Blanket Mummy

After spending the night at the hospital on Thursday and getting only about 2 hours of sleep off and on, I got up around 6 am, got changed, and started packing up our things. Soon after I woke up, one of dad’s docs on the surgery team came in to check on him, and following that at 6:30 am the anesthesiologist arrived to discuss getting an epidural to cover his post-op pain. We were then very quickly whisked off by transport, with me literally running in tow carrying an armload of heavy bags, having very little help from the staff, and trying to comfort an emotional, adorable dad on the stretcher in front of me. We got to the holding area where dad got his epidural like a champ, and in no time we were saying goodbye at the entrance to the OR. Dad looked so brave despite all of the fear and frustration about what he was about to endure. He had told me earlier that morning that he just wished he didn’t have to do this. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of pain and anger that I feel when I think about what he is going through, and what he will have to go through to fight for his life. But I told him that morning that the way we need to look at it is that we are getting this tumor out of his body, this thing that isn’t even supposed to be in there. Getting it out is a huge relief to me, and even though he is losing his kidney, now we know that this freaking tumor can’t control him anymore. 

I watched as his cute little bald head rolled away through the doors, and I knew I needed to just trust that the guys in green would take care of things. Fighting back tears, I got into the elevator with my plethora of luggage, and knew I at least needed to hold it together until Mike arrived. Until then, I needed to sit down, get the bags off of my shoulder, and pray that someone showed up soon with a breakfast sandwich and a large strong coffee. Soon everyone started to show up, and we eventually got a call from Dr. Harpster around 11 am that they got his kidney out, and were now working on the tumor. Around 1:30 he called and the tumor was out and dad was in recovery. They had to get the tumor out of his vena cava, and in the process cut off the edges of the vena cava that were touching the tumor. His tumor had grown so much that it was pressing against his liver, and they had to scrape it off of the liver. Dr. Harpster said that his liver remained smooth afterward, so he was not concerned that it was actually attached to the liver. The tumor also grew into his diaphragm in one small area, so they had to cut a hole in the diaphragm to remove the tumor. This caused a pneumothorax, which is air in the space around the lung causing the lung to collapse. Because of this, they were keeping him intubated until they got the chest x-ray showing that his lung was re inflated, which would clear him to be extubated. All of the lymph nodes around the kidney were removed as a precaution even though they looked ok, and the surrounding area appeared cancer free as well. 

After getting the news that his surgery went as well as they could have hoped, we waited a couple more hours until we heard from the PACU that it was OK to see dad, but that he was still intubated. Mom and I came up first to see him, and when we got in the room he was starting to wake up. He was nodding yes and shaking his head no when asked questions, and squeezing our fingers. He was very shaky from the anesthesia and from the pain of having the tube in his throat, and his fingers were freezing cold and white. I asked him if he was cold and he shook his head yes, and the nurse gladly went to get him heated blankets. She was so sweet to him, and bundled him all up from head to toe. She wrapped the last toasty blanket around his head and you could see the relief on his face. He looked like the cutest little blanket mummy around. 

Finally, after more waiting, they moved dad to his bed in the SICU (surgical intensive care unit), and we were able to see him after he was extubated. It was a refreshing sight to walk in and see him sitting upright in bed, smiling at us, and completely awake. He was having some intense pain from his incision, which is probably about 8 inches long from his right lower side up to his mid abdomen, and also pain in his shoulders and back from laying so long.  He was lifting his arms up over his head, to the side, wiggling his toes and fingers, until he felt a little more stretched out. He was very curious about his incision as he studied the dressing. He kept finding little bits of tape to pull off his arms, and inspecting all of his IV’s. He kept trying to push himself up in bed without the nurses help, and wouldn’t listen to me when I told him to wait, but as soon as the nurse “yelled” at him and told him he couldn’t push himself, he said “Oh, I can’t?? OK.” He was so thirsty, but because of having the tube in his throat, he needed to wait at least an hour to drink, so the nurse was giving him mouth swabs with cold water. After the nurse slipped out of the room, he started using them as spoons to eat the ice chunks. As we were getting ready to leave, he said “I think I’ll sneak a little sip” with his eyes squinted and a little smirk on his face. It was good to see the stubborn fighter that I know. I think I know who I take after :)

Overall, the day was exhausting for everyone, but we were happy to see dad with a little more spunk. This morning I overslept my alarm and my goal of getting to the hospital by 7:30 turned into 10:30. Oops. But dad is doing OK, just in a lot of pain from his incision. He already had his first round of dialysis this morning and did great with it. Stay tuned for more updates, but for now, thank you to everyone for keeping him and us in your thoughts and prayers and for checking in throughout the day to see how we were all doing. Dad did awesome, and continues to do so. He’s our strong little blanket mummy.