Juan's surgery on Thursday morning went very well. On Wednesday night we and a friend went out to dinner at a favorite Vietnamese restaurant and enjoyed an exceptionally tasty meal. Afterward we checked into our hotel, across the street from the hospital. Thursday started very early as we had to be at the hospital by 6am to check in. Mom and I enjoyed breakfast while Juan was in pre-op. Soon our disk pager (like those you get when waiting for a table at Olive Garden) buzzed and lit up and we were able to visit him for a few more minutes before he was taken in for surgery.
The surgery lasted around two hours and the surgeon greeted us with good news in the waiting room. The surgery itself went off without a hitch. They found no sign of even the smallest bit of metastasis anywhere in his abdominal or pelvic cavities - very promising news! The doctors chose not to look at the tumor's status with regard to the pancreas. They gave a few reasons for this:
1. The less they mess around during surgery the better - particularly to avoid blood loss.
2. Whatever they saw wouldn't change the next step in the treatment plan.
3. There is a risk they could break a piece off the tumor and create a problem that wasn't there before.
Although his apetite is diminished, Juan has been able to eat and drink mostly normally. However, because eating to fullness causes some pain, he is learning to take smaller and more frequent meals. Still, that he is eating normal food at all is encouraging.
Juan spent Thursday night in the hospital so they could make sure the pain was under control before sending him home. Mom and I stayed another night in the hotel across the street and so were able to stay late into the evening and show up early Friday morning. The second day seemed to find Juan feeling much better, though certainly still a surgery recoveree.
Late in the morning he was taken down for a MUGA (pronounced muggah) scan - something none of us had heard of, but agreed sounded like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It produces a movie of the heart so that doctors will later be able to monitor whether the chemotherapy is affecting his cardiac function. Unfortunately it involved a lot of waiting in an uncomfortable wheelchair.
Finally, around 1pm, he was released from the hospital. We've found that the easy-chair in the living room is the most comfortable and convenient place to rest. We set up a card table for books and meals and each day he seems to be feeling much better than the day before. As mentioned in the last post, he has 2-3 weeks to recover before we begin the next stage of treatment. The surgeon even suggested that "now we are working on the cure", so we all remain hopeful that we may be able to fight "the demon" (as Juan calls it).
