My family traveled up to Rochester, MN on Wednesday night for my mom's big surgery on Thursday morning. For those of you that aren't familiar, my mom has a rare cancer called Leiomyosarcoma - I talked about it a little here. She has been fighting it for about a year and a half now. She has gone through lots of chemo, clinical trials, biopsies, blood work, etc. But never surgery so far - apart from the hysterectomy she had where they found her original tumor. Long story short, all has been well recently. Her chemo and clinical trial seemed to be working and she has always been ahead of the game. She has regular CT scans to measure the size of her tumors to see if they continue to shrink, but this last one her pin-prick sized tumors had grown a little bit (not much, but any growth is bad). The decision was made to go ahead and do surgery. Her cancer was in a couple places - the original spot on her ureter (the tube that sends urine from the kidney to the bladder), and also on her liver.
(the ureter are those yellow tubes connecting the kidneys and bladder)
The original plan was to remove the tumor on her ureter and hopefully reconnect the ureter to itself, and then to take a small section of liver. Worst case scenario, she would lose a kidney.
Done and done.
Nope, that didn't happen. What was originally estimated to be a 4.5 hour surgery turned into about 7 hours. My family - Myself, Officer L, Haven, my sis, Uncle, and Grammy all sat in a small waiting room* for around 11 hours, give or take. We ate two meals during the waiting period, and Haven didn't get a nap in until around 6 p.m. The really nice thing was that the nurses updated us every two hours, and when one surgeon would get done with his part of the procedure, he himself would come in and let us know how it went.
This is us lounging around our waiting room. Haven watched multiple movies, Chels read, Gram snoozed, L and I played on our iPhones, and Uncle Mike was in and out of naps.
All updates seemed to be very positive. Although more difficult than they perceived (hence the length), she remained stable during the entire surgery - the only issue they faced was loss of blood at one point where she was given 3 units to replace it. The tumor on her ureter was larger than they thought - it was about 4 inches long and an inch thick. It was also attached to her appendix, so they just removed that. They reconstructed the ureter with a section of bowel because too large of a piece of ureter had to be removed for it to be re-attached to itself. The liver section was removed without a hitch.
After the surgery, she was sent to a recovery room and unfortunately was in "quite a bit of pain" which made her blood pressure go up. They called this a vicious cycle, because being in pain causes blood pressure to rise, so until they got her pain under control her blood pressure would remain high. An hour and a half in recovery and they finally took her to her room and let us see her! When we went in her room, her first words were, "I feel like I got hit by a mack truck." I snapped a pic of her while we were in there, but I am pretty sure she would kill me if I posted it. She had tubes everywhere - oxygen, a drainage tube coming out of her nose from her stomach, and her port** had an IV in it. She was very drugged up at this point and went in and out of consciousness while we were talking to her. We didn't stay long and hugged and kissed her goodbye so we could sleep.
L and I both had to be back home in the morning for different things - L had to be in court for an old case he was on, and me for a funeral of a classmate. We hopped in the car and made it home at around 1:30 a.m. Phew! Long day.
My mom will be up in Rochester for about a week to recover. The next morning after surgery I was able to talk to her on the phone and she was talking and laughing. The nurses have been making her get out of bed and walk 4 times a day. She says it's very difficult on her and makes it difficult to breathe, and when she gets back to bed she falls asleep from exhaustion. She also has to sit up for parts of the day and this is uncomfortable for her. The doctors want her to do deep-breathing exercises to make sure she doesn't develop pneumonia. This morning (day 2 after surgery, 1/15) she has been nauseous and has thrown up once, so they gave her nausea medicine, but she will have to keep walking throughout the day. Overall, she's a trooper and I'm so proud of her.
Let's all pray that this surgery was a means to an end.
No more cancer.
COMPLETE HEALING! Please Dear Lord. Amen.
*We were sooooo thankful for our little private waiting room. We had been in a previous waiting room with 20 other people that was crowded and not very comfy to say the least. We somehow managed to get a waiting room with a closed door (great for 2-yr-olds wanting to escape), a TV, a couch, a table and chairs, and computer!!, a microwave, refrigerator, sink, and room to spread out. We somehow kept this room to ourselves almost the entire day.
**My mom had a port surgically inserted just beneath the skin by her right collar bone. Her IV can then be inserted painlessly into the port instead of constantly sticking one in her arm.
**UPDATES**
Mom is feeling better today (1/16). She's been doing her walking with a little more ease. She has thrown up once (which she said made her feel better). The throwing up may have been caused by her drainage tube being removed too early which resulted in bile sitting in her stomach. Her heart rate is more steady now. It was consistently in the 90's and above before today, and now it's consistently in the 80's! PTL!
She still hates sitting up and doing her breathing exercises, but they are getting easier and she seems to be able to breathe deeper than before and can sit for longer.
(1/17) Mom is feeling even better today. She actually texted me, which lets me know that she's feeling more like her old self. She was able to get up and take a shower - gotta be nice after 5 days laying in bed. And (without getting into too much detail) they think her bowels are starting to wake up - a very important detail in her recovery and vital to her getting out of the hospital. But, like I told her, I'd much rather her be in the hospital where she is in good hands than at home because I miss her. It WILL be really nice to have her home though.
(1/18) Mom is doing well today. She is able to have clear liquids today - water, ice, popsicles. She's alert, talking, and walking. She says her pain is at a 3 or 4 today. And she is still intermittently napping throughout the days.
(1/19-present) Not much new to report. She has been feeling much better. You Facebook friends of hers have probably noticed she has been on a couple times, so she must be feeling more normal. She has been able to get in the shower regularly which is very nice for her. She will probably get out of the hospital on Saturday or Sunday - was originally supposed to get out Thursday or Friday, so she will be staying a couple days longer than planned. My Grandma Bev will drive her home, and then she will stay with my Grandma for about a week to avoid the dogs at home. (Goldie, the newest pup, loves to jump up on people. Not such a good thing when you have a long incision up the middle of your stomach.) We are very excited for her to be back in town so we can go visit her!
(1/21) She came home! Yay! The hospital let her out and she made the 3.5 hour trip home with my grandma and arrived "home"* yesterday at around 2 p.m. Haven and I went over to see her last night. We ate** and talked and then I helped her get settled into bed and then we chatted some more before Haven and I reluctantly*** went home. We plan on going back over and helping her out for the next few days as it's hard for her to walk and she has to keep her catheter in for another week.
*I say "home" because she is actually staying with my Grandma for about a week to avoid being around the dogs, who like to jump on people.
**Haven, Grammy and I ate Chinese, and my mom sipped on chicken noodle soup. She has barely eaten anything since having the surgery, both because she wasn't allowed to at first and second because she has no appetite.
***Haven threw a fit when we had to leave because she had been so excited to see her "Ma" (my mom) and "Mimi" (my grandma).
Mom is feeling better today (1/16). She's been doing her walking with a little more ease. She has thrown up once (which she said made her feel better). The throwing up may have been caused by her drainage tube being removed too early which resulted in bile sitting in her stomach. Her heart rate is more steady now. It was consistently in the 90's and above before today, and now it's consistently in the 80's! PTL!
She still hates sitting up and doing her breathing exercises, but they are getting easier and she seems to be able to breathe deeper than before and can sit for longer.
(1/17) Mom is feeling even better today. She actually texted me, which lets me know that she's feeling more like her old self. She was able to get up and take a shower - gotta be nice after 5 days laying in bed. And (without getting into too much detail) they think her bowels are starting to wake up - a very important detail in her recovery and vital to her getting out of the hospital. But, like I told her, I'd much rather her be in the hospital where she is in good hands than at home because I miss her. It WILL be really nice to have her home though.
(1/18) Mom is doing well today. She is able to have clear liquids today - water, ice, popsicles. She's alert, talking, and walking. She says her pain is at a 3 or 4 today. And she is still intermittently napping throughout the days.
(1/19-present) Not much new to report. She has been feeling much better. You Facebook friends of hers have probably noticed she has been on a couple times, so she must be feeling more normal. She has been able to get in the shower regularly which is very nice for her. She will probably get out of the hospital on Saturday or Sunday - was originally supposed to get out Thursday or Friday, so she will be staying a couple days longer than planned. My Grandma Bev will drive her home, and then she will stay with my Grandma for about a week to avoid the dogs at home. (Goldie, the newest pup, loves to jump up on people. Not such a good thing when you have a long incision up the middle of your stomach.) We are very excited for her to be back in town so we can go visit her!
(1/21) She came home! Yay! The hospital let her out and she made the 3.5 hour trip home with my grandma and arrived "home"* yesterday at around 2 p.m. Haven and I went over to see her last night. We ate** and talked and then I helped her get settled into bed and then we chatted some more before Haven and I reluctantly*** went home. We plan on going back over and helping her out for the next few days as it's hard for her to walk and she has to keep her catheter in for another week.
*I say "home" because she is actually staying with my Grandma for about a week to avoid being around the dogs, who like to jump on people.
**Haven, Grammy and I ate Chinese, and my mom sipped on chicken noodle soup. She has barely eaten anything since having the surgery, both because she wasn't allowed to at first and second because she has no appetite.
***Haven threw a fit when we had to leave because she had been so excited to see her "Ma" (my mom) and "Mimi" (my grandma).
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