Surgery Update

Mom and I arrived just in time from running errands for Miss Dalebout (she keeps us busy so we won't worry) to find out surgery was already finished at 11:10! We are getting so comfortable at the U Dub you might just find us in our jammies doing our toes in the waiting room.

We got our most hoped for scenario (for surgery anyway) so the lymph node prayers were working! Dr. Park found the tumor to be only in the lymph node and not engaging the pancreas at all, just snuggled up into the side making it appear like it was on the pancreas. It wrapped a large artery but they were able to peel it off with no damage. The large liver tumor came right off and the ultrasound revealed no new information, just the two active spots we could see in the scans. Dr. Park allowed us to keep his original ink sketch, "Surgery In September".

 

Removed corner of liver with 2 tumors. One small, one large.  One controlled with chemo, other was not so comparing these results will be interesting. Lymph node tumor was imbedded in pancreas so it looked like it was on or in the pancreas.  Dr. Park was able to remove that tumor and leave the pancreas intact. His analogy was that the pancreas is an innocent bystander that the tumors keep attacking.  The ultrasound at this time could not completely view the whole liver as the liver is a bumpy surface and the divets create shadows that may hide smaller tumors. The liver was explored by using an ultrasound probe.  He saw that there are tumors on the liver that he hopes to keep under control by the 'poisons' administered by Dr. Lin.

 

The epidural is the primary pain relief at this time, apparently they are moving toward using mostly local anesthetic for operations now that they can more precisely control the area being numbed. Sara can be snacking this evening if she so chooses and get up and get moving ASAP.

 

Colleen and Shanna