Post Surgery, day 7b

The surgeon just stopped in with basically very good news. She said that the Chemo had done a lot of damage to the tissue they removed meaning it had killed a lot of cancer cells (good thing) but because of the damage, she is taking a little longer to heal. Given everything, she says that Barbara is doing very well and may get to go home by the weekend. It does look like the drainage is slowing, so it appears it is healing.

She will be getting some home care for at least a week including feeding through the tube at least at night to make sure she is getting enough nutrition.

The really good news is that the surgeon indicated that the pathology showed that there was essentially no active cancer left in what they removed from her. That is very good news considering any other options. The Chemo clearly did its job which is great. As I mentioned above, that may also mean her recovery from the surgery may be a little longer than normal, but that is worth it if the cancer is really gone.

We will go back to the doctor for a followup a week after she leaves. She will remove the staples at that time.

As far as additional Chemo, that is something we will have to discuss with her Oncologist, Dr. Emmons. We should see him in about 3-4 weeks. I believe that even though it looks like all the active cancer is gone, he will recommend doing some level of additional Chemo to try and make sure there are no other stray bad cells running around. Given this type of cancer, they like to be aggressive. Once it is all done, she will get follow up CT scans to watch for any return of cancer for some period once any additional Chemo so done. This is all coordinated through the Oncologist.

As I am doing this update, she is getting a new IV because the last one failed which means she has been without pain meds for about an hour and is starting to hurt. If this one fails, they will likely have to access her port.

Sorry if this rambled a little, but there were several pieces of data to provide and I wanted to list it all even though the pathology report was by far the best part. It looks like now it is mostly continuing to wait for her to heal and then adjust to no stomach which will take some time. The next few weeks will be "fun", but after that, maybe things can start getting to the new normal.

Wayne