Surgery update - A message from Jen: Carson underwent surgery on Friday, September 5th to remove the primary tumor, as well as his adrenal gland. The tumor (after 8 rounds of chemo) was the size of a small egg (previously had been over 2x that size). I was able to go to the lab with the pathologist and see the tumor (per my request) and was surprised at how large it was. I also silently said a few choice words to it..ha ha! The surgeon also had to shave tissue off of his liver, right kidney, inferior vena cava, and removed surrounding lymph nodes as a pecautionary measure. It took about 4 hours before we were able to have our baby back in our arms. Those were some of the longest hours in our lives. The doctor said surgery went very well and Carson tolerated it well. He has a 4 inch abdominal incision with disolvable sutures layered up through the tissue layers and steri strips on the top layer of the skin. We were admitted to the peds floor and the first 16 hours Carson did a lot of snuggling and sleeping. By the second day, he was sitting up more in our laps being playful and tolerating clear liquids, formula and soft pureed food. Day 3 it seemed like Carson was pretty much back to his normal happy, busy, and playful self which was a relief to see! He was charming all of his nurses and doctors and impressing them with how quickly he was recovering and meeting his post op recovery tasks. He told the nurse bye bye and waved like he was leaving and going home after he had met his tasks of eating solid food and having a dirty diaper. His pain was well controlled by an epidural pain catheter that was placed in his lower back which infused dilaudid and bupivicaine. However, at about 4 am on the second night, the line snapped on the epidural catheter. Carson woke up and I went to get him from his crib and when I pulled back the blanket, I noticed the line was disconnected and had snapped. I quickly crimped the remaining line going into his back and the nurse had to call the anesthesiologist to come in and remove the catheter to prevent any spinal infection. A little scare...they watched closely over the next 24 hours for any signs of infection but so far there has been none. They put him on oral pain medications which are also working well. We were able to discharge from the hospital on Monday afternoon!!! We stayed in Rochester as Carson has a post chemo audiology test on Tuesday. We are still waiting for the pathology report on the tumor. Hopefully we will receive the results by Friday when we meet with his oncologists and discuss the next step. We are so grateful to God for watching over Carson and answering our prayers. We continue to pray daily for Carsons healing. He is such a little blessing and my little sunshine! Again, thank you to all of you for your love, support, and prayers. It has meant the world to us!
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:19:50 +0000
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