Still doing great... a very short update:

Stacey continues to do phenomenally.  Dr. Soukiasian came by this afternoon and pronounced her "a champ!"  He is so proud of how hard she is working and says that if all goes well, she might be home as early as next Tuesday. 

Today was a physically draining day for Stacey.  As the anesthesia wears off more and and she recovers more she is becoming more aware of her pain and the frustrations of some of her limitations.  So while this is hard for her to deal with and hard for those of us who love her to watch, it's such a good sign of recovery.  It means that she's getting well enough to be bothered by all this.  Again, great news!

She continues to walk, practice her breathing exercises, and follow the doctor's directions religiously and she looks better every time I see her.  Her energy is up a bit and she seems able to sustain it for a bit longer today.  She's also beginning to remember events better. 

Her grit along with your prayers and thoughts are a tough combination - and they're working:

100% Cancer Free!!!

It's official!  The lab results came back yesterday on the lymph nodes removed during surgery on Monday and they are completely clear of cancer.  Stacey does not have cancer! 

As for recovery, she is making remarkable progress.  Dr. Soukiasian came by about 7am Wednesday morning and pronounced her no longer critical.  He released her from ICU barely more than 36 hours from admitting her to ICU.  This is no doubt due to the great job he and his team did but no small measure of this success is owed directly to Stacey's determination to do everything the doctor has asked to letter perfection. 

Right now we are on a "tube- and wire-removal countdown".  Monday she had 8 tubes and numerous wires connected.  She's down to 5 tubes and no permanent wires.  She'll be home before you know it!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Stacey on her road to recovery...

Hooray and Success... Part 2

So... Part 2 of the surgery took place on Monday.  It was pretty long but Dr. Soukiasian was thrilled with the results.  There are no tumors left! That's one big Hooray.  The procedure itself was pretty much picture perfect according to Dr. S.  That's the other big Hooray.  

Now Stacey's heading into the recovery period.  This part isn't likely to be very much fun for quite some time but she's doing great.  She's being very stubborn about following the doctor's orders perfectly and is directing the nurses to do more when they are inclined to act on their humanitarian instincts and go easy on her.  Yesterday she was up walking twice!  Both times for greater distances than I (or the nurses) thought she would be able to manage.  With a will like that, she'll continue to recover at a remarkable rate.  She's already making very rapid improvements. She  showed a marked improvement yesterday morning over the night before and by the time I left last night, she was in far better shape than yesterday morning. 

I'll keep you posted...

Hooray and Success... Part 1

(NOTE: Guest Blogger on board.  Please be kind and hold your rotten tomatoes until the end of the performance)

So - The good news is that Part 1 of Stacey's surgery is done. 


The Great news is that afterward the surgeon could not say enough good things about how well it went.  Her insides seem to be clean as a whistle and there doesn't appear to be any lingering cancer.  There is one lymph node, quite far removed from any of the pre-existing cancer areas, that was swollen and showed up as positive on the PET scan.  However, the surgeon doesn't seem at all worried as this is the same lymph node that swells and would show positive on a PET scan for any normal person with a cold, the flu or virtually any other basic illness.  In short, 99% sure there are no worries on that score.


She is recovering in the hospital tonight but will be coming home tomorrow to spend the rest of the weekend and then it's back to the hospital bright and early Monday morning for the Main Event.  Part 2 is the actual Esophogectomy (I think I got that right... hmm). 


Good. The serious news is out of the way.  Now for the good stuff.  I told Stacey I'd dish...


First - Stacey would make an excellent drunk!  The anesthesiologist gave her a shot this morning and told her that she'd feel like she'd had a couple of Bloody Marys in no time.  Sure enough, knocked her right into Loopy Land.  Unfortunately, no embarrassing incidents to report - a bit of slurring, a bit of silliness, but that's about it.  Instead, when the surgical nurse came to wheel her away to surgery, she started asking Cary anxiously for her wallet.  She had decided the surgical nurse needed to see her beautiful boys (there is a picture of her boys on the outside of her wallet) and she couldn't relax until the nurse had Stacey's wallet in hand.  The nurse was lovely.  She took the picture into the light where she could see it better, examined the picture carefully and then came back to talk to Stacey about her beautiful family.  Stacey was able to relax and head down the hall to surgery. 


Second - The hospital needs to be careful about their entertainment offerings or thay're never going to get people to leave.  After reading the TV channel lineup, I'm not sure we're going to be able to convince Stacey to come home!  She and I were looking at the published hospital channel line up while waiting for the admittance clerk and have decided that we are uncertain how we will divide our time next week.  We'll have to figure out when to watch the Cardiology Channel and when to change to the Board of Governors' Comedy Channel.  We're pretty sure they will be equally riveting. 


Finally - I'm posting a couple of pre-surgery pics of Stacey for your viewing pleasure. I thought these were fabulous- though I'm not posting the one I took in the waiting area before she was in surgery garb (sans makeup and trying to look annoyed...unsuccessfully).  I'll hold onto that one for blackmail purposes later.


Please continue to keep Stacey, Cary and the boys in your thoughts and prayers.  Her results are remarkable so far - and I have no doubt that you are all contributing to her progress.

 

You know - I don't think this one was taken after the Loopy Juice... It's just Stacey! :D

'Nuff said.

ok, so on my last day before surgery, I ate a cheeseburger for lunch, an omelet for dinner, and a brownie for dessert. Anyone notice there were 3 no-nos in there? bread, meat and chocolate! paying the price,  but it was SO worth it.

I will be out of the loop for awhile, but I have asked my sister to "guest blog" for me. Ohhhh I feel so journalistic or something...

for now, I sign off....

 ...my parting bit of wisdom...

one more favorite quote,

Mom: "Ben, is that your old spiderman suit?"
Ben sighing deeply, "yeah, I really don't want to be the spiderman, but,"  (*deep sigh and looking down*)" the city needs me.".

SOMEBODY doesn't like footballers...

Since tomorrow is my last day as a functioning grown up for some time, I am trying like crazy to get my house in order, clean out the fridge, organize stuff for the kids last weeks of school, get laundry done, you know, all the stuff I know will be fine without me, but I am being too anal to ignore. Life seems to be conspiring against me though.

Yesterday little Nathan missed the bus to his field trip  (long story) , so I ended up taking him down to San Diego to catch up with his class. (read: no chores done that morning). Today,  I was DETERMINED to get that fridge cleaned out before my surgery, so I did it while the kids ate their breakfast. After I came home from taking the kids to school, I found that the dog had gotten into the newly filled trash and spread BBQ ribs all over the carpet in both the family room and living room. (I was mad at my doggy BTW)  It took me an hour and a half to scrub that all clean and I STILL haven't  started on my list. *sigh*

Hey at least I got the fridge clean...

what the surgeon said

 I was just too tired to write sooner and the kids were all were fighting the flu. Now it is Hubbys turn. He is on the bed behind me totally miserable.


But as to the details of the surgery, it will be broken up into 2 parts.

Part 1 will be on June 4th. Check in will be at 5 am. with me having nothing to eat from midnight. surgery will start at around 7 ish and end at around noonish.  During this part Dr Soukiasian will do an endoscope to peek around on the inside of my esophagus. He will also do a laproscopic staging to physically see exactly the stage of cancer.  Then, if all goes well, he said he will remove some blood vessels around the stomach to prepare it for Monday. He will also place the feeding tube.  I will go home on Saturday hopefully around  noon or 1:00. A home health care nurse will follow up that weekend to make sure we are taking care of the feeding tube. and that all is going well.

Part 2 will be on the 7th. Again, check in will be @ 5am with surgery starting at around 7:00 ish. Insisions will be in my abdomen, right side and neck.  I will have my esophagus removed laproscopically, the stomach cut lengthwise and fitted as a tube, and finally stitched into place as my new esophagus. I will have drains and tubes in quite a few places and hubby will not be able to see me until 2 or 3 that afternoon.

here is a break down of what will happen and HOPEFULLY when:

*1-2 days in ICU
*up and walking within 24 to 48 hours
*feeding tube starts again on day 1
*walking every day
*every hour, must do coughing and breathing exercises
*physiological therapy ( basically a rough back massage to loosen up phlem and gross stuff)
*a swallow study done 5 to 7 days post surgery
 *if no leaks i start to drink fluids the next day
*ideally chest drain tubes would also be removed at that time, but depends on how I am doing.
*I get to have my own pain meds button (woo hoo)
*I will be in the hospital 7 to 10 days
*at home, feeding tube stays in for minimum of 3 months.
*dumping is a small risk, but nowhere near as large as it would have been without the botox being injected into my pyloric valve. (usually doctors just cut it and permanently damage it, but my surgeon injects it with botox to let it heal slowly on its own).I am pretty impressed by that BTW.

He did say that 60 to 80 percent of patients have SOME sort of complications but most of the time they are just nuisances rather that life threatening, especially where he does his incision in the neck instead of the chest.

According to him, for, me, I have about a 20 percent chance of leakage because of the radiation I had done. Radiation destroys blood vessels and causes scar tissue to form. It also inhibits healing. I am not that worried though, because he does his incision in the neck, not the chest. He said that if there is a leak in the neck, its not that big of a deal, drain it and I will be fine. If the insision were in the chest, if there were a leak, it could kill me. Since that is not an option, I really dont mind a big scar on the side of my neck...

The risk of death during this surgery for me will be anywhere from 1 to 4 percent.  Not to bad considering the "high rent district" he will be mucking about in!!!

no updates today, too pooped, but I found something kind of interesting. I have already googled the crap out of anything having to do with my doctor, this surgery, Cedar Sinai, esophageal cancer , you name it. My bookmarks list is about 4 columns thick... But just recently, I was googling videos, I was trying to find a story about one of Dr Soukiasians older patients that beat this monster and was on his way to the Bahamas, when I found this rare gem! I was tickled to see it showed exactly the type of surgery I will be having as well as my doctor in action ( don't worry, nothing too graphic...) .

For right now, I am exhausted. Had my lungs tested today. The trip home today took a lot out of me. Big accident (luckily no serious injuries) on the 91 with a nice Hollywood style explosion and everything ~ made for a LONG drive home.

this is a pic I pulled from the LA times of the after math.

What is it they say, about the best laid plans... I had everything coordinated out perfectly, which kids was going to be picked up by what person and so forth - when 2 of the 3 came down with the flu. We could not in good conscious, ask people to expose themselves and their kids. SO Cary stayed home with all the sick kiddos, and I made the trip to LA alone. I think it was harder on Cary than me!  

ok, as far as the cancer goes, we had a bit of a set back, but it's all good. PET scan showed and "inflamed" lymph node up in my neck. It could be me just fighting an infection- or it could be cancer. Either way, Dr. Soukiasian will be removing it come the 7th anyway. We will find out if it was cancerous  about a week after surgery when the pathology reports come back.

I will post more detail tomorrow about what we talked about, but for now I am just so pooped I think I am very close to falling asleep while sittin........ zzzz......