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Dr. Vauthey has made his decision. One, I'm ready for surgery. Two, he is "quite confident" that my liver can handle the single-stage surgery. And three, he thinks we should do the surgery as soon as possible. That means Monday.
To avoid having to go down there and back and down there again (although that is the pattern these days), we moved the appointment with him from tomorrow to Friday morning. So Thursday, Christine and I will leave for Houston and we'll stay there until I recover from the surgery.
The surgery will be Monday, Dec 22. It is a highly technical surgery, requiring 6-8 hours on the table. Dr. Vauthey is planning on removing 76% of my liver - all of the larger right lobe and some of the smaller left lobe. The surgery is followed by one to two days in ICU (usually just one night). I will be in the hospital for a week to a week-and-a-half, so I'll probably be out by New Years Day. I then have to stay in Houston for at least one more week before I can leave the area back to Dallas.
Needless to say, our already chaotic holiday plans are now scattered in pieces on the floor. Hopefully all the kings horses and all the kings men can work out the logistics. Christine's family from Maryland and New Jersey are all planning to fly to Dallas for Christmas because we couldn't travel up there. The new problem is that when they get here - we won't be here! I'm sure we'll all figure it out. Bottom line is that this is good news.
After surgery, my body will suffer from missing out on a significant portion of liver function. Steve Wei described it to me as "extreme fatigue". Sounds like I will be a weak rag for a while. I hope to be well enough to enjoy my family and Houston friends and to keep up with email.
Dr. Vauthey prepares himself for many contingency plans on how to deal with any discovered cancer when they go in. (e.g. radioactive burning of small lesions in liver remnant, removal of cancerous areas of diaphragm, etc) Please join me in praying that he won't find any such problems in there, that the surgery will be clean, that there will be no major complications, and that my body will be hereafter be void of all cancer. Also, please lift up Christine for strength and relief from pain and for our entire family as we go through this together while celebrating Christmas in a hospital away from home.
There is a curse on my liver. But at Christmas, we remind ourselves, "He comes to make his blessings known far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found."
Posted by Greg at December 16, 2003 09:26 PM | Comments (13)