Mrs Krap Update Surgery was today.

Today was one seriously long day! Started out at 2AM to get there for all of the waiting and surgery prep stuff and I pulled in the driveway at 7PM. I stayed at the Hospital until Dee was out of Surgery and in the recovery room she was going to be in the recovery room for 3-4 hours before they moved her into the ICU and is going to be out of it for at least the next 48 hours, so not much point in me being there and even for spouses access to the ICU is very restricted. Longer day for Dee even if she is unaware of it.

The surgery went actually better than expected and the Surgeon was done at the 8 hour mark and meeting with me in the confrence room about 30 minutes after that. Dee asked her to take some pictures of the tumor, the portion of the pancreas removed and her insides..... LOL Surgeon did as requested and was all eager to show me pics on her phone. Seen one split open body cavity.... you have seen them all and she didn't get quite the shock value she was expecting from me LOL. Not much difference in a hogs guts and a humans guts.

Everything went pretty much as expected with only one minor complication that the MRI and CT imaging didn't show. The Tumor was well attached to one of the big arteries that runs under and against the pancreas. She cut a section of the artery out and reconnected it back together. She wanted to be sure to remove any tissue that might have cancer cells. Everything in the reconstruction went very well and smoothly. Basically she cut tissue out, a runner took it to the lab tested for cancer cells and sent the runner back with the results guess the turn around time on testing and results was about 8 minutes, if there were cancer cells present more tissue was removed and tested and repeated until no cancer cells were found. She removed quite a bit of tissue 1/3 of the pancreas, part of the bile duct, all of the lymph nodes, a section of the small intestine and a section of artery. Then she pulled, stretched and reconstructed it all to be as functional as possible without the missing parts and pieces.

Prognosis for the recovery is good with 3-5 days in the ICU and another 4-6 days in a regular room. The surgeon believes that she got all of the cancer infested tissue. I have a lot of faith in Doctor Jester the Surgeon, she obviously knows her shit and is very good at what she does. She is is also a very blunt straight shooter and lays it all out there and answers any questions with the same straight forward tact. She was pretty clear that she did not expect any major complications in Dee's Surgery but things can and sometimes do go horribly wrong and sideways when what is really there VS what the imaging says is there don't jive. Everything went within her range of expectations.
That being said the recovery is going to be very long and Dee is going to have some major restrictions as to what she can do for the next 8-12 weeks as well as some pretty strict dietary restrictions. A lot of fragile tissue needs a long time to heal and bond together as strongly as it can.
Neither of us can see any reason for me to travel to Evansville every day to visit. And I have A LOT to do here with the Normal Daily Chores, the usual spring work and getting things ready for her return home. We have our phones and she has the laptop so communicating with calls, messages and video chat is all right there and does not involve me making a 4 hour round trip drive for a 1 hour visit. If I need to get there fast I can hop in Red and make the trip in 1 hour 15 minutes with the warp engine.

Guess they will start testing for cancer markers in her blood in a week or so and continue that testing. After she is well recovered from the surgery she will undergo 4 more cycles of Chemo with a much less aggressive cocktail than the previous chemo had. To give the best odds that any missed cancer cells are eliminated.
And that is where we are at right now and going into the immediate future. Been a damn long hard road to this point. Not a easy road for the last stretch but a lot less pot holes in it than this time last night And We can finally see the end of this road off in the distance!

 

Get well soon.

 

Prayers old boy, Glad to see yall are fighters, Bless the Miss's from us.

 

Very GOOD to hear , Sir .

Keep us informed as it allows ,
I also have been through this with my mother 30 years ago.
Now the old man is dying , and I,m a pure blood , so no go to the killing building with no jab
S

 

Caught it early enough to have a good chance at successful treatment, started treatment ASAP and after meeting with the surgeon post surgery I am VERY optimistic and hopeful going forward. Would have preferred it to have just been the gall stone blocking a bile duct and the simple surgery to remove it was supposed to be and NOT a Tumor pressing the bile duct shut. But that not a gall stone saved her life when the Gastro Surgeon went in with the scope and saw what was really going on! If not for it pinching the bile duct off and making her turn a nasty shade of yellow......... it would have been too late for successful treatment to even be on the table just a few more months down the road. Have learned since that pancreatic cancer is so deadly because by the time there are symptoms and it can be diagnosed that it simply to late stage to cure. It had just gotten into her lymph nodes and spread into the lower bile duct and intestine when it was found. Divine intervention or luck its was caught just before it would have gotten way out of control and not been treatable.

Now on the downside....... I foresee my list of Honey Do's getting a lot longer in the coming months LOL and I don't mind even a little bit!

 

My Doc was real clear on the Jabs........ "DO NOT GET THE VACCINES!" I followed his advice and caught the original and later one of the variants and it went about like he a said it would for me. A couple weeks of a bad man cold with a few days after of coughing up brown and yellow golf balls. Second round with the Variant was more like 3 days of man cold and 1 day of coughing up marbles.

 

Good news for the most ,, sure could have been worse ,, glad to hear the Doc is sounding encouraging ,, sounds like a good one . Keep us posted ,, we're pulling for you both .

 

Sorry to hear about your wife as well DR ,,, I'll keep my prayers and best wishes for you and your wife also ,,keep us posted ,,,

 

prayers sent.,..

 

Praying for all of the Monkey's with problems. Have bladder cancer that spread to lungs. Chemo and radiation has given me 18 months so far beyond the expected end with only surgery. Couldn't walk and was using a bag when they started chemo and radiation treatment after second surgery about 2 years ago.. Bag is gone and I was out cutting up pine limbs that an ice storm knocked down today. New battery for tractor and electric chain saw, but able to be out working and making plans for my greenhouse. Have had to modify my life to what I can do, pulling a chain saw is one thing that is gone. Being 85 years old and with stage 4 bladder cancer, I will take what ever the Lord and modern medicine will allow me to do.

Chemo today may not cure you if it is really wide spread, but it can give you additional years of a good quality life. It is well worth the trouble and it sounds as if they got to your wife in time to limit the damage and hopefully they can control any that is left. They do things now that weren't even a dream a few years ago.











p

 

My prayers , respect and well wishes to you as well Mr duane ,, hope you're able to cut them limbs for years to come .

It seems we have quite a few monkeys in need of thoughts and prayers ,

My thoughts and prayers with you as well Mr BT ,, and any of the others here .

 

Pray for a quick and full recovery.

 

Hang tough Duane we are all pulling for you guys .
Our prayers and good vibs for you Ms Dee and our very on BT

 

Prayers for you all. Tough to get old, but still better than the alternative.
I'm old enough now to have watched several friends, parents, and just people I knew pass from this earth. Old enough to even ponder my own mortality on occasion. It never gets easy and it never should. I just had a conversation with a loved one last week and told her to stop wasting her life. We get years, days, and minutes and need not waste any of them.
It hurts to see you guys going through this. Hang tough!

 

We're so happy that things are finally turning around for you guys. God Bless, you and Mrs. KK.

 

She'll make it just fine KK, after all, she has put up with you all these years right? Prayers still outbound for you both.

 

Glad the surgery is over and praying for a quick recovery.
Prayers for @BTPost and @alaskachick as well.

 

Glad everything went as well, or better than expected! Big hugs and prayers for Mrs Krap. You don't forget to take care of yourself, while she's laid up, or you might end up with a monkey or two there, to take care of both of you!