Day 91- Patience

Phone cam pic. I'll upload Day 90 when I get home, it's still on my camera. Rest of description is copied from my blog, so if you read those, don't worry about rereading them.

 

Update 1, 8:06AM

With prep time were looking at 16 hours. Caseys being sedated now.

 

 

Update 2, 12:52PM

As of 11:45, they were finishing up the colostomy, and prepping the amputation team. Casey was doing fine.

I should have another update in about an hour.

 

Stuff I didn't have room for in my text post:

 

-She opted to get an epidural, as opposed to a PCA (the morphine button you press when you need more). This means she'll be less groggy when she wakes up, as she won't have the morphine continuing to partially sedate her.

 

-She'll most likely remain unconscious tonight, as they'll probably have to keep her intubated. The most blood she's ever gotten at once is 2L, and that made her face really puffy and red. She'll be getting so much more than that during the amputation, and we don't know how it will affect her with the blood loss. I'm anticipating puffiness. If her face is overly puffy and red, they assume her airways are, too, and will keep her intubated overnight so that her throat doesn't close up.

 

 

EDIT: Just kidding- the next update is going to be in 2 more hours. Dr. King's assistant, Heather, just came out to tell us about a slight change of plans. Nothing major. They couldn't get the epidural in (this does not bode well for childbirthing plans), but the neurosurgeon who's closing off the nerves at the base of her spine (the cauda equina; they're doing it so spinal fluid doesn't leak out during surgery) will put one in while he's in there. That was all.

 

 

Update 3, 4:38PM

Just got another update. All the nerve work is done, and they've started the amputation.

So far Casey's doing well; she's only needed 1L of blood all day (obviously, I expect that number to go up quicker now that they're doing the actual tumor removal part).

 

Dr. King said the tumor resection will take at least 4 more hours. That doesn't include recovery, and I'm not sure if it includes sewing up the skin flap. But I will be surprised if it only takes 4 hours.

 

Also, there's a man near us whose daughter is 11 years old, and has had about 60 surgeries. He was very accepting of it, and the hassle of dealing with that many surgeries and having 3 other kids who aren't old enough to be home alone. And the woman next to me is flipping her shit and being loud and obnoxious about her son's 1 hour surgery. "WHAT?! HE HAS TO BE IN RECOVERY FOR HALF AN HOUR?! BUT YOU SAID AN HOURRRRRRR." Calm the fuck down, woman. Right now she's arguing with security because the people won't let her go back to recovery while her son is still asleep. "This is the last time I'll deal with children's hospital mah mah mah." God woman. Fuck. OFF. "I AM NOT A CRIMINAL I WANT TO SEE MY SON DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I'M GOING TO COMPLAIN. RAWR." People are trying to compromise and calm her down, and she's all "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO."

 

I. hate. her. I want her son to wake up, too. Because I want her to fuck off.

 

 

Update 4, 5:25PM

Dr. King is on schedule with the actual tumor removal. He's still saying 2 more hours for his section, and then a plastic surgeon will actually close it up. The nurses are changing, so the one I spoke to doesn't know how much time it will take after Dr. King is done.

She's still doing well, and has only needed 1 more unit of blood. I'm guessing 3-3.5 units is on target, so the face puffiness will be up in the air.

 

 

Update 5, 7:28pm

Heather just came out with an update. I think from here on out is where it's going to get pretty tough to read these.

 

Casey's doing well. She's needed 4 units of blood, but that's because she came in with slightly low levels- she's obviously been bleeding, but not dramatically. When they started the tumor removal, they amputated her right leg at the hip, so it wasn't in the way while they worked around the tumor. Right now, the tumor is removed all around the back and sides, and they're working on the part where it touches the nerves on the left side.

 

Based on the MRIs, it looks like she'll lose bowel and bladder function. They can't tell for sure, though, until they get in there. Heather said it looks like another 3 hours to finish. She also said that, at this point, it looks like they'll be able to take out the tube and wake her up tonight. If so, it'll be a bit longer until they move her to the ICU.

 

 

Update 6, 9:50PM

The amputation and tumor removal is just about done; the surgeons who've been doing it are finishing the last few details, and the plastic surgeon is scrubbing in now to sew her up. The nurse I spoke with doesn't know how long it will take him to do it, and said he'd call at 11 if they weren't done yet.

 

We still don't know about bowel and bladder function; someone will come out in a bit and let us know how it went.

 

They'll be keeping her intubuated overnight, which means she won't be waking up until tomorrow. Which is good, because I'm probably going to burst into tears when I see her, and I'd hate to do that if she could see me.

 

 

Update 7, 11:46PM

Dr. King and the plastic surgeon just came out. It's just about done, they're just finishing up bringing the colon to the surface. That plus cleaning her up and getting her back in bed and bla bla bla could take another hour and a half (Heyyo, 17 hour surgery!)

 

1. Casey did great. She had no problems with anesthesia, lost blood but not overly so (was never in danger from that). Everything went as planned.

2. They were unable to save her bowel and bladder function, but her left leg is completely safe.

3. The neurosurgeon expressed concern about the stability of her spine, since they crossed the sacrum during the surgery. If it becomes an issue, they'll put in pins, but they didn't want to do that now and increase the risk of infection.

4. With all the fluid transfer, she's pretty puffy. They're definitely leaving her intubated tonight, and they are planning on a couple days in the ICU, but Dr. King did say she heals quickly, and may be moved to her normal floor sooner than that if she's breathing okay.

5. She'll have the epidural in for a few days. It won't help the colostomy pain, so they're going to let that calm down a bit before hitting her with the leg pain.

6. The plastic surgeon said he'll probably go in when she's healed and do some reshaping; I guess the skin/muscle flap has an odd shape due to the sharp angle they had to bend it at. Depends on what it looks like, and if Casey wants to undergo more surgery for it.

 

So yeah. Casey is officially cancer free.

Done