Tuesday, October 31, 2006
post op + 4
Kev is continuing to improve. Yesterday the epidural was disconnected and today it was removed so now he is on oral pain meds. His hemoglobin was continuing to trend down so it was decided to give him a boost with 2 more pints of blood before it got too low. (Besides it seemed appropriate for Holloween.) The therapist had him up and walking around the floor with the aide of a walker. His central line in the neck was removed so he is down to only one IV in the arm. He still has 2 drains connected, but the Orthopaedic Oncologist says he may be ready to go by Friday. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers!
Monday, October 30, 2006
post op + 3
Just a quick update.
On Sat Kev was moved to a regular room. His pain level is very manageable. He has an epidural that allows him to give himself extra doses of pain meds with the push of a button, but he seldom needs to use it. The nurses had him sitting with assistance. Physical Therapy is expected to begin today.
On Sat Kev was moved to a regular room. His pain level is very manageable. He has an epidural that allows him to give himself extra doses of pain meds with the push of a button, but he seldom needs to use it. The nurses had him sitting with assistance. Physical Therapy is expected to begin today.
Friday, October 27, 2006
post-op
The surgery is over. It lasted just short of 8 hrs. Kev is stable and in ICU.
The plan was to make an incision in the front pelvic area, resect the tumor from the pelvic region and attempt to resect the tumor in the groin. Then make an incision in the back hip area and do the hip replacement. After making the front incision, however it became apparent that the pelvic tumor would not be accessible from the front. There was a large tissue covering separating the tumor from the organs in the area. The tissue was healthy so the surgeon decided is was best not to cut through it. And the groin tumor was not going to be accessible without another incision that would branch off the first. Surgeons like to have smooth, continuous incisions otherwise the likelihood of it not healing properly increases as does the likelihood of infection. So they made a real-time decision to skip the groin tumor. After making the incision in the back hip area, they began removing the pelvic tumor. There was a considerable amount of bleeding so Kev started receiving transfusions. They then had to work quickly to remove as much as possible while minimizing blood loss. Once the tumor resection was complete and bleeding controlled, they moved forward with the hip replacement. This proceeded without incident. The surgeon did note that as the x-ray/CT/MRI indicated a large section of the lower pelvic bone was missing. All total Kev received 15 pints of blood, 6 bags of platelets and 4 of plasma.
After surgery he went straight to ICU. They want to keep him intubated (breathing tube) throughout the night so he is also heavily sedated and they have his arms restrained so he doesn't inadvertantly pull out any of the myriad of lines connected into him.
Tomorrow they will remove the breathing tube and he will "wake up" with no memory of today. Since he is going to be in the hospital so long, anyone who wants to send him a note can do so at:
https://www2.mdanderson.org/sapp/contact/message.cfm
(his patient number is 420668)
The plan was to make an incision in the front pelvic area, resect the tumor from the pelvic region and attempt to resect the tumor in the groin. Then make an incision in the back hip area and do the hip replacement. After making the front incision, however it became apparent that the pelvic tumor would not be accessible from the front. There was a large tissue covering separating the tumor from the organs in the area. The tissue was healthy so the surgeon decided is was best not to cut through it. And the groin tumor was not going to be accessible without another incision that would branch off the first. Surgeons like to have smooth, continuous incisions otherwise the likelihood of it not healing properly increases as does the likelihood of infection. So they made a real-time decision to skip the groin tumor. After making the incision in the back hip area, they began removing the pelvic tumor. There was a considerable amount of bleeding so Kev started receiving transfusions. They then had to work quickly to remove as much as possible while minimizing blood loss. Once the tumor resection was complete and bleeding controlled, they moved forward with the hip replacement. This proceeded without incident. The surgeon did note that as the x-ray/CT/MRI indicated a large section of the lower pelvic bone was missing. All total Kev received 15 pints of blood, 6 bags of platelets and 4 of plasma.
After surgery he went straight to ICU. They want to keep him intubated (breathing tube) throughout the night so he is also heavily sedated and they have his arms restrained so he doesn't inadvertantly pull out any of the myriad of lines connected into him.
Tomorrow they will remove the breathing tube and he will "wake up" with no memory of today. Since he is going to be in the hospital so long, anyone who wants to send him a note can do so at:
https://www2.mdanderson.org/sapp/contact/message.cfm
(his patient number is 420668)
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The pelvis
We met with the Orthopaedic Surgeons and Anesthesiologist team today and everything is go for tomorrow. We are supposed to be at MD Anderson at 5 AM, the surgery should start about 7 or 8 and is expected to last about 8 hours. Kev will likely stay in ICU Friday night before being moved to a regular room on Sat. They expect him to stay a total of 7-10 days in the hospital. The surgery itself is more complicated than a standard hip replacement (hence the longer surgery time) since they will be trying to remove a couple of large tumors near the pelvis in addition to the cancerous bone. The surgeon gave me a scan of the x-ray they took a couple weeks ago and they'll do another x-ray after the surgery. So that should be a pretty cool before & after comparison. Kev is very much looking forward to tossing out the pain meds and having better mobility. Thanks to everyone for all the good thoughts and prayers, it means a lot to us. I'll let you know how things go.
Monday, October 16, 2006
The end of the feet
The feet are pretty much wrapped up so here's some pictures to show the progress. The first picture was taken 9.20.06, sixteen days after the tumor removal (and two days prior to skin graft). Note the good granulation forming on the muscle, slightly less on the ligament. This is exactly what the plastic surgeon was looking for.
The next picture was taken 9.27.06, five days after the skin graft. Those are not stitches. The grafted skin just "sticks" to all the great granulation growth.
The next photo taken 10.07.06, a little more than a week later - healing up great.
I no longer have any restrictions on this foot and can put full weight on it. Tomorrow I meet with the Orthopaedic Surgeon to discuss the hip/pelvis.
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