That tumor is OUTTA THERE.........

Hi everyone,
We are writing from the hospital this afternoon.
It's about 3:30 and Mom is still in recovery.

She arrived at 5:00 AM with Dad and Carmen. I didn't get here until a little after 6:00 and she was in pre op so I could not see her. Her scheduled surgery time was 7:20 AM. The surgery was supposed to be around 2 hours. At about 11:30 a Dr. that assisted in Mom's surgery came out to talk to us.

He said that the surgery had gone well and that they had gotten the tumor out entirely. They had been quite concerned about the artery that was attached and he said they were able to "peel it away from the artery". He said it was a complicated and long surgery, but that the artery was intact, there was not a lot of bleeding and no blood transfusion was needed. He also said that there was a nerve that ran down her leg to her foot that the tumor had grown around. The nerve was running through the center of the tumor. They did have to sever it during surgery, but feel that it will just cause loss of feeling, numbness, tingling etc and not hamper any of her mobility. This nerve has been the culprit of a lot of pain, and numbness throughout the last year, so having it severed may not cause much more irritation than it does now. We were told that she was in recovery so we decided to go get something to eat before she came up to the room.

We were just about to the cafeteria, when we ran right into Dr. Conrad, her surgeon. He stopped to tell us a few more details about the surgery. He said that it was really a difficult surgery. He also said that she did really well and was pleased with the outcome. He then went on to say that he did not believe he had had another patient who had been given as much chemotherapy as Mom had been given pre operatively, but that he believed it just may have "cured her"! (his words)

The pathology report won't be back for 7-10 days, so we won't know 100% until then if she will need additional chemotherapy or not. The way Dr. Conrad spoke though, gave us hope that she may be done with chemotherapy.

She was supposed to be up in the next hour or so and we came to her room. After waiting several more hours, we have been told that she is still in recovery because her respiratory rate is low. It is at an 8, and they look for 12-20 to be in the normal range. She usually does this after surgery, when she is on pain medication. They were going to monitor her until that gets leveled out. Dad is down in the waiting room on that floor now after a very brief visit with her.

The surgeon's will be in to see her Saturday morning so Mom should be feeling well enough to ask any questions she may have.

Until then, we thank you for your prayers and ask that you continue praying for her as they try to regulate her pain level. Dad says she is alert but in pain and pretty uncomfortable. They have backed her off of pain meds due to her slow respiratory rate. This is a hard dance to watch. Keep her breathing at a level rate, yet she is in pain, or keep her out of pain, but have her respiration drop.

Thank you in advance for your prayer and concern.

Kimberly and family