Three surgeries, one robot, one saved woman

The pain didn’t stop her. In fact, Carol Rice, 52 of Alpine, remembers strolling the streets of New York City while feeling nine months pregnant due to severe cramping and the heaviness within her — but she just kept walking.

A full year later, Carol reluctantly reported to her gynecologist about the heavy throbbing, cramping and extreme vaginal bleeding that accompanied the pain. During the physical portion of that exam, the gynecologist felt something malformed and about the size of a grapefruit. Whatever it was, the growth needed to be removed.

Carol then saw her primary care physician for a checkup before scheduling surgery, and when she casually mentioned that she also experienced pain and blood during bowel movements, her physician promptly ordered a colonoscopy.

Multiple diagnoses

The colonoscopy revealed what first appeared like a minor abnormality. Further imaging and tests revealed cancer on Carol’s appendix, gallbladder and at the end of her colon.

“I remember the doctor who performed the colonoscopy explaining the results to me over the phone, and I was just listening and gathering information. Suddenly he stopped and said, ‘Carol, do you understand what I’m saying?’ That’s when I started to cry. It was just such a shock,” Carol said.

Carol needed surgery to remove her gallbladder, appendix and half of her intestines. But that’s not all. She still needed surgery to remove the large growth found by her gynecologist.

A team of super surgeons

It took creativity and collaboration between a team of surgeons at the Utah Institute of Robotic Surgery to design a treatment plan for Carol so that she only needed to endure a single day of surgery, even though Carol needed three separate surgical procedures. Meet the team:

• Jessica Hunn, gynecological oncologist, would perform a full hysterectomy to remove Carol’s ovaries, uterus and large growth.
• Abby Crume, DO (a colon and rectal surgeon), specializes in colon and rectal surgery. She would remove Carol’s tumors, appendix and colon.
• Ian Cavin, general surgeon, would perform a cholecystectomy to remove the diseased gallbladder.

Though each of these physicians specialize in treating different parts of the body, each has received advanced training to utilize the same cutting-edge, robot-assisted surgical system to perform surgery — the da Vinci Surgical System.

Robotic technology and raving results

When using the cutting-edge robot-assisted da Vinci Surgical System, a surgeon sits in a surgical console near the patient as he/she controls a large robotic arm and its attached micro-surgical instruments. For Carol, the surgeries were performed consecutively, with Dr. Hunn, Dr. Crume and Dr. Cavin taking turns navigating the robotic arm.

While the surgeon controls 100 percent of the surgery, the robotic arm executes precise and scaled-down movements to match the surgeon’s hand movements. Plus, the robot-assisted technology provides the surgeon with 3D high-definition views inside the body, providing much clearer images than possible with the naked eye.

Together, the surgeon and robotic technology ensure each procedure is performed with precision, and research reveals that the robot-assisted surgeries provide patients with significant benefits, including:

• less pain and decreased complication rates,
• smaller incisions and less scarring,
• reduced blood loss,
• shorter hospital stays and faster recoveries.

Carol’s surgery proved complex, customized and intense

The surgery lasted approximately 7 hours.

“The doctors later told me that I was a ticking time bomb because of the way the tumor hung on my appendix. They said that if it would have ruptured while I was on the operating table, they might not have been able to fix it. That tumor was incredibly toxic and rare. I think they even took it to medical conference after,” Carol said.

Another surprise during surgery involved the growth near her uterus. It turned out to be significantly bigger than a grapefruit. The fibroid tumor measured approximately the same size as a cantaloupe. Thankfully, it was benign.

Carol spent five days recovering in the hospital after the surgery, and months recovering at home. Due to the robotic surgery, her incisions were impressively small but on the inside of Carol’s body a lot had changed.

“On the inside I had an incision the length of my body cavity, but on the outside, I had 7 or 8 little incisions. I would sometimes have to remember why I hurt inside because my skin didn’t show what had happened inside,” Carol said.

Recover, renew, revive

Initially, Carol’s recovery felt much longer and more difficult than she had imagined.  

“My bowels were getting used to half of it being gone, the removal of my female reproductive organs threw me into immediate menopause, I had to change the way I ate because I no longer had a gallbladder to provide bile to break down oils and fats. It was a major adjustment. Just being able to stand for 5 to 10 minutes in the kitchen felt like a triumph at the beginning,” Carol said.

Over time, the healing process progressed, and she started celebrating improvements. She began walking in short bursts and then her endurance and strength grew even more. Today, Carol says she’s a new and improved person.

“I feel great — much better than I did before,” Carol said. “I’m relearning years of habits. I’m doing things differently now. Like, I’ve started doing yoga, I’m eating better and I’ve lost some weight. My bowels are adjusting too. I just feel bad that it took something this serious to make me be nicer to myself. The next 40 years are going to be some of my best!”