Surgery Update

05.10.2012

Ok,

Thanks for waiting. Sam went down to the pre-op at 630am today. For whatever reason they didn’t start operating until 840am. At 10 ish Alison and I are told Dr. Sugarbaker is coming up to see us. (“that’s fast for a 5 hour operation?”. . . prepare for extreme bad news in my head). He says “who’s the health care proxy?” Again prepare for self mental meltdown. Apparently the tumour is extensive and he needs to do an extrapulmonary pneumonectomy. Translation is removal of lung and lymph nodes(as planned) plus part of the diaphragm and part of the lining around the right side of the heart. We okayed it.

3 1/2  hours later we are told again that Dr. Sugarbaker wants to see us. He said he was able to remove all of the visible tumour, do a full chemo wash and that he is optomistic. I can’t give you stats on survival or post operative complication rates. All I know is that Sam has made it through at least this part of the fight. I can stop chewing on my tongue and pacing around like a junkie for the moment. Alison and I are just waiting for her in ICU. She will be here a day or two then move to the ward. That’s it for now. Next update will be hopefully come from Sam herself.

Thanks for all the support.

Jesse