of small circular wounds. On my left side, you'll note three visible wounds and one that is still gauzed up. The three visible wounds include two of my five Jackson-Pratt drain sites along with the former location of the Tenckhoff catheter, which supplied my gut with intra-peritoneal chemo during those first four days after surgery. The gauzed up wound is where one of my chest tubes used to be.

More of the same on the right abs -- two Jackson-Pratt drain sites along with the gauzed up right chest tube.

And right up the middle, above my incision, one final Jackson-Pratt drain site.

All of these wounds are healing beautifully, none of them bother me at all, and they will serve as a constant reminder to me to stay tough, have courage, take good care of myself, and never forget the triumphant beat down I've given "the cancer." My "Situation" reminds me that we all can do anything, even conquer Stage IV cancer, as long as we want it bad enough. Much better than a six-pack or sweet pecs, if you ask me.