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Minge411
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Name: Stephanie and Sammy
Interests: Cancer treatment, survivorship support, family support, music, education
Expertise: Teaching, Music, fine arts
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message me
Member Since:
12/7/2005
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| Posted by Sammy Saturday Afternoon from MD Anderson Just for the record… This is us: 
This is Cancer 
Guess how the fight ends for cancer. So surgery #4 is done. Steph is recovering nicely. Were about 48 hrs out as I type this. She was up to walk 4 times yesterday and once or twice so far today. Pain is getting better. Its pretty low aside from some chest tube discomfort as she sits, worse when she walks but that all is nothing unexpected. She is on solid food now and we are hoping the chest tube comes out this afternoon which would mean that the catheter would follow suit tonight or tomorrow. (likely tomorrow since the epidural has to come out some time before the cath) Surgery day went smoothly overall, with the only exception being some pain issues overnight. We checked in and eventually went back to pre op which seemed to me, at least, to go faster than in the past. Once they wheeled her back I went and grabbed lunch with mom and settled in to hurry up and wait. The MD Anderson guest wireless network was giving me fits so it was hard to update but I got a few on so hopefully everyone wasn’t completely in the dark that day. If you’ve never been here, everything is top-notch…except the wireless network which is pretty terribad. So terribad in fact that we usually have to type these posts into a word document and paste them to the blog. But I guess if youre going to skimp somewhere in a cancer hospital that’d be where. Its really ok for most people, just if you’re full of geek-dom like me it’s irritating. Anyhoo we went back to see her after surgery and there was pain as usual but she was much more alert which was good. Ill let her describe the sensation of being woken up after surgery to your surgeon running down how everything went rapid-fire but im sure that’s quite the experience. We got settled into the room by around 10pm and set in for the night. The problem we ended up having was that we would doze off and she would not be able to push her pain medication button which was where the morphine was coming from. So the longer she slept the more pain she would have when she woke up. So we ended up getting the level of pain mediation delivered with each push upped a bit along with another shot to help with coverage. The lovely side effect of all the morphine which covered her pain was some nausea though she hasn’t to this point actually thrown up so really its been pretty controlled. We did manage to get some sleep, which is actually incredibly difficult in the hospital with all the people in and out and things like that. Yesterday she improved over the day and I took mom to the airport to fly home. I head back tomorrow and spend Monday getting things taken care of at home before I go back to school Tuesday. Steph should be discharged sometime this week and home by Thanksgiving. Really things have gone pretty smoothly. Going to Galveston the day before surgery was a nice thing. On the way back we saw some guy totally fail at many life tasks…among them being wealthy, use of a cell phone, driving and owning an expensive car by driving his rare $1 million Bugatti into a swamp. 
Bugatti FAIL I think its Karmic payback for driving a car who’s price tag could feed a small town for a year or two. Read the story hereLastly we got some VERY welcome positive news. Dr. Swisher believes the rib was free of any cancer. The lung nodule is the real deal and we will still have to do more chemo because of that. But they examined the rib and looked at a frozen section of it and found no evidence of tumor. So if that holds up in pathology, which it should, we are back only dealing with a single tumor and rib section was simply an old fracture, maybe from a previous surgery that re-fractured and showed up on the PET scan. We’ll keep everyone posted. Thanks for all the prayers and support. For those wanting to get into the fight along with us, ill be posting information on how you can get involved with the Sarcoma Foundation of America in the coming weeks and my Livestrong Challenge donation pages will go live in December. Sammy | | |
| all went well. lung nodule out happy news: OR exam of the rib found no tumor....yay! well go back and see her soon till then.... | | |
| posted by sammy 448 pm So Dr. Swisher came out a while ago. Steph made it through surgery just fine...no complications at all. Got the lung nodule and checked the lung...nothing else going on there. Some hopeful news though....they looked at a frozen section of the rib in the OR and saw no tumor in the rib....not just dead tumor, NO tumor, meaning that apparently there was never any there to begin with. This was great as it means we are likely dealing with just a lung nodule, which really makes the situation better if this holds up in pathology. We should get to go back and see her here in bit. Until then..... | | |
| Posted by sammy 230ish from MDACC Ok so the wireless network here is crapping on itself more than ususal. So i snagged a guest computer and will do xanga updates from here since my computer was told "YOU NO CAN HAZ INTERWEBZ!" Surgery is underway. Nothing unusual in the prep room. They took steph back a while ago so we should be due for an update within the hour and ill do another update as soon as I have more info. She was fine when i left and in good spirits. As far as surgeries go this should be on the mild side for us. | | |
| Posted by Stephanie 10:30pm CST from the apartment, Houston, TX
Well, it’s that time. Surgery is tomorrow and I don’t like it. Sammy asked me a few days ago what I was dreading most about the whole process. I asked him to guess, and he said, “Post-surgical pain?”, which of course makes sense—who wouldn’t dread that? But no, what I’m dreading most is that awful catheter I’ll wake up with. I HATE IT. It’s pretty much the most inconvenient and irritating thing I can imagine, and they’ll keep it in for days. Ugh. Anyway, enough of my complaining, here’s some more info about all things surgery-esque.
I’m sure I’ve discussed before my previous surgeries all that happens immediately pre and post-op, but it’s always an interesting rundown to give. The day of surgery you use a special soap they give you to wash with from your neck to waist, and after showering, you cannot use any lotion, perfume, or even deodorant. Great, I’m gonna smell just awesome laying on the operating table. :) Once I’m in the prep room before surgery, I get to don a hospital gown, those ever-so attractive thigh-high compression stockings and a paper shower cap. Only one person is allowed back there with me at that point, so Sammy will sit with me while anesthesiology comes by to start an I.V. (they’ll use that in addition to my CVC line) and give me a mild sedative. Dr. Swisher will also stop by briefly, make sure everything’s in order, and then when they’re ready for me, Sammy will head out to the surgical waiting area and they’ll wheel me back to the frigidly cold operating room. I have to still be conscious at that point so that I can hunch over into the proper position when they go to insert the epidural, which will help post-operatively with pain. When that’s done, they’ll lay me down and knock me out. Once I’m unconscious, they’ll intubate me, insert the catheter (BOO), a chest tube, and smaller chest drains. I’ll be given a dose of antibiotics while I’m out, plus any blood if it’s needed during the procedure. They’ll also periodically do blood gas level checks, which involves more needles, fun times. Next comes surgery, which I already discussed yesterday. Post-operatively, they’ll hopefully take out the breathing tube before I wake up—I’ve never had one in while I’ve been conscious but I hear it’s not much fun, with the constant gagging feeling and all. When they wake me (hopefully already pumped full of pain meds), the surgeon will be right there to let me know how it went. I never really remember much from that conversation, since I’m totally in a horrid medication-fog. Eventually everyone can come back to say hi, and once I’m given the okay by the PACU (post-anesthesia care unit) staff, they’ll wheel me up to my room.
Today the gang headed to Galveston Island for some much needed time away from the hospital. We had lunch at Willie G’s, our favorite seafood spot (though I don’t eat seafood), and walked through the shops in the historic strand district. We also drove along the beach side of the island before heading back into town for our pre-surgery tradition of dinner at Buca di Beppo’s. I’m telling you, we had SO much food on that table. It was ridiculous, and delicious. I thought a pigout meal was necessary, seeing as how I can’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight tonight, and I won’t be eating much of anything for a couple of days after surgery. We also had some Hank’s ice cream—it’s gotta be good luck before a procedure!
Okay, it’s bedtime……if I can sleep. I usually can’t the night before surgery. My report time it 10:30am tomorrow. If everything is running smoothly, and I get back to the prep area on time, the procedure is supposed to start 1-1 1/2 hours after check in, so probably around noonish things will actually get started. Make sure to send some prayers and good vibes our way about that time. :) We would greatly appreciate them. Obviously I will be too out of it to post on here for at least a couple of days, but Sammy has said he’ll do periodic updates during surgery, and then he’ll give a longer rundown later on. Here’s to the end of those pesky cancer spots!!
--Steph
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