Successful Surgery

Whew, my dad had his cystectomy (bladder removal) today and the surgery went very well. I was at the hospital with Gay for over 13 hours and we're exhausted. We stopped for dinner on the way home. Sitting and waiting is so tiring. Friends and relatives came and sat with us throughout the day so we were only alone for a couple hours. I was able to read a little but it was hard to concentrate. We did lots of talking and my mouth and lips are a dried up desert.

He had blood drawn a couple weeks ago to be used during the surgery but he had so little bleeding they didn't need to use it. The surgeons were very pleased with how everything went. They saw no other cancer in the abdomen or lymph nodes. But they also took some frozen sections to analyze and we will get the results on Wednesday. The hardest part was waiting for him to come out of the Recovery Room. First they said 1/2 hour, then 1 hour. After 3 hours they came out and said he would stop breathing (apnea) occasionally, but that was nothing to worry about because it was a common reaction to the anesthetic. Two more hours later he was taken to ICU which was normal for this type of surgery. He will be in the hospital for seven days.

I'm hoping his recovery and healing go well. The doctor told us that if he has no recurrence of cancer anywhere in what's left of the urinary tract for two years then the odds are he will live many more years.

Now maybe I can concentrate on other things. I have a bunch of half-finished book reviews so I'll try to finish some of those especially The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe and What Angels Fear by C. S. Harris. I'm also trying to keep up with all the blogs. I feel so out of it and I hate being left out :) But I see Kristie has made a list. So glad I was left out of that. :) (Yes, Kristie, I did read it and loved it). Thanks for all your prayers and support.