Yaaaay!!!! Surgery went great today!

Jill heeded our pre-surgery advice to not to go towards the light!

She had the trifecta of surgeries…and while she didn’t win any money she did get rave reviews from her 3 surgeons.  It was a very formal affair so luckily Jill bought us these lovely tuxedo shirts!

Dr. Hawkins did the liver resection and ablation part first.  He only focussed on the left lobe.  The goal is to clean the left lobe of tumors.  He cut out 4 and did ablation on the 3 that he couldn’t remove.  The plan is to do a portal embolism to grow the left lobe in a future surgery and eventually remove the right side. Picture left and right field here…right side sucks!

The second portion of the surgery was the colon resection to remove the primary tumor.  Dr. Wise took out a section of her sigmoid colon and reattached it.  He said it went great and it was a little less invasive than he thought it would be because there was a little extra space to reconnect it.  He also removed all of the lymph nodes from that area.  There should be no long term issues with this because of the placement in the colon.

The final part was a full hysterectomy as a preventative measure.  There were some polyps the OBGYN surgeon Dr. Haegemen was worried about.  With the family history they believed this was necessary.  Jill of course asked for her uterus to take home in a glass jar to parade around with as a conversation piece…shockingly this is not allowed!  Anyway, Dr. Haegeman was kind enough to take photos…you can all expect these photos to be used in Jill’s Christmas cards this year!  Thanks Dr!

There was a high risk for bleeding with the first two surgeries.  Both doctors said she didn’t lose any blood which was great news!

In true dramatic Jill fashion…there’s always a backstory.   Usually one that starts with a face that looks like this….

So, the one fortunate side effect of chemo was that she hasn’t had periods.  About an hour before surgery she managed to squeeze one last one in! The nursing staff were all very impressed…as was Panther Dan! We got rather “tickeled” with the granny panties and giant pad they gave her.  It had wings and looked like it had been used in at least one commercial flying  Becky Queen of Carpets over the Arch!  You remember Becky…

Anyway, she’s in a step down ICU now and she’s in a lot of pain.  They had to up her pain meds around midnight and give her. muscle relaxers because she was having bad spasms.  It’s going to be a long few days but she’s hanging tough.  They want her sleeping as much as possible so we’re asking to hold off on visits for now.

On a funny ending note, her saline bag spontaneously popped open at 1 am and started spraying everything in sight…mostly me but on her arm too.  The nurse said she has never seen that happen before…I’m thanking Jeff Carriere for that one!

Keep sending prayers and good vibes her way.

Mahalo!!