Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Thank you ALL so much for your thoughts and prayers! They were answered yesterday. Mom saw Dr. Seligson for another follow-up appointment and things looked really good. So good, in fact, that her CHEST TUBE IS OUT!!! No more air-leak and no more fat-leak! She is very ready for a steak dinner, but Dr. Seligson advised her to take it slow. She can't wait for that filet at the boat. She said it feels so good!

She met with the oncologist, Dr. Stephenson, on Monday and discussed her treatment plan. Unfortunately, it wasn't as she expected. Originally, she was being told that it would be eight weeks. Somewhere along the line it has doubled. She also wanted to do some traveling before she started to feel bad again. Dr. Stephenson advised her against that. He said that the longer she waits to start treatment, the effectiveness decreases. He said that without treatment, she has a 50/50 chance of recurrence. With chemo, there is a 10-15% increase in her favor, making that a 60-65% chance that it will not come back. She thought about it a lot over the last month and is willing to take those odds.

They are going to use two different chemo drugs during her treatment. The first one is Cisplatin (the Lance Armstrong chemo drug). This one will take the longest to infuse, approximately 6-7 hours one time every four weeks. The second is Navelbine. She will get this one weekly with these infusions lasting for 1-2 hours. Dr. Stephenson informed us really well about these drugs and made her feel very comfortable with his plan for her. She is now taking applications for drivers for chemo days on the days that we are working.

She's really hoping the rain will let up soon. She's ready to get out to the golf course for some putting practice before it gets too hot. =-) Thank you all again for your continued thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful and extremely blessed to be surrounded by such caring wonderful people.

Follow-Up With Dr. Seligson

Mom saw Dr. Seligson today for her first follow-up appointment. He is pleased with her progress and said her lungs sound really good. Today's big test was seeing if she still has an air leak and, unfortunately, she still does. He is impressed with the small amount of drainage she has been having. He decided the chest tube needs to stay in for another week. Also, she gets to add more food to her restricted diet. She's pretty excited about that. Dr. Seligson said that she's earned the right to "cheat" a little. When she goes back next week he said that if the drainage stays minimal and the air leak is gone he will take it out. But, if the air leak is still there, he will pull out the tube a little and re-stitch it in to secure it, as he thinks this will help speed the sealing up. Many prayers are needed for this week that the drainage stays minimal and that the air leak seals up. Mom is SO READY to get the chest tube out. She said it's really hindering her sleeping on her right side!

Just In Case You Didn't Hear....

Many of you already know, but just in case you didn't hear, Mom came home from the hospital on Tuesday. She's doing really good. Just being home makes a world of difference in her recovery. She's loving visitors coming to keep her company. Unfortunately, I've had a cold this week so I've had to stay away. Hopefully, it will disappear soon so I can get back over there and help out more. The diet is going okay. She sees Dr. Seligson on Wednesday, so hopefully the leaks are all sealed up and she can get the chest tube out and eat a regular fatty meal. Keep your fingers crossed!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Mom had a pretty good day yesterday. She told us all about her visitors on Saturday. Many thanks go to Pastor Kent and Carla for the bunny ears. Also, apparently the nursing staff started to wonder about the crowd Mom runs with after Bob, Kathy, Norm, and Bev came up to visit....all decked out in their biker gear. She loved it though! As for Easter, Mom thoroughly enjoyed her plain potato, steamed vegetables, and flax seed. Mmm, mmm! She is doing really good with the no-fat diet she is now on. The drainage from the chest tube was only 40ml from 1am until 7pm yesterday. This was a HUGE change. Dr. Seligson was extremely impressed that he took one of the chest tubes out and changed the chamber to a smaller one (the new one only holds about 80ml) because she still has the air-leak. He told Mom that he expects it to seal up in about another week since the fat duct issue is now under control. Soooo, this means if the new chest tube goes well today.....SHE'S COMING HOME TOMORROW!!! What a blessing! As you can expect, she's getting pretty antsy to get out of here.

Sorry For Not Updating Sooner

Sorry, sorry, sorry!!! We just enjoyed Mom's progress so much that we forgot to make time to update the blog.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday went pretty well. Mom met with the oncologist. He basically introduced himself and told her that they would meet after she goes home to discuss her treatment options. Yes, they got the tumor out, but they still have people do some chemotherapy to reduce the recurrence. She's been getting up walking a lot. She takes several walks a day. Unfortunately the chest tube is still in. She still has too much drainage to take it out. We'll get to that in a minute. Her lung is doing sell. The area of collapse is gone and it is completely reinflated. Thursday, Jeremy and I came up. This was his first time seeing her since the day before her surgery. I was a little difficult for them both, but they both benefited from the visit a great deal.

We noticed yesterday that the clear light yellow drainage was more like skin milk in color and clarity. We didn't know if this was normal or not. Also, the drainage started to increase. Today, I was here when Dr. Salamat and Dr. Seligson came to see her. According to them, the skim milk drainage is fats. Okay, how's that? Apparently, there is a duct that runs from the intestines where they absorb fats from what you eat. The duct winds up the body and distributes the fats where they're supposed to go. The portion of the duct that was behind her lung in the area that was removed has a small leak. Dr. Seligson said there are two ways to fix the problem. One way is to do another surgery. He doesn't want to do that because she is doing so good otherwise. She just flat out doesn't want another surgery. The other way, is to restrict her diet limiting the fat she takes in and wait for the leak to seal up. She said, "Oh yummy!" Dr. Seligson is on all weekend, so he said if he didn't see any improvement by late tomorrow he will restrict her diet even further and have her get a PICC line put in and have her put on TPN (IV nutrition). Long story short, she's here for probably another week according to Dr. Seligson.

She's making the best of it though. We're grateful that the tube was still in and caught the problem before it came out and she went home and caused a HUGE problem. We've hooked her up with everything from crosswords to movies. We even figured out that her laptop isn't as old as we thought it was. It actually connected to the guest access here so she now has internet to occupy her time. She is remaining in good spirits given the new development. I forgot to give you all her new room number, it is 3055. It's not as good as her other unit, but it's home until they say otherwise.

Thank you all again for the continued prayers. She is definitely one lucky lady!

Post-Op Day #7-Turned The Corner

Mom had a pretty sleepless night last night, she said. However, she said she feels wonderful today. She said she took several walks around the unit and has been up in the chair most of the day. She added that she hasn't had to take anything for pain! Jodie, Aunt Chris, and I stopped in on her this evening, and I have to say she looks amazing. Her cough, color, appetite, and energy are so much better than they have been, even better is that she's not sleepy anymore. She saw Dr. Seligson today and he said he was pleased with her progress. There is still no official word on when she will get to come home. She still has the chest tube in and in order for her to get it out, she has to have less than 150ml per day of drainage from it. Yesterday she was about 800ml, and from then to today she had about 400ml so we think she's on the right path. She can't wait to get home, especially to see the grandkids and we can't wait for her to get home. It's just not the same without her around!

Post-Op Day #6-On The Right Track

Patsy said she had a pretty good night. She was able to sleep about two hours at a time but getting back to sleep fairly quickly after waking to take more pain medicine. She is doing really good with the Darvocet they have been giving her. The Reglan seems to be helping as well for the nausea. For lunch, she ate half a bowl of soup and a few bites of salad. We have made a date for later this afternoon to take another walk. She wanted to take a nap first, I'm pretty sure yesterday's walk tired her out quite a bit. She even made a dinner request for a cheeseburger kid's meal with a Frosty from Wendy's. Her appetite seems to be getting better (better meaning she actually has a small one) without the oxygen on. Dad is staying tonight, so hopefully she'll have as good of night as she did last night.

Thank you all for keeping her in your prayers. We know she still has a long road to recovery, but given the alternative, I couldn't be happier with her progress.