Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Trip to Mayo: Day 2 -- Playing Heads Up with the Big C
We found out that we needed to report to the hospital surgical unit at 9:30 Tuesday morning. We were hoping that Rick could get in during the morning so that everything would be done by the end of the afternoon. Unfortunately, we found out later that Rick was the healthiest person on the doctor's surgery list that day, so they made him the last one. We waited five hours before he was taken to pre-op. After 90 minutes in pre-op he was finally ready to go -- at 4:00 p.m.!

After 2 hours we were told that the initial surgery had been done and that the doctors were waiting on some new pathology reports. Unfortunately, the initial pathology reports were correct -- the mass was cancerous. They had to do some additional surgery and remove additional tissue. It appears that the cancer spread to only one lymph node. We are hopeful that the final pathology reports will show that that was the extent of the spreading.

So ... he was in surgery for quite some time, and even closing him up took more time. After what seemed an eternity, we finally got to see our boy after midnight. He actually did not look that bad. He was tired, so we left, got a few hours of sleep, and went back to the hospital early this morning. He seems to be doing okay. He'll need to spend an additional night in the hospital.

We were hoping to catch a Royal Flush, but that eluded us. However, it looks like we won the pot and are certainly thankful for that. If the rest of the pathology report comes back clean, I think we will have gotten away as best we could considering everything.

There will be some things Rick will have to cope with -- some temporary paralysis and some cosmetic issues. He will have to be vigilant the rest of his life. However, we think that we caught this early enough so that cancer has been felted.

I'll hopefully update some more this evening. It looks like the worst is over. We are hopeful. We are thankful.

15 Comments:

Blogger SirFWALGMan said...

Good to hear the initial good news.

11:29 AM  
Blogger Shrike said...

I echo the Waffles.

-PL

12:09 PM  
Blogger bastinptc said...

Still with you on this.

12:23 PM  
Blogger Memphis MOJO said...

That's great news.

12:54 PM  
Blogger Wolfshead said...

Glad to hear things look good. Tell your son that the temporary paralysis is a pain in the butt but to keep trying to use that limb or area as normal as I found that this was the best way to bring it back. It's frustrating but it helps. Good luck.

1:09 PM  
Blogger BWoP said...

Thank you for sharing the good news!

2:48 PM  
Blogger BigPirate said...

Awesome news. Will still be thinking and praying.

3:59 PM  
Blogger Josie said...

Thank God. No Royal Flush but still a win. So glad to hear it.

4:48 PM  
Blogger Riggstad said...

Good News Bro!

5:30 PM  
Blogger kurokitty said...

Same. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

6:27 PM  
Blogger genomeboy said...

glad it went well...

7:46 PM  
Blogger Mondogarage said...

All in all, this is really great news, and your son clearly has a wonderful family and support network to help him through his recovery. My thoughts remain with you.

9:32 PM  
Blogger PokahDave said...

Keep up the 'Run Good' and go for the Win. Seriously I hope everything goes exactly as planned. Good luck to you and yours...

2:25 PM  
Blogger Uwannabet? said...

Good news and more good mojo on the way.

9:53 PM  
Blogger Cricket said...

Wishing good karma, faith, and strength!

11:55 AM  

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