Author: althea

Jan. 12 at 10:10 am: It’s 18 hours after her surgery, and Mom continues to do well.  She’s been sleeping lots, which is what her body needs right now.  Dad stayed with her through the night, and he said she did well.  They mostly slept amidst the hourly check-ups by the nursing staff.

This morning at 9 am Dr. Farnell and company came in to see Mom.  Dr. Farnell said the surgery went as well or better than he had hoped.  He said they were able to completely remove the tumor and that Mom’s condition is good.  They removed two lymph nodes during the surgery, and both of them came back negative for cancer.  Yay!!

They transfused three units of blood while she was in surgery, so today I’m thinking about finding a place to donate blood to help someone else.

I asked Dr. Farnell if he encountered difficulty with the collateral veins that we had heard about from Dr. Matzke.  Dr. Farnell said that he didn’t see any big collateral veins near the SMV, and apparently they weren’t an issue during surgery.  It’s really amazing that all the concerns and issues that the surgeons were concerned about haven’t proved to be problems.

The nurses came by a bit ago and said they were going to get Mom up for a walk.  Yikes!  I doubt that will be a good experience for Mom.  All on the road to making her feel better, though.

And that’s the news for now…   ~Althea

8:15 pm: Dr. Farnell just came in to talk to us.  He’s a wonderful man; perhaps my favorite person today.  He said Mom’s surgery went really well, and it was great to see that he was pleased with how it went.  Mom was very coherent and asked him several questions.  After he left, she said she felt like she could do the splits, but maybe not today:)
Dr. Farnell said that he was able to preserve the Superior Mesenteric Vein (SMV).  He said that the tumor went right up to the vein but that they were able to peel it away.  This is terrific news, because some of the CT scans Mom had looked like the tumor invaded the vein. At four centimeters in diameter, the tumor was larger than ones that Dr. Farnell normally removes.  He said it was definitely cancer.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, they found microscopic cancer cells right up to the edge of the piece they took out.  That means that there may be some microscopic cancer cells left along the SMV.
However, Dr. Farnell didn’t seem too concerned about this, and he said that follow-up chemotherapy may help.  He’s going to set Mom up with an appointment with a Mayo oncologist in the next few days.
Dr. Farnell sounded happy with the surgery.  He said he’ll be back in at 8 am tomorrow to reiterate what he said tonight in case Mom doesn’t remember it.  For now, the kids and Terry and Tom and I are heading back to the hotel to order some pizza and to sleep.  Dad will stay here at the hospital with Mom.
Thanks to everyone who has been thinking of Mom today.  At noon today there were over 100 people checking this website.  Most of the rest of the day there’s been close to 50.  It’s really amazing to know that there are that many people directing their good wishes her way.  Thanks so much, and good night!
~Althea

6:50 pm: Mom’s been in her room for about two and a half hours now.  She was thrilled to hear that they were able to remove the tumor, and she’s been drifting between consciousness and sleep.

Drugs are going to be good friends for the next week or so, and she is going to have some major recovering to do…  But it feels so good to hold her hand and to hear her talk and answer questions and then to watch her sleep.  We’re waiting to hear from Dr. Farnell sometime in the next couple hours.  At that time, we should have more details about the surgery and her expected recovery process.  Dad is going to stay on a cot in her room tonight, and we’ve worked out a schedule with family members to make sure that she will have someone with her for her whole recovery here in Rochester.  Michael and Joey are napping, Bryan and Kyle are putting together puzzles, and we’re all swapping in to sit with Mom.  The big news though, is that Andrew fell asleep and is snoozing in his car seat right now.  Hopefully he’ll stay asleep for the night (but that might be pushing my luck)!  Next update after we hear from Farnell.

4:35 pm: As we watch, mom is being wheeled down the hall and in to her room.  She’s sound asleep and looks OK.  We all
gathered in the hallway to watch her get wheeled past.  So surgery is complete, she’s out of recovery, and she must be doing pretty well as they’re already putting her in her patient room.  Wow.
The surgery is over.

Jacquie said that Dr. Farnell would come to talk to us after his surgeries are over for the day.  She estimated that at between seven and nine pm this evening.  I’ll post at that point, but for now we can say that she is safely out of surgery.  Now she has a long recovery and healing process.  Thanks so much to all who have been watching and praying for her today.  I’ve posted a few more photos of us hanging out for those who like a little visual diversion…
~Althea

3:00 pm: Jacquie, Dr. Farnell’s nurse just came in to tell us that the surgeons are done with the Whipple Procedure, and they are moving on to closing her up.  So the really complicated part is done, and the next phase, that of closing her up, is expected to take about an hour and a half.  If that is how long it takes, she should be out of surgery at about 4:30 pm.  Then she’ll be in the recovery area for about two hours.  So we may see her here in her patient room around 7 pm.

Jacquie said that they are not expecting to have to admit Mom into Intensive Care, and they said that they didn’t have to mess too much with the Superior Mesenteric Vein.  Good news, as that was going to increase her chance of the SMV clotting, plus it would have increased surgery time significantly.

Jacquie also had some updates on the report from pathology.  They said that when they looked at the outer-most covering of the removed tumor (the margins) under a microscope, they did find some cancer cells.
That means that a) the tumor probably was cancerous despite our fervent hope that it wasn’t cancer at all and b) there may be some microscopic cancer cells that they left behind. Jacquie said that this is usually the case with pancreatic tumor removal, and she said that Dr. Farnell would be able to tell us more.

So mostly really good news today. I will post again when we hear that the surgery is  complete.  Mom sounds like she’s doing well so far.
I’m so glad that they have been able to get the tumor out!

1:30 pm: We just got a phone call from Anne, our current Patient Communicator.  She said that they were working on the last anistomosis (connection between organs).  Anne didn’t have any information about what the report from pathology was, but it sounds like they are nearing completion of the Whipple Procedure.  And at this point, it’s sounding like they didn’t have to reconstruct the SMV.
Mom has been in surgery for about five hours, and she’s doing well.  Mom, we’re so proud of you!

11:35 am: Dr. Farnell’s nurse, Jacquie, just stopped in our waiting room and delivered wonderful news.

The tumor has been removed and is being reviewed by pathology.  They’re looking to determine whether there are any cancer cells at the edges (margins) of the tumor.  If so, Dr. Farnell will try to remove more tissues near where the tumor was located in order to try not to leave any stray cancer cells behind.

Jacquie said she was doing pretty well, although she has had a two transfusion units.  Two to four transfusions are average for this surgery.  Jacquie didn’t have details about whether the Superior Mesenteric Vein was involved with the tumor.  At this point, it doesn’t sound like they needed to reconstruct the vein, but then again, they haven’t received the report back from pathology yet.  So far, this is a wonderful day.

11:20 am: We just got a call in our little personal waiting area from our surgery communicator. GREAT news right now.  Mom is in surgery and doing well.  They didn’t find any spread of the disease, and they are in the process of removing the tumor.  I’m a little trembly as I’ve been pretty nervous (and I had some coffee this morning, which doesn’t help with calming my nerves).  Mom’s doing so well.  I’m really hopeful.  They’ve begun the heart of the surgery!
11:50: Despite the protests of some of our group, I continue to take photos.  You can see us as we wait in the gallery.

9:25: We’ve been moved from the general family waiting area to Mom’s patient room.  So we’ve re-settled in Patient Care Unit 2C at the Mayo Clinic Saint Marys Hospital.  People are knitting, cross-stitching, reading, drooling, and typing to pass the time.

And the sun is shining again today.

9:00 am: Louise just came to tell us that they have completed the laparoscopy, and they did NOT see any spread of the cancer.  Thank heavens!  Step one complete.  They are now going to make a small incision on her right side and feel the tumor area.  If it feels the way it looked in the CT scan, they make a bigger incision and take a look.
Louise said we’d be moved from the group waiting room to her room soon, and she thought we’d get our next update at 11 am.   I am SO relieved!