NIH Day 4, part 2

Here is the TL;DR version:  the surgery is over and it went really well!!  Thank you for all your love and support!

Jane’s surgery finished around 1pm, just under 5 hours from when it started.  The attending surgeons came out to talk to me and told me they were very pleased with how the surgery went.  The tumor was large, but none of Jane’s vital organs were in the way—her colon, kidney, ureter, and large muscles along her back all cooperated so they didn’t have to be manipulated significantly.  This will help make Jane’s recovery that much easier.  Even better, the nerve on which the tumor was growing turned out not to be as important a nerve as they thought it might be.  Therefore, removing it should have no effect on walking or the nerves to her leg.  THANK GOODNESS!!  The surgeons had to extend one of the abdominal incision to remove tumor, but that is a relatively small matter.  WE ARE SO RELIEVED!!

This afternoon Jane has been awake a bit and had some pain and nausea, but the nurses are giving her medicine for both.  She’s just allowed ice and sips of water to drink tonight, but hopefully in the morning she’ll be able to try some broth and apple juice.  Jane went into surgery with one IV but woke up with FOUR—two in each arm (technically one is an arterial line, but still)—so it’s hard for her to move her arms.  She’s been asking me to scratch her nose for her quite a bit :)  Hopefully most of the lines will be removed in the morning.

Looking good!

As one of my dear friends told me this evening, now it’s Jane: 1, robot: 0
<3