My hubby in the beginning of April. Thanks for looking!

Journaling:
Matt (Dad) had surgery
Wednesday, April 1, 2009. He had been seeing a doctor about a half a year with a bloating feeling. At first the doctors thought it was the lining in his stomach (that it was too thick). After being on different medicine for months, and none that took care of the problem, they referred him to a surgeon. The surgeon wanted to do an upper GI (scope) to go into the stomach to check for several different things (ulcer, hiatal hernia, tumor and to take a sample for bacteria). They found a small tumor while doing the scope but said that it was not causing the bloating feeling. They took a small biopsy and that came back benign, but they would need to go deeper - sometimes cancer can be deeper in the tissue. He then had an ultrasound done to check his gallbladder. The ultrasound came back good; there were some polyps on his gallbladder but no gallstones or blockage. They then did a HIDA Scan to check to see how much the gallbladder was working . They said if it was under 40% then they would take the gallbladder, it came back 25%. We set up a date to take out the gallbladder and the tumor at the same time, hopefully that they could do both laparoscopic. He went into surgery at 9:00 am and they came out around 11:00 to tell us that they had the gallbladder out in 25 minutes and that went well but they were trying to reach the tumor. The tumor was inside his stomach but on the back side. They could scrape some of the tumor but not get deep enough with the scope for the pathologist to determine if it was cancerous further down. Around noon they came out as said that they couldnt get deep enough and that they would have to cut him open to get at it. Finally around 1:15 pm he was finished with surgery. They said that the tumor was a growth of pancreatic cells and benign. He came out of surgery in a lot of pain and on a tun of machines. Oxygen, IVs, machines that constantly check the vital signs, and a pump to constantly pump his stomach (to keep it from expanding and ripping the staples). There were a total of 6 incisions. The girls came with Grandma LaRae and brought balloons. The balloons had little Easter bunnies for weight but they wanted them. LaRinda felt so bad that she took the bunny so she drew Dad a picture of it for him to hang on the wall! They were a little disturbed by the tubes but would stand by the bed and hold his hand. He was able to remove most of the machines on Thursday morning except the pump and IVs. The only thing he was allowed to eat or drink was a spoon full of ice chips (enough to just wet his mouth and throat). He was in quite a bit of pain but wouldnt take any pain killers because morphine would mess him up (breathing fast and sweating) and the other one could only be given by a shot. Because he was in a lot of pain, he wasnt doing his deep breathing and started to develop pneumonia. He got on top of that and by Saturday afternoon his stomach was making enough noise and he was able to pass gas so the tube could come out! Yay! He could start with drinking clear liquids and jello . Food never tasted so wonderful!! Sunday he could move on to chicken broth and toast. On Monday he was discharged from the hospital.


Credits:
Composure by Amanda Taylor at CatScrap