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)