June 20th - Shanna goes in for an MRI on her back. She has had back pain all her life, but it has gotten really bad the past 3 months.
June 22nd - We get a call from the doctor that one of the films is showing a mass in her belly. It was blocking on of the camera angles to her spine. Doctor calls us in.
June 25th - Schedule CT Scan on stomach to get a better picture of what the mass is. Our general practitioner refers us to a surgeon friend of his.
July 9th - Talk to surgeon about the mass. It appears that it is touching her liver and he doesn't want to operate since he is not a liver expert. The mass is 17 cm in diameter. He doesn't know what it is.
Surgeon Fikkert refers us to Dr. Stephenson (a liver expert that is supposedly the best in the area if not the country). Take lab test to determine if it's cancerous.
July 13th - Found that it is not cancerous according to her blood levels.
July 25th - After numerous cancellations, reschedules, and push backs we finally get in to see Dr. S. You can only imagine our irritation in this matter and frustration that the doctors aren't in more of a hurry to see us than they are.
- Dr. S. has a med student that was about 25 years old to come in to see us first. Not impressed with him. Dr. S. was in his young 40's. Maybe later 30's. nice guy. Nicer than I expected. He says the mass is one of three different types of tumors. He believes it is benign. Wants to schedule surgery soon, but not tremendously in a hurry. Says it could rupture if hit hard enough. He is going on vacation Aug. 6th for two weeks so we have a one week window to get the surgery done. He schedules it for Monday at 11:45 am.
July 29th (night before the surgery)- 6:00 PM to be exact. Shanna is having to drink clear liquids only all day. And clean her self out laxitaitivley ( i just made that word up). We get a call for Dr. S's nurse saying that Dr. S is out of town and his flight got canceled. The surgery has been canceled and she doesn't know when it will be rescheduled. *insert cuss words, extreme screaming at the nurse, bad name calling, bad name calling, telling the nurse that Dr. S better refund my moms plane ticket for coming up here for nothing, etc, etc.*
7:00 PM Dr. S calls. Shanna answers. (side note: Shanna is a corporate travel agent and happens to have access to her work terminal from home.) Dr. S says he is stuck and can't get home. Shanna asks where he is and he tells her. Shanna says and I quote "that's bullshit". She types in some buttons and finds Dr. S a flight that leaves at 8:47 PM arriving at midnight. He says, "put me on it." she takes his cc number, and the whole time I sitting there not beliving what's going on. Flight booked. Surgeon is coming home.
8:00 Get a call from Dr. S again saying that flight has been delayed. He tells us that the surgery will be Monday or Tuesday and he is going to try his best to get in.
- Shanna decides not to eat anything still in hopes of having surgery tomorrow.
5:00 AM. Dr. S . Calls. He is on his flight and coming home. Surgery is on for 9:00 am.
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email I sent out at midnight on Monday.June 22nd - We get a call from the doctor that one of the films is showing a mass in her belly. It was blocking on of the camera angles to her spine. Doctor calls us in.
June 25th - Schedule CT Scan on stomach to get a better picture of what the mass is. Our general practitioner refers us to a surgeon friend of his.
July 9th - Talk to surgeon about the mass. It appears that it is touching her liver and he doesn't want to operate since he is not a liver expert. The mass is 17 cm in diameter. He doesn't know what it is.
Surgeon Fikkert refers us to Dr. Stephenson (a liver expert that is supposedly the best in the area if not the country). Take lab test to determine if it's cancerous.
July 13th - Found that it is not cancerous according to her blood levels.
July 25th - After numerous cancellations, reschedules, and push backs we finally get in to see Dr. S. You can only imagine our irritation in this matter and frustration that the doctors aren't in more of a hurry to see us than they are.
- Dr. S. has a med student that was about 25 years old to come in to see us first. Not impressed with him. Dr. S. was in his young 40's. Maybe later 30's. nice guy. Nicer than I expected. He says the mass is one of three different types of tumors. He believes it is benign. Wants to schedule surgery soon, but not tremendously in a hurry. Says it could rupture if hit hard enough. He is going on vacation Aug. 6th for two weeks so we have a one week window to get the surgery done. He schedules it for Monday at 11:45 am.
July 29th (night before the surgery)- 6:00 PM to be exact. Shanna is having to drink clear liquids only all day. And clean her self out laxitaitivley ( i just made that word up). We get a call for Dr. S's nurse saying that Dr. S is out of town and his flight got canceled. The surgery has been canceled and she doesn't know when it will be rescheduled. *insert cuss words, extreme screaming at the nurse, bad name calling, bad name calling, telling the nurse that Dr. S better refund my moms plane ticket for coming up here for nothing, etc, etc.*
7:00 PM Dr. S calls. Shanna answers. (side note: Shanna is a corporate travel agent and happens to have access to her work terminal from home.) Dr. S says he is stuck and can't get home. Shanna asks where he is and he tells her. Shanna says and I quote "that's bullshit". She types in some buttons and finds Dr. S a flight that leaves at 8:47 PM arriving at midnight. He says, "put me on it." she takes his cc number, and the whole time I sitting there not beliving what's going on. Flight booked. Surgeon is coming home.
8:00 Get a call from Dr. S again saying that flight has been delayed. He tells us that the surgery will be Monday or Tuesday and he is going to try his best to get in.
- Shanna decides not to eat anything still in hopes of having surgery tomorrow.
5:00 AM. Dr. S . Calls. He is on his flight and coming home. Surgery is on for 9:00 am.
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Here is an update on Shanna: She made it through surgery just fine. The mass (Alfred is what we called it) was stuck to her gal bladder. So they removed Alfred, the gal bladder, and 3 cm of her liver too. The doctor said it was a benign tumor that was pre-cancerous. Meaning that it could have turned into cancer if left in her. Thank God it was detected when it was.
Shanna is recovering in ICU tonight, and all her vitals look great. She has a great attitude about it and is just resting. They are keeping her abdomen numb with an epidural for three days to help with the pain. They say those first 3-4 days are the worst as you can imagine. So she has some aches and pains in her collar bone and chest area which are common with this surgery but all in all she is doing great!
P.S.
To add on to all the mess, Jonah was running a 102 degree fever the past 48 hours. Looks like he finally broke the fever, and he also got his first tooth in the meantime!
Wednesday Aug 1st.
Shanna is doing great. She has an epidural that is taking away most of the pain. I wish we could take it home with us and leave the hospital. May come home tomorrow.
Post-op stories to be continued...
3 comments:
that was a crazy story! and alfred? like batman's butler?
- will
KB -- Glad to hear everything worked out. I'm sure that was scary as hell. Next time shit like this happens let us know if we can help out with watching Jonah, making chicken soup, or whatever.
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