Don't you find, when you are sick or hurting, that you almost count the days? You know, for example, that the flu doesn't last forever. So, you count the hours, knowing that relief comes with time. In school they taught us that one of the most effective treatments in all of medicine is "tincture of time." Time alone will cure a lot of ills!
So today, no big events, unless you count a short walk down the street. Unless you count her fever breaking so that she did not have to be readmitted (this was a strong possibility last night at about 9-10 p.m. The magic number for re-admittance was 101.5; she got to 101.2). Unless you count no real nausea for the first time in 48 hours. Well, I'm counting all those things!!!
Yes, time is starting to mend Dee Dee's body from the insult of surgery. She is beginning to feel less sharp pain, and now has this more steady pain, less severe than yesterday. Yesterday the oxycodone narcotic pain meds didn't do a lot of good; today they are helping. These are great things!
She told me yesterday that if the full thoracotomy surgery, as originally proposed as likely to be necessary, actually did hurt a lot worse than this VATS surgery, then she would have opted to leave the tumor in there. My wife is pretty stoic, so I knew she was in a deep hole. Today she can see out of the hole. Thanks for praying.
Tony
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Home now
Just a quick prayer request. I'm guessing that my dear bride came home too soon, because of concern for me and her children. Typical action of my servant-hearted wife, but she's in a lot more pain now that she cannot have the Toradol. Pray that this stage passes soon.
Thanks,
Tony
Thanks,
Tony
Going Home
We are waiting on the wheelchair folks to come and then we are headed home! Dee Dee had a tough time with pain and nausea from yesterday afternoon through the wee hours of the morning, but the nausea has greatly abated. She does have a fair bit of pain, but decided a couple of hours ago that she could rest in her own bed and deal with pain better than she could in the hospital bed. She will be on oxycodone for about a week, and can't drive until she finishes with that.
Thank you all for praying us through this. The doctors continue to be positive and encouraging, and we have a follow-up appointment with Dr. D'Amico's PA on 11/10/2006. We will probably hear about the pathology report sooner than that, at least we hope to!
In terms of visiting her at home, she is still weak and tired, so please hold off today (Tuesday). After that, maybe just call first, but I am sure she will enjoy (brief) visits. Thanks!
We are completely humbled and full of gratitude for the prayers and love of our family and friends during this. You are all loved and prayed for as well. Truly, we are of one body, and that has been evident to all during the past weeks. Thank you for your living testimony of God's grace and love.
Tony
Thank you all for praying us through this. The doctors continue to be positive and encouraging, and we have a follow-up appointment with Dr. D'Amico's PA on 11/10/2006. We will probably hear about the pathology report sooner than that, at least we hope to!
In terms of visiting her at home, she is still weak and tired, so please hold off today (Tuesday). After that, maybe just call first, but I am sure she will enjoy (brief) visits. Thanks!
We are completely humbled and full of gratitude for the prayers and love of our family and friends during this. You are all loved and prayed for as well. Truly, we are of one body, and that has been evident to all during the past weeks. Thank you for your living testimony of God's grace and love.
Tony
Monday, October 30, 2006
Late night Monday
After today's earlier posting, things got ...interesting here. The anesthesia finished wearing off, and the pain came hard. There was a delay in getting the Toradol on board, so she had a solid hour or so of real pain. Then, as the pain began to lessen, she began to develop pretty significant nausea. It seems that my super-healthy wife is too fit!
The PA said that she is so thin that her body cannot tolerate much in the way of anesthesia; and since she is not prone to drunkenness or recreational drugs, she is not as able to handle narcotics. So, the morphine, which is necessary to handle the pain, causes the nausea. We have decided that we evidently need to go out drinking and clubbing every couple of weeks, just for preventive health care!
This has slowed things a fair bit. She has not been able to eat anything except jello, and that didn't, er, stay. They warned us that she is going to wake up tomorrow convinced that something is very wrong, because the pain is going to be huge. However, in 50% of patients, they rapidly improve and by lunch time or so feel up to going home. That is certainly our prayer!
Other adventures? How about a nurse giving a heparin injection in her stomach to prevent clots, only to realize as she finished that the needle had separated from the syringe, so an unknown amount of medicine spilled onto her bed. Should we give more? How much? Unreal.
This was an important day, and a very good day overall. We are thankful for all God's mercy today, and pray that it soon fades into the rear-view mirror of our lives.... Thanks.
Tony
The PA said that she is so thin that her body cannot tolerate much in the way of anesthesia; and since she is not prone to drunkenness or recreational drugs, she is not as able to handle narcotics. So, the morphine, which is necessary to handle the pain, causes the nausea. We have decided that we evidently need to go out drinking and clubbing every couple of weeks, just for preventive health care!
This has slowed things a fair bit. She has not been able to eat anything except jello, and that didn't, er, stay. They warned us that she is going to wake up tomorrow convinced that something is very wrong, because the pain is going to be huge. However, in 50% of patients, they rapidly improve and by lunch time or so feel up to going home. That is certainly our prayer!
Other adventures? How about a nurse giving a heparin injection in her stomach to prevent clots, only to realize as she finished that the needle had separated from the syringe, so an unknown amount of medicine spilled onto her bed. Should we give more? How much? Unreal.
This was an important day, and a very good day overall. We are thankful for all God's mercy today, and pray that it soon fades into the rear-view mirror of our lives.... Thanks.
Tony
Chest tubes suck....
....the fluid out of your chest, but they sure do hurt! What that obviously means is that Dee Dee is out of surgery, and is now in her room (3303).
Lots of praises today! The surgeon was able to remove the entire node, which he felt might actually have been more of the thymus gland than node, so he also removed a portion of the thymus (Not sure yet if there are any implications long-term from this). He was able to do the surgery with the least invasive type of surgery, just two incisions and no rib spreading. There were no "roots" or attachments from the tumor to surrounding tissue. He said that it did not look like carcinoid at all, and in fact looked like it would prove to be benign and unrelated to the stomach cancer. ALL GREAT ANSWERS TO MANY PRAYERS - THANK YOU ALL!
They did leave in a chest tube, to drain any blood or other fluids from her chest. It will stay in at least until tomorrow morning. It does cause a fair amount of pain, because as the PA said, "You have nice pink healthy lungs, with no room in your chest for things like a tube." A combination of the tube and the surgery are currently causing a fair amount of pain. She felt much better during the 1-2 hours after the surgery, until all the anesthesia wore off. She bottomed out from the pain at about 1:00 p.m. They have her on high doses of Toradol (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) and morphine, whaich have started to help. They continue to hope that she will be discharged tomorrow, but Wednesday is a possibility.
Last night was a great time to pray together as a family, then individually with each child. Micah, who has not shown tremendous emotions with this thing up until now, could not stop crying; when the dam broke for that little 6-year-old heart, it broke hard. Josiah was the only one who seemed to have no fear, and acted like this was just a big adventure. Even though we left at 5:00 a.m., all the others got up with us this morning to kiss Mom good-bye. A sweet time for us! Thank you all for lifting my kids up as well.
It will take about a week to get the pathology report from the tumor today. After that, we will have an appointment with the digestive oncologist at Duke to decide on how to treat the stomach. If the pathology report is negative, which again is what the surgeon today thinks it will be, then we can probably go with the surveillance approach for the stomach. Our God is amazing! As the coach of the football team in the current movie "Facing the Giants" asks his team near the end of the movie, "What can't our God do?!"
Folks, what can't our God do?
Tony
Lots of praises today! The surgeon was able to remove the entire node, which he felt might actually have been more of the thymus gland than node, so he also removed a portion of the thymus (Not sure yet if there are any implications long-term from this). He was able to do the surgery with the least invasive type of surgery, just two incisions and no rib spreading. There were no "roots" or attachments from the tumor to surrounding tissue. He said that it did not look like carcinoid at all, and in fact looked like it would prove to be benign and unrelated to the stomach cancer. ALL GREAT ANSWERS TO MANY PRAYERS - THANK YOU ALL!
They did leave in a chest tube, to drain any blood or other fluids from her chest. It will stay in at least until tomorrow morning. It does cause a fair amount of pain, because as the PA said, "You have nice pink healthy lungs, with no room in your chest for things like a tube." A combination of the tube and the surgery are currently causing a fair amount of pain. She felt much better during the 1-2 hours after the surgery, until all the anesthesia wore off. She bottomed out from the pain at about 1:00 p.m. They have her on high doses of Toradol (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) and morphine, whaich have started to help. They continue to hope that she will be discharged tomorrow, but Wednesday is a possibility.
Last night was a great time to pray together as a family, then individually with each child. Micah, who has not shown tremendous emotions with this thing up until now, could not stop crying; when the dam broke for that little 6-year-old heart, it broke hard. Josiah was the only one who seemed to have no fear, and acted like this was just a big adventure. Even though we left at 5:00 a.m., all the others got up with us this morning to kiss Mom good-bye. A sweet time for us! Thank you all for lifting my kids up as well.
It will take about a week to get the pathology report from the tumor today. After that, we will have an appointment with the digestive oncologist at Duke to decide on how to treat the stomach. If the pathology report is negative, which again is what the surgeon today thinks it will be, then we can probably go with the surveillance approach for the stomach. Our God is amazing! As the coach of the football team in the current movie "Facing the Giants" asks his team near the end of the movie, "What can't our God do?!"
Folks, what can't our God do?
Tony
Sunday, October 29, 2006
"Twas the night before....
Hey everybody! Tomorrow is the big day, and it is with mixed emotions that it approaches. We are eager to have the surgery behind us, eager to have the lymph node out, eager to finally know the opponent we face... we are not looking forward to pain, to the hospital stay, to the finally knowing our opponent.
The surgery is scheduled for 7:00 a.m., and we have to be at the hospital at 5:30. It is a blessing to have the first surgical procedure of the day, for several reasons. It means less waiting time, where our minds drift "to the dark side," as my friend Dave put it. It means less likelihood of getting delayed, or even postponed. It increases the probability that Dee Dee will go home on Tuesday, just because it gives her a few more hours of recovery that day. The doctors say this surgery has a hospital stay of 1-3 days, but they believe that her excellent health and fitness will help her leave quickly. She cannot leave until the chest tube stops draining fluid, and until her pain is manageable by oral meds instead of IV meds.
The surgery is called a VATS procedure; a good web site is http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/diagnostics/thoracic/thoracic.shtml
Pray for the surgeons and anesthetists and nurses and PAs. Pray that the surgeon (D'Amico) is able to visualize the node, that it has no roots growing into surrounding tissue, and that it is small enough to remove without spreading ribs. Pray that her left lung re-inflates properly and quickly; and that her chest stops draining fluid quickly as well. Pray that her pain is minimal, and that they can do this with two incisions instead of three. Pray that the incisions heal well, with minimal scars.
Pray for us relationally as well. As the hour approaches, our tension has built, and neither of us is real friendly right now. There are short fuses in the Clark home, including the kiddos!
Many have offered help with logistics for home and children. Thank you! We are blown away by the outpouring of love and encouragement. One of the nice perks of living where you grew up is that we have family staying in the house while we are in the hospital, and after, so the child care is covered. Thanks to all who are helping taxi children to their classes and events. For meals, a great young lady at church has volunteered to coordinate this aspect. Her name is Christy Neal, and her phone # is 363-5441; email is nealcw@hotmail.com.
We cannot express our thankfulness and gratitude to you all. More, we cannot adequately express our thanks to God. We thank Him for being perfectly good, perfectly just, perfectly powerful, perfectly faithful. We thank Him for being a perfect Father. We thank Him for perfect mercy and grace. We thank Him for being Savior and God and King and Daddy!
One of our favorite worship groups to listen to is Indelible Grace. They take old hymns and make them new, and my favorite is "Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right" and some of its lyrics are:
1. Whate’er my God ordains is right
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
4. What'er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father's care
Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all.
And then, from one that our worship team chose to sing this morning, I suspect because someone wanted to see me cry and blubber so much that Micah was worried about his Daddy, "I Need Thee Every Hour":
2. I need Thee every hour,
in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide,
or life is vain
I need Thee every hour,
teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill
(chorus) I need Thee, O I need Thee;
I need Thee every hour;
I need you Lord, O bless me now,
My Savior, I come to Thee.
We pray that He will teach us His will, and that we would truly leave it all to Him.
Thank you everyone, and I'll update tomorrow as I am able.
Tony
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