Long day.
I am back at Nuevo Rancho Lake, with several varieties of calories in me and more anticipated.
Jay is resting comfortably (well, comfortably enough) in the ICU under the intensely competent and loving care of Shelly Rae (oh and the nurses too, I guess).
To recap: the surgery went very well, though it started much later than we’d been led to believe, making for many, many hours spent sitting around waiting. We arrived at 6am but it was nearly 8 before they even called him into pre-op prep. Apparently last year they let any number of people go with him there; this year, what with H1N1 and all, they were restricting it to one person. Which was me.
I sat with him in the prep area for over two hours while they–well, prepped him. They sent me away for a while around 9 so they could put in the epidural, but otherwise I was there the whole time…including putting in the IV. Which nobody liked.
At 10:10 they wheeled him in through the double doors for the OR, and I joined SR and the family in the waiting room.
The hospital was great: they kept us posted, calling down even during the surgery itself–which didn’t start for another hour yet. We were called when it started, when they decided they needed to open a larger incision because his ribs are too close together for them to reach the tumor thoraciscopically [sp?], and when they were closing him up. Then it was another hour after that before the surgeon came to talk to us, and then almost two hours before we could go see him in the ICU…yep, surgery just takes a long time. All throughout, though, we felt well informed, kept track of, and reassured. Everything was explained in great detail, by everyone we talked to, and we could (and did!) ask as many questions as we had.
They did a quick pathology analysis of the tumor and are overwhelmingly convinced that it’s a metastasis of the colon cancer–which (as we know, and weirdly) is the good news. They will still send it to the “real” path lab for confirmation, but I don’t expect we’ll have any surprises at the oncology appointment on the 7th. Or at least, not about that. Seems like there are *always* surprises.
When I got in to see him, he was groggy and sweet–very drugged, very happy he didn’t die under anesthesia, very uncomfortable. His (unrelated to cancer) sore shoulder was really bothering him; apparently they’d had to move his arm beyond its range of motion for the surgery, which is unfortunate. It’s on the same side as the incision, so that whole side is sore. He’s still on an epidural, and by the time I’d left, they’d gotten the pain management under better control, and he was in possession of the little button-of-narcotic-joy. Shelly Rae just texted me that he slept 40 minutes and is now being surprisingly coherent, and that there is a very cute night nurse. So, he is in good hands all around. 🙂
I stayed till about 6, then (with the generous assistance of Jay’s parents and sister) found my way back home here. The way is astonishingly convoluted, even more so in the dark–but, no wrong turns! I had a glorious shower, and am enjoying even more glorious wine. I also ran a vacuum over the place, because, well, that’s what I do. And soon reinforcements will be arriving: Mark is driving down from Seattle, though he is caught in epic traffic–he left nearly 5 hours ago, and I don’t expect him for a while yet. But he will provide taxi, cooking, and other aid and comfort functions for all, for which we are so grateful.
So that is it for now! Tomorrow some time we expect Jay will be moved to a regular room, and then it may be possible (and desirable) for him to have a few visitors. But I’ll keep you all posted on that. They are tightly controlling that sort of thing, especially for patients with compromised lungs, which, well, we can hardly argue with that. Though SR, Jay, and I all managed to get H1N1 shots before the surgery. So that might help.
More tomorrow, as it happens and as I can get to the internets…thank you EVERYONE for all your sweet and loving and encouraging messages!!! I am saving them all to pass on to Jay. I will probably not be able to respond to everything (as I like to) but I know you will understand… 🙂