Lori's
Journal
By Lori's Husband - Jimsimcity 4 demo
Main Page - Journal Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11simcity 4 demo
Nov. 16, 2004 We arrived on time at the hospital ready for her surgery. It was postponed slightly because a previous surgery had gone longer than expected. Much of our family, our support system, was already at the hospital waiting. Lori and I went to the surgery waiting room where we waited for an hour or so, and then she was taken to a room where she put on a surgery robe and a few family members came to see her. Then they wheeled her away to surgery. It was the saddest and scariest time I have ever been through and I could only imagine what Lori was feeling. Because of the advanced stage of her cancer I was afraid she would not survive the surgery, I was afraid that complications would take her life.simcity 4 demo The waiting seemed to go on forever, we were finally informed that she was in surgery. Between family and friends there was about 20 or so people there to support us. About 3 hours later we were called to the conference room to talk with the surgeon. I didn't know what to expect and every scenario ran through my mind.simcity 4 demo The surgeon told us she is breathing on her own, and that was the big concern. We were hoping the surgeon could remove most of the cancer but unfortunately much of it was very fibrous and adhered to many of her organs. So he basically debulked it as best he could. He only removed about half of the cancer.simcity 4 demo He said she has 2 swollen nodes in her lungs. The surgeon couldn't get to them to feel if they may be malignant, but he said they are probably benign. There were several new fears brought to our attention during the talk with the surgeon on Monday, luckily they all worked out well. So for now, the rest of our hope lies with the radiation oncologist, it appears he'll have a big job ahead of him.simcity 4 demo ________________________________________________ I'm leaving for the hospital now. My daughter and I were finally able to see Lori in the recovery room late last night, she was coherent and doing some talking, though her voice was hoarse...but it could just have been dry from the surgery. She is on Dilaudid which the nurse says is 10 times more potent than morphine. It's on a pump so she just pushes a button whenever she needs more.simcity 4 demo They had over 50
people in recovery yesterday so Lori was still waiting on a bed in ICU
when we left last night. They wouldn't let me sleep in recovery so I
came home with my daughter to get some sleep. We called this morning
and she has been moved to ICU and is sipping water and asking for breakfast
(liquid breakfast only for now, but still). Lori was finally moved to a room on the 3rd floor yesterday evening, we were hoping she would be on the 4th floor as that's where this surgeon's patients normally go, but that wing was completely filled. She has a contraption on each leg that inflates with air and deflates to keep her from getting blood clots, and two tubes that are attached to her chest and then to a fluid collection device on the floor. She's had to begin getting out of bed already to help keep the risk of pneumonia down. Going to the bathroom is quite a feat.simcity 4 demo
Lori is getting a little better each day though she's still in a lot of pain. They are giving her Demerol now. She tolerates it better than any pain med so far. It doesn't give her the horrible constipation and subsequent extremely painful hemorrhoids that morphine and oxycontin do. That's probably been some of her worst pain as far as the treatment is concerned, the constipation and hemorrhoids, sometimes it would get so bad she would stop taking her pain meds and just deal with pain from the cancer. I never understood why they wouldn't give her Demerol since it works so well for her and doesn't create new problems.simcity 4 demo ________________________________________________ Lori is elated to be home again. I think few people hate staying in the hospital more than she does. Why is it that great hospitals seem to have such bad food...save your life with medical expertise then they do you in with lousy food? simcity 4 demo I want to recap
the last few days now that I have more time: She was moved to the recovery area where she stayed until about 2am, that was only supposed to last about 45 minutes but it happened to be one of the busiest surgery days at the hospital in a long time and beds in ICU were scarce. They let my daughter and me into recovery to see her around 11pm but would not let us stay with her. The nurse said that would be the case with ICU as well so we went home for a bit. She was still in ICU the next morning and was moved to a room later that day. I slept in the recliner next to her during her stay, I'm glad it was there because I could not have slept at home. Funny thing about those recliners, it all starts out comfortable but lessens greatly over time...we are both glad to be back home. simcity 4 demo The incision was done nicely. It's long but very thin like a scratch. The stitches are hidden inside the incision and the outside is covered with clear stitches that are brushed on like a clear film. They had all of the bandages from the main incision removed the second day, what amazed me was that it looked like it had already been healing for a week or two. There were two drain tubes inserted near her diaphragm just below the main incision, they were left in for an extra day because of the excessive drainage...the mass was very vascular, it invaded blood vessels to a large degree. Because of that, all 4 units of blood donated by family members were used. The one my daughter donated was used during surgery.simcity 4 demo She was in considerable pain for the first couple of days and was given Dilaudid at first then a combination of a Fentanyl patch and Demerol. Probably the hardest time was going to the restroom while she was getting the last transfusion. At that time, she had her transfusion IV attached to her as well as her drainage tubes and the collection device, a vacuum tube to help drainage and also blood circulation devices on each leg. All of these had to be manipulated as we made our way to the restroom. It was quite a feat at 3am.simcity 4 demo Once the drainage tubes were removed she was in a lot less pain and could begin her daily schedule of walking and using a spirometer. During the day, she was told to get up and walk every two hours and use her Incentive Spirometer (measures lung capacity) every hour to help prevent pneumonia. After this type of surgery patients are very susceptible to pneumonia. She put on a filtration mask the nurse had given her and we walked to the end of the hall twice, and on one trip we went up to the fifth floor isolation area to say hello to the nurses there. Two nurses on that floor stopped us and asked what we were doing, we explained and they informed us that Lori had been given the wrong mask by a nurse on the 3rd floor. They then brought her the proper mask. Later, she walked with my daughter and me outside to a memorial garden on the property because it was such a nice day.simcity 4 demo The surgeon came in every morning to check on her and on Friday he said if she continued improving he would send her home on Saturday (my mom's birthday). That was all she needed to hear!simcity 4 demo She was released Saturday morning and is resting now and not in too much pain. The doctor gave her a prescription of Demerol and that made her happy because it's one of the only pain meds she tolerates very well.simcity 4 demo She'll be healing and going to appointments over the next 4 weeks, we'll be relying more on the radiation now so we'll need to have another consultation with the radiation oncologist. She'll get a CT scan again soon to verify what is left to radiate, I guess our main fear at this point is how much of her organs will have to be radiated and what effects that may cause.simcity 4 demo ________________________________________________simcity 4 demo
Lori had a rough day yesterday. She's been in a lot of pain since she came home; especially trying to cough which she needs to do to help prevent pneumonia. The pain meds help but she hates to take them very often. She stayed in bed feeling pretty blue yesterday, between the pain and being tired from the meds and just thinking about things. Her step mom sent her a card in the mail, it cheered her up, and a friend of ours in Ohio had sent a card that came at the same time too, she got out of bed shortly afterwards and was feeling a lot better. Support is a wonderful thing.simcity 4 demo Her mood is usually upbeat and she tries to keep a positive outlook, but she of course has days that are harder than others. She's getting a good combination of rest and exercise, getting on the treadmill for a few minutes each day and spending much of the rest of her time in her recliner letting things heal and using her spirometer to help her breathing.simcity 4 demo They haven't identified the histological variant of her cancer yet, or at least it wasn't in the pathology report I saw after surgery. It only said it was Type C, which of course we knew...type A & B are thymomas, type C is thymic carcinoma.simcity 4 demo I read in several places online that there are more than 10 variants of thymic carcinoma, and prognosis is partly determined by that. We asked her oncologist early on about it and his reply was that it doesn't matter because they "treat them as a group". I would still like to know, for instance I understand there is a lot of difference between squamous cell thymic carcinoma and undifferentiated thymic carcinoma. I will keep after them to fully identify it.simcity 4 demo |
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