Saturday, April 23, 2005

Fourth Day After Surgery

Hello.

Both Jim's Mom and Aunt have been picked up by Jim's brother Will and family and should be in the Wilkes-Barre area by now...

Jim's doing better... He's up to five laps each time he goes for a walk. And that was three times today! : ) Mostly he spent today sleeping... Which is fine, just means the body is healing...

I do think that his bowels are starting to wake up... Smelt the noxious fumes of flatuluence today though Jim says that he didn't feel anything.. A good sign, but not another hurtle cleared until Jim actual feels the event... I think I was very PC about this event ; )

Right now I'm just exhausted. First surgery, Aunt episode, and playing hostess have worn me out. Tomorrow I'm sleeping as late as I want (Josephine the Cat not withstanding... normally wants to be let outside at 5am)... Good dreams to everyone!

PS Liz, your comment(s) worked. Thanks for checking in... : )

Friday, April 22, 2005

More Good News

Hello.

Jim's Aunt was released from the hospital today. Her sugar levels have stabilized. So now, both she and Jim's Mom are staying at my house. Tomorrow Jim's brother Will and family will be coming down to the hospital to pick them up.

Jim is also making progress... Over three walks today he's done 12 laps around the 7th floor. And he's up to sips of water and ice chips... He's making better progress now than when he was recovering from his appendectomy.

They are going to remove the tubes that deliver a local anesthesia around the incision on Sunday (it's a new 5-day treatment they are trying and Jim's the 5th patient with it, they think it works wonderfully - so do I). Then when his bowels start to work, they'll remove the NG tube. And once he starts eating, then the catheter goes... So he's making real nice progress..

All that's left is waiting for the pathology report from the biopsies Dr Sardi made and those are due early next week...

Thanks for reading...

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Two days later

Hello.

Jim is now on the recovery floor (725-1, meaning room 725 bed 1). He was moved there yesterday around 5pm. He's only on oxygen when he sleeps, he has gone for two walks today (each one was a full lap around the wing), and they are talking about removing the NG tube tomorrow... Definite progress... Part of what is helping is that they are using a new pain-reduction technique. They've implanted two thin tubes, one on each side of the incision opening that provide a local anestisia (sp?) to the incision. This has allowed Jim to feel less pain than he usually would, which is could account for two walks today... He's the 5th patient at St Agnes to have this performed. The 4th patient was also a PMP sufferer and ~5 weeks later she's almost walking a mile...

Good news, Jim kept his bellybutton... Was able to see it today. : )

His Aunt is now in a room too, move at midnight last night (rm 685). They had put her on medicine to try to reduce the sugar highs and lows... They are trying to not have to place her on insulin shots... They are still trying to figure out her low oxygen levels... But she may be released tomorrow...

More news tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Post Op

Hello.

Jim started surgery at 9:40am yesterday and was done by 5:40pm. It was a nine hour surgery. Dr Sardi removed his gall bladder, spleen, and part of his colon near where the appendix was. He removed all tumors and mucus. He also took biopsies from Jim's liver and abdominal wall (we should have results back by early next week). So far things look good. No longer-term prognosis yet.

After surgery Jim was taken to ICU and by 10pm the breathing tube had been removed and Jim was breathing on his own. This morning they are just waiting for a bed to open upstairs, then he's out of ICU. Woohoo... Making fast progress...

However, while we were waiting for Jim to come out of surgery. His Aunt was taken to Emergency at St Agnes. We think something about her diabetes went haywire. Her blood sugars were elevated (almost to the point where she was ~1hr away from dying). So she was admitted and sent to ICU. So we had both Jim and his Aunt in ICU last night. She's having a lung scan this morning before we know any more...

I'm heading back to the hospital. Had to wash up and tidy they house incase Jim's Mom needs to stay over (Aunt and Mom are sisters).

Wil update later,

Jennifer

Monday, April 18, 2005

Pre-Op

Hello.

We arrived at St. Agnes around 9:30am and proceeded through registration. Jim was shown to a room around 10:30am, then the "fun" began. They had to run tests, blood tests (~7 vials worth), EKG, chest x-ray, 50+ questions... He's also participating in a clinical study about bacteria and PMP, they need to collect urine and tumor samples (done during surgery) to test for microbial presence (they suspect a bacteria plays a part in a person getting PMP). Mostly today was spent waiting for the next person to enter and reading through the pauses..

His mom, brother, sister-in-law, and aunt came to be with him through the next two days. He is scheduled for surgery at 7:45 am and will start the process at 6:45am.. So the plan is to get there before he starts the process (me specifically since I have his most recent CT scans) and wait... It's expected that the surgery/chemotherapy will take 6-10hrs.

Two out of three cancer markers came back non-detect (the last marker hadn't been reported yet), which is a good sign. So if everything goes well, he should be in ICU early tomorrow afternoon and then assigned a recover room on the 7th floor a day or so afterwards...

I'll update tomorrow on how the surgery went.