I slept until she woke me at 5:00 to get up and ready in case they came to get him at 6:00. He was still mostly asleep that whole time… Dad got here a few minutes before 6:00 and Melissa had overslept a little and ran here at 6:30 to see him before he went in (poor Buffy not getting her morning walk). And then of course, he didn’t even get taken in right away. Probably after 7:00 they finally came for him.
We each said goodbye and good luck and we’d see him in a couple hours. Not quite as tearful as the first time. We’d all done this before (unfortunately) and we knew he could it again.
Mom, Dad, Melissa and I went to the Gray Family Waiting Area and got a seat. Melissa left shortly after to go home and shower and put the poor dog out to pee. I called Dan, who I hadn’t heard from all day Thursday and was worried he didn’t know Jeff was going into surgery. I got a hold of him and as it turns out he had left his phone at Gillette.
Mom had a tough time for a while because they wouldn’t let her wait with him pre-op like they did last time. But after about a half hour, I got her motivated and we went to get our stuff then went to Melissa’s to shower and change.
We spent a couple hours at Melissa’s, cleaning up and checking some email. Made the morning pass by faster, and made us feel like real people again. I was saying to them that its amazing how a shower can trick you into thinking that you’re rested and fresh, ready for the day.
We went back and met up with Dad. Susan and Joe came by after an appointment Joe had, and then they left to run errands and bring back lunch. Janet stopped in to say hello… and we met Dr. Dahl (Allen’s surgeon for his prostate surgery). Mostly Melissa and I sat at the front of the room and worked on a 1000 piece puzzle we had no chance of finishing.
Dan called around 1:00 to see if we had any updates. I said no, but I’d call and let him know. He said he’d head over soon to meet up with us. No sooner did I hang up than Curry walked into the waiting room with a smile.
Jeff was out of surgery and awake, talking and doing just great on his neuro-functioning exams. He was much more confident that they’d removed everything this time. What they found was actually a hemangioblastoma, which is a tumor of blood vessels. It was hard to find at first, but once he found it, he was very sure he’d gotten it all. They would still do an MRI to check however. They would also need to do a full body CT scan to see if there are any other hemangioblastomas in his body. There is a disease called VHL, which is a genetic disease, in which the body doesn’t have the gene to stop these tumors from forming. If present, they tumors can present in numerous places in the body and thus they need to scan to be sure. Dr. Curry said he thought this was unlikely since neither Mom nor Dad had been diagnosed, but it was still something to consider. One more new obstacle to consider, but at least he’d made it through the surgery well and he was ok.
Around 1:30 Dan showed up; he’d gotten out of work early. We told him that next time he needs to call early because somehow he’s always associated with that moment that Curry walks through the door. Susan and Joe came back shortly after with bags of stuff for lunch. We went back up the waiting room on Blake 12. Mom and Dad went into see Jeff, and then Melissa and I went. He looked much more swollen than he did the first time around. Kim said that was normal because he’d spent so much time face down in surgery the past 3 days and that the swelling would go down. The left side of his top lip is all fat too because of the tube that was there. {Kim said they got into it in the elevator… I told her that was ok. He needs a good punch in the face sometimes J}. He was really sore and they wanted him to rest, so we left him alone.
Came out and ate lunch. Janet stopped up with information and articles about VHL and we started reading up on that. We won’t know until we get the CT scan of him, and genetic testing on us to determine if he/we have this, but in looking through the family history it seems like many of the kidney and other tumor issues may in fact be related to this disease.
I took a nap around 3:00 on the same couch as the day before. Dan sat and played games on the computer and Mom and Dad hung out, probably checking in on Jeff. Melissa went home for a while to put out the dog.
When I woke up Dad was in with Jeff, and Mom wanted to go to the gift shop to shop, and get away for a little bit. We bought Susan a big lime green hat in memory of the crazy lady! Mom also bought a raincoat and leash/collar for Buffy since Jeff and Melissa kept talking about wanting to get her one. She bought me a new alphabet stamp set they had.
When we got back I came in to relieve Dad for awhile- he’d been sitting in with Jeff for a couple hours. I stayed in the room until almost 9:00 when Melissa came to take my place. Mostly he slept the whole time, except to get some ice or rinse his mouth out. Dan came in to check on me and see Jeff around 7:00. Pretty surprising because hospitals freak him out, but he did actually stick around for a few minutes.
I came out at 9:00 hoping that Mom was ready to go home and we could get her to leave and get a good night’s sleep. She wasn’t ready yet… Terri and Doug were still there just visiting, so we talked with them for a while. Then Mom wanted to wait for Susan to arrive. Around 10:00 Susan showed up, all geared up for the night. She’d been joking with my Dad that she’d bring her sexiest nightgown for their night together…. And she wouldn’t disappoint. She stopped at Marshall’s on the way in and got a sexy off-white teddy and also a pair of pj pants and a tank top with lips all over them that say “Kiss Me!” It was a riot!! She was laughing so hard she smashed her head on the door! Oh, and she loved the hat!
Finally around 10:30 we got out of there. We drove the van to Gillette to pick up Dan’s truck and we headed our separate ways. I got home and just crashed. My own bed felt soo good.
No comments:
Post a Comment