Elizabeth is recovering nicely

After 5 and a half hours of surgery, our little Princess is doing quite well. She looks the best post-op that she ever has, in spite of the amount of work that was done. No puffiness at all!

That was the good news.

And with good, usually there is not-so-good.

Everyone had expected a single nodal mass. Best case, it would be simple with no vessel involvement. Worst case, it would involve removing tumor that had encapsulated blood vessels that supply the small bowel. Well, it was even more involved than that.

Dr. Stein (the most incredible surgeon on the face of the planet) removed a large mass of what appears to be many involved lypmh nodes that had clumped together. This mass also involved the small bowel blood supply and appears to have started involving a portion of the small bowel itself. A foot section of small bowel was removed along with another about 2 inch section further down the tract. Everything in the tract was reconnected and Elizabeth will be going about 4 to 5 days before she can start on water to give it all a chance to heal. Oh, and that nasty NG tube will have to stay for at least that long, too. She's not thrilled, but she still looks good and is plenty well enough to be throwing around plenty of Princess-attitude, so we know she'll be fine for now.

As Dr. Marcio (our continued favorite oncologist on the face of the planet) explained while Elizabeth was still in surgery, we can start on some new combo-chemo treatments consisting of lower dosing on a more frequent schedule once Elizabeth has recovered. Hey, does anyone out there have a cure for cancer? (yes, that was a rhetorical question... *lol*)

Reality is that we are probably looking at less curative treatments and more maintenance treatments at this point. However, as we are continually reminded by our friends and family, miracles do happen. We'd like to assure all of you that we are doing everything in our power to facilitate that miracle as much as possible! If any of you have any personal experience (or even anecdotal) with an agent that slowed lymphatic progression, please post the name of the drug(s) and/or therapies in a comment here. We will be investigating any leads... *grin*

Please keep Elizabeth (and us!) in your prayers.

I hear from Dad that Elizabeth has had her first dose of pain medication at around 4am (she had not been on anything other than an anesthetic at the surgical site called "On-Q"--great stuff) and has been resting soundly ever since (it's about 9am now). Dad and Elizabeth had an agreement that he could stay with her the first night only if Mom could stay the rest of the time. Originally the hospital stay was going to be about 5 days, but now we are definitely looking at about 2 weeks. Mmmmm, hospital food... well, Elizabeth won't be forced to look at any of it for at least a week anyway while her digestive tract re-connections heal.

Thanks for checking in and take care.

Thank you Angel Janet and Angel Pat and Angel Barbara for your special notes and cards and presents. Princess Elizabeth is truly blessed to get mail from her "special angels who spoil her" (as she calls you), and her desk drawer is nearly overflowing with all the special cards she has received from you ladies and all the other special angels she has been blessed to receive so much from. We have rarely had three consecutive days without the Princess receiving some correspondence in the mail, and she really does light up when she finds an envelope addressed to her...