Fender Benders and Post Op

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

– John Wayne

Dad certainly saddled up today, regardless of whether he or any of us were scared. We entered pre-op with that all too familiar feeling of angst. Not concern that anything would go wrong, but that feeling you get when you are about to jump into a pool that you know is a little too cold – you want to hurry up and get it over with, but at the same time you are a little anxious about it. Well, we sat with this angst, and sat, and sat. Then we (un)fortunately over hear a nurse answer the phone a few feet away; 

“Hello….I’m sorry who is this again….oh, hi Dr. Patel (our surgeon)….you’re going to be how late….oh no, how bad was the car accident….ok, see you then.”

Not the most comforting half of a phone call I have ever eavesdropped on…

Turns out Dr. Patel was fine and had only been in a minor fender-bender while stuck in traffic. In fact, surgery was only about 15 minutes behind schedule. Everything else went well. An ileostomy was placed which I’m sure Dad doesn’t want me talking about on this post, but it is a bag that the bowels will empty into instead of through the colon which was not working so well this past week. You know all about that if you have been following along, so I won’t go into detail other than to say that this procedure literally was life extending. As soon as this bag starts filling, Dad gets the NG tube removed which will be exciting enough that he should forgive this portion of the update 😉 

The doctor noted a fair amount of masses, but was clear in explaining that some or most of those masses could be benign and that the PET scan Dad will get before chemo will provide a much better picture. A drain tube was also placed in the abdomen to allow excess fluids a route to escape so the surgical site could fully heal. This will also relieve pressure for Dad and reduce pain. The last component was Dads port. This went in no problem and will work out well in place of many IV sticks. 

Dad will stay in the hospital for a few more days and will begin chemotherapy with the oncologist next week if everything is healing well. He is enjoying his Popsicles and I fear this will be a challenging habit to break, but such is the give and take.  We have another appointment set up with a surgical oncologist at Mayo who practices some ground breaking procedures related to Dads specific condition. We also have a hospital style bed ready to move into Dads house should he need something like that on the ground floor instead of dredging up the stairs. 

We also have more offers and requests to help than I could have ever imagined. It feels as though we have begun to truly connect with others as humans, on a level we previously overlooked. It feels good and warms my heart and soul. I even spoke with a woman from Dads insurance today who bent over backwards to help me even though she had no idea what was going on with Dad, and I hadn’t yet submitted any of the formal HIPAA paperwork that allows me to speak to them on Dads behalf. There is undoubtedly a larger connection between us all.  

Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated, and the comments that have been left on this site were emotionally received in a positive and meaningful way. Thank you.
Hope and Love,

Richard