Day 131, Year 8: Patsy’s Surgery
Date: Thursday March 14, 2013
Weather: Beautiful Day; Windy and on the Cool Side
Location: MUSC Hospital and Comfort Inn, Charleston, SC
I have to report that Patsy’s surgery today didn’t go as we had hoped, but she came through it like a champ. Although we have to wait a week for the biopsy report on the lymph nodes that were removed, the doctors feel certain that she is now cancer-free. And that is the important thing. The reason for the disappointment was that they had to revert to traditional open surgery when the robotic method proved too dangerous in her case. They went in robotically but found that adhesions from a 50+ year ago gall bladder surgery were causing difficulties so they needed to go in and check things out. ‘Traditionally’ means they had to make a much longer incision and that means a longer hospital stay and a longer recovery time. That’s the downside. But the upside is that the cancerous uterus is removed and recovery can now begin. Patsy was visibly disappointed, but after some rest and food and the reassurances that all is well, I know she will be just fine.
It was a long day for all of us and we got back to the hotel after midnight. Patsy’s daughter Jennifer is staying here at the hotel, but Joe stayed in the room with Patsy tonight. Patsy’s minister, Randy, drove down from Little River this afternoon and stayed until Patsy was in her room and he could visit with her. I know that meant a lot to her and we all enjoyed spending the afternoon talking to Randy. Tomorrow we will make decisions about how long we are staying here. I’ll stop for now and continue tomorrow because it is definitely time for a little rest.
