Thursday, August 7, 2008

It's good to be home -- Lucie again

Yesterday morning at this time I was eating strawberry jello and feeling down because I thought I'd have at least another day there. I was so proud to have finally passed the fart test, but the intern said I also had to prove I could keep clear liquids and then solids down in order to get out of the hospital. Luckily for my sanity, the surgeon came around and said he couldn't see any reason I had to stay there. So after the usual hospital hurry up and wait (kaKLUNK) Jerry brought me back in the afternoon.

To sum things up briefly: as Max and Jerry have said, when the surgeon opened me up he discovered that the tumor was too wrapped around the major vein attached to the liver to take it out. He brought my case up to the Tumor Board, which agreed that what I have in my favor is that the tumor is smaller because of the chemo/radiation and localized with no metasteses, and that I am in good health otherwise. A kind of maintenance plan (Option C)with lots of checking in and a chemo regimen seems to be the best bet, at least for now. In any case, they won't do anything until I'm recovered from the surgery. I have appointments set up with the local oncologist and the surgeon in a few weeks, and of course will keep you posted.

Jerry brought the blog entries and your comments up to me every day. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the thoughts and posts. In the hospital you get pushed into thinking of yourself as a patient, and your posts reminded me that I was really a person, not just a passive recipient of professional care.

I also really appreciate Max's and Jerry's keeping the blog going for the past week and keeping everyone up to date. I'm getting a bit weepy now, just from thankfulness for their work, support, and humor.

Which brings me to my special thanks to Jerry for all those hour-and-a-half each way drives to sit with me and for his unfailing faith and patience.

Lord, it's good to be home!

3 comments:

jenny said...

it is so great to hear from you again (no offense to jerry or max, it was great to hear from them too!). i'm sure it is nice to be out of the hospital and in your own territory. hospitals get old very quickly. it sounds like even though they couldn't do the surgery, it is positive news that the tumor is smaller and hasn't metastasized. sure love you and hope for a speedy recovery.

Rob K said...

So the real question is, how many scrabble games did you two play durng his visits, and how many did you let Jerry win?

Arctic-mermaid said...

Ah welcome home! In your musical family I sure hope the brass band was playing.

So glad you recovered from the surgery so quickly and have that positive attitude back.

Yippee.