Surgery Done - Now Recovering
Surgery was pretty late in the day today - probably starting around 4pm. It's been a nerve wracking day, just anticipating the surgery and sitting in the waiting room. Then going to the OR prep area and waiting, and waiting. It's all part of the process of course, just made for a long and anxiety filled day.
Once Sara was taken to the OR, I received check-in calls from a patient-liaison nurse who was just keeping me updated on Sara's progress. This was a nice idea and was helpful for me in knowing just how much longer I would wait. I will mention that the surgery progress boards that Sanford has is ALSO very helpful for these scenarios but I suppose both options worked.
After a couple hours I got the call that she was all done and that they were wrapping up, and that the doctor would come out to speak with me shortly. This moment was certainly the peak of my anxiety for the day, but I was thankful that they already let me know that everything went well.
In speaking with the doctor it sounds like it all went to plan and ultimately there were no findings outside of what they expected. They expected to find the tumor on her liver from the CT scan, cut it out, and ideally find no other areas of suspected malignancy. These were all true in the surgery and it sounds like they did quite a bit of checking the rest of her liver for issues using instruments that benefited from the surgical environment (I think I heard mention of microscopic and/or ultrasound equipment) and there were no additional findings of concern! At this time, the surgery is to be viewed as curative.
I'd say the doc summed it up best in saying "this was all good - and there were no surprises."
Sara is now resting and is very tired. She should be perking up quite a bit over the weekend and I am sure she will be online soon enough to tell her own side of the story.
Thanks all for the continued support. We love you all!
Love Your Buns is a non-profit initiative aiming to remove stigma and improve awareness around rectal cancer, its prevalence and its symptoms. A growing epidemic in young adults, rectal cancer is easy to remove if caught early, however due to a variety of reasons, young adults are not likely to seek screening options like colonoscopies. This gap in screening is leading to more advanced disease at diagnosis and more challenging and strenuous treatment. We're working to Educate young adults to increase awareness of the signs and increasing prevalence of Rectal Cancer and to Empower informed decision making and Improve quality of life in Survivorship.
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