Surgery appointment findings

I wish we would have talked with surgery from the very beginning. I think she could have softened my fears with her knowledge of the scans. One thing I know for sure, we came away from this appointment with more answers than we had questions. We feel refreshed. It is still going to be a difficult procedure, sure, but not as dire as we were left to believe last night. 

First, Dr. Riehle showed us the questionable spots in the pelvis today and guess what? They.are.gone! Dr. Riehle said that they were most likely has pockets, like the Radiologist told me in person. They are still going to go in with a camera to check out everything down there, but that will only take about 15 minutes. If anything needs to be removed or scraped, they will now only need to do things laparoscopically. Before, with the possible larger tumor (which they thought it could be), would have been very hard to remove due to his small hips. It was a relief to hear her talk about how easy it was going to be to either disregard the pelvis area after the camera search, or to remove anything they happen to see. She didn't seem worried about it at all. She, too, was relieved to see nothing on the scans. 

Next, she does see something questionable in the liver. She will know more once they get in there, but she said they will be able to do a small liver resection to remove the tumor. Since Caden's liver is already bigger than most, thanks to the space left over from the last massive tumor, for which the liver filled up in its growth, she said it would not drop his platelet counts, and lessen the threat. It is not good that the cancer has spread to his liver, but she told us she was confident that she could rescect it without a significant problem to Caden's health. 

Last, the removal of the massive tumor is going to be quite extensive. She said it wouldn't be as labor intensive as his 2014 surgery, but that it would still be major. It will take approximately 4 hours just for that one tumor. They will not need to re-open his previous scar in its entirety, only the right side. They said they would use as little of the scar as possible, thus shortening his recovery and lessening his pain. I like that!

And possibly the best news of all...she only reserved a 14 day recovery so that we don't have to keep requesting more time, should he need it. She said there is a real possibility that it would only be 7 days. That it is more probable that it could be less than that, even, because it is less extensive than the first liver surgery. 

I am SO glad the appointment was today and not on Monday. Our weekend looks so much brighter. Especially since we are leaving a rainy Seattle for our own home at this very minute!

We were able to breath slightly more easy after the appointment. It's not the best news ever, but it's not last night's news either.