Interesting

Dr Treptow was in a little while ago and we asked the question "how big was the existing tumor?"  His answer, "there really was no tumor, the site where the tumor was, was just like a "crater."  Which told him the chemo and radiation did shrink / eliminate the tumor.  The area they removed was the site where the tumor was originally located and they removed it to eliminate the possibility of relapse.  He said there was a good amount of "good" fat in the area surrounding the crater and the report (which should be out tomorrow) should show if there was cancer cells in the fat.  He does not anticipate that there was however.   All good news.

So we had an eventful afternoon.  Our friend Eddie's daughter Staci was transferred to our side of the floor.  :)   She came in to see us and we took Doug for his 2nd walk of the day.  He said he felt something wet.  We got him back to bed and a little while later Heather came in and Doug told her so she checked and his bag was leaking and it was going into the incision dressing.  So Heather got another nurse (Jordan) to get a 2nd opinion because the ostomy bag she had, the opening was a lot smaller.  Then Staci came in and between the 3 of them figured out the best way for it to work. So Staci and Heather went to work.  What a team I'm telling you!   Jordan cut the bag to it's biggest opening, Heather took the old one off and cleaned it with alcohol, then Heather and Staci worked the new bag into place around his temporary "stoma" and fitting the forked area into the bag.  Then Staci removed the yucky dressing and cleaned it (he has 17 staples) with alcohol and re-dressed it. All while my hubs was hanging onto the bed doing his best to stay still.  I don't know if these nurses had done this before but if they hadn't you wouldn't have known it!  Kudos ladies!

About 10 minutes later Dr Treptow came in with a machine to open up and cauterize the stoma site.  He removed the bag and Heather put this "grounding" pad with a wire hooked to it to Doug's leg. Then Dr Treptow cauterized the stoma with an instrument that plugged into a machine that electrified it.  So it smoked and sparked and stunk.  Doug said "what's that smell?"  Dr Treptow said, "oh, it's just me burning your skin."   Ok, it was funny :)   So he did tell Heather that there was a PCA (pain pump) ordered.  Doug wasn't sure now if he wanted it buy Dr T. said "you want it."   Doug has had A LOT of indigestion type burping but 2 times today he puked and I believe it was old blood.  BTW, puking hurts BAD.  After he calmed from all of this Heather was able to get him hooked up to a morphine pump.   Hopefully it will be a calmer night with this and not having to bug the nurses every time he needs pain med.

And that is where we are right now.    Jesus is the center of it all! 

Thanks for your continued prayers!

Jan