She wheeled away from us at 0730 after tearful goodbyes. She had been given Versed, a medication that helps relax and make the patient forget what's happening, so she wasn't scared or really paying attention to much that was happening.
The surgery is expected to last 4 hours and 20 minutes. I will receive play by play text messages from a sweet nurse who's whole job is simply to count medical supplies and keep us informed. Near the hour mark, I'm nervous something isn't right, I've yet to hear that surgery has started.
Before I hear that the incision has been made it's nearly an hour and a half into the procedure. She had to be positioned properly to be able to open her chest, she gets 2 additonal large bore IVs, one in the forearm and one in the foot, she has an A Line placed to closely monitor her lab values. We were told there's a potential for a central line.
Once they've opened her chest, things seem to move much more quickly. The tumor is behind her heart, pressing on her lung and in the disc space of her thoracic spine. We know vessels will be sacrificed, and they'll do their best to remove it all depending on what they visualize.
It's time to meet with the surgeon. The residents and attending working with the surgeon continue to place her chest tube and close her as we speak. It went well, he says, there were 3 areas protruding from the tumor immediately sent to pathology since they were closely connected to the autonomic nervous system that feeds these type of tumors. The immediate pathology was mixed of both cancerous cells and benign, so the pathology would take days to a week to ensure a correct diagnosis was reached.
Over 5 hours after she was wheeled away, when we were able to see her again. She was still out of it, but thankfully not in any pain. She has a chest tube suctioning out excess fluid and blood. The nurses are working to remove her A Line she no longer needs. She's comfortable at the moment, which is all we could want. They've placed an epidural, to continuously give her Diluadid, and she can press a bottom when she needs extra medication.
Lines coming from everywhere.
Antibiotics running
fluids infusing
oxygen
chest tube
epidural pump
Oxygen saturation and blood pressure cuffs
Surgery recovery activated
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