Recovery Day 14

2 weeks ago he was in the LONGEST surgery! 

Thank you for the prayers! Today has been fabulous! He has movement! Everything is working again!

He got the tube out this morning! He started back on a liquid diet!

He had a shower! And we went to the observation floor again!

He also admitted he has overdone a little bit the past two days. He walked like 9 times yesterday for a total of 2.67 miles. So we are taking things a little easier today!

Pray he continues on a successful recovery and release with no setbacks. 

Recovery Day 13

Thirteen Days! He's doing AMAZING! Over 2 miles walked yesterday. Amy and Alan enjoyed the Observation Floor and the Astros win!

Today Keith came and hung out during the morning, while I got the house back in order and went to H‑E‑B. Before I got here, Alan had already walked 1.34 miles over 6 walks. We have walked twice more, including a lengthy visit to the Observation Floor. We had a great view of the NRG! 

The big news of the day is that at 9 am, he started a gravity test on the NG Tube. A gravity test is where they disconnect him from the suction for 4 hours. And then for an hour, they connect him back to suction to see how much is removed from his stomach. The goal was to have less than 200 ml suctioned out. He passed! He only had 50! But we still haven't seen much out of the end of the bowels. So Dr. Ylu (Classy) and we agreed to keep the NG tube overnight. We would rather not have to redo it again! So he is back on ice chips now and waiting for movement!

Before I leave for the night, we will walk at least once more, maybe twice! Pray for everything to move along and for more progress tomorrow!

- Mel

Recovery Day 12

So not going to hide anything. Today sucked. We are struggling. Both of us. The waiting game is hard. The body has its own schedule and it doesn't match what we wanted or expected. 

Early on we were told that the average stay is 10-11 days. But they always plan for at least 14 days inpatient. Alan told me his goal was 9, and I admonished him that his goal is whenever is best. Dr. Wise One told us the other day that his patients have the longest stays of any surgery.

Alan is struggling with nothing happening. I am struggling with nothing happening. We are struggling with it being the finals of band season and him being in the hospital and not at competitions. 

So tonight I FaceTimed Alan and his sister, Amy, from UIL Area Finals, which I raced to from the hospital. 

We are trying to focus on the positives. While that has been hard today, here are my positives. I successfully changed the colostomy bag!!! We went to the observation floor again today! And then when I could tell he was really not good, we went outside! He will have walked over 2 miles today! And some really good buddies texted and called to encourage him! 

So while I would give the day a C overall, we can always find bright spots. We just have to look!

And Go Astros and Go Aggies!

- Mel

Recovery Day 11

Thankful God is with us. This setback could have happened after Alan was released. We could have been rushing him down to the MDA ER. But God. His timing is perfect. He allowed this valley to occur the night before release was suppose to happen!

This morning at around 3:30 Alan had the NG tube placed again. It was definitely the right call. The amount it immediately and has continued to suction out of his stomach explains all of vomiting and nausea. 

All the doctors have concluded that his bowels and stomach all decided to shut back down. They said Psych! Given the trauma they have been subjected to, I can't really blame them. Dr. Wise One, Dr. You, and their teams have all reassured us that this is common for HIPEC patients. So we will keep walking to wake up his GI tract! 

By 3:30 he's done almost a mile around the floor today. I expect it will be close to a mile and half by the end of the day. 

There isn't much else to update. We are just playing a waiting game for his organs to stop playing games! They need to wake up and work. No estimated time of departure from this place until he is back off the NG Tube. 

Prayer Needs:

• Competition for girls and TWHS Band tomorrow
• Patience
• GI Tract to work and stop playing games
• Wisdom for doctors

- Mel

Recovery Day 10

Alright so today has not been what we planned. And trust me it has totally gotten to me. I am mad. He was suppose to come home! I am tired. There is a reason I don't work in town! I am sad. My girls haven't seen their dad other than FaceTime since 10/16! I am angry. Cancer sucks and even after it's gone the effects still stay!

Alan has continued to be nauseated all day. He hasn't vomited since before 7 am. But he is on 3 different anti-nausea meds to try and control it. If he vomits again, they will place the NG tube back in. So yay, prayers are working for 9 hours now. 

Take that back. He just vomited at 4:10 as I was writing this. 

I HATE CANCER!

Both Dr. Wise One and Dr. Big Sis stopped by. Dr. F reassured us that this is not a stomach bug but quite normal for Shake N Bake patients. He believes in 12 to 36 hours Alan will be better. Dr. Big Sis defers to Dr. Wise One's insight on HIPEC. He also said that his patients have the longest stays because of this very thing. The recovery is not a straight vertical line like most surgeries. It has a lot of hills and valleys. We have hit the first valley. 

Lord, please stop the nausea and heal my husband so he can come home!

- Mel

The Setback

The setback. He was bound to have one right? I mean he can't just fly the coup today like we were planning yesterday. Yep, you read that right. When Dr. F came by with the fabulous pathology report, he told us he was going to cut us loose today. 

Funny how quickly things can change. Which is why I didn't share that tidbit until we were walking out of the hospital. I've learned with this SuperUnicorn, that things and plans can change on a dime. 

Last night after having some gas trouble in the early evening. Alan battled nausea and then at 2 am began vomiting. They did X-Rays and said that Dr. F would make the call on what to do this morning. So at 4:30 I left to make sure I got here before any doctors came by. 

One of Dr. Big Sis's fellows came by close to 6:30, not long after he threw up massively again. She hadn't seen the X-Ray but was concerned since they had moved him to nothing by mouth again overnight. She said the last drain would come out today! Yay! But that she would coordinate on his troubles with Dr. Wise One's team. 

With 5 minutes, Dr. Classy, one of Wise One's fellows, stopped by. She said the X-Ray showed no obstruction and his white cell count was elevated slightly yesterday. She is hoping he just somehow caught the 24 hr stomach bug that is "going around." The plan is to monitor him and if it gets worse then they will put the NG Tube back in. He does not want that. He would do anything to avoid it. 

So we need some prayers. Prayers for whatever is plaguing his GI System to go away! Prayers for NO NG tube replacement. Prayers for no more setbacks. Prayers for his heart as he was ready to come home. Prayers for patience. Prayers for wisdom for the team, specially Dr. Wise One (Fournier), Dr. Classy (Ylu), Dr. Bubbly (Dana) and Dr. Big Sis (You) and her team. Everyone else had cleared him to be discharged today. So prayers for their wisdom on when that is now realistic. 

Thank you all for walking this journey. 

- Mel

Pathology Report

What a mighty God we serve! What a mighty, mighty God! 

Of the 13 areas that were taken in surgery, 1 was Mooney with active present cancer. To quote Dr. Wise One, "which would have killed you." Pathology showed that it had been altered by immunotherapy and still had cancer. Thank God for Dr. Big Sis and Dr. Wise One operating. 

4 other areas that they removed while suspicious had no evidence of cancer ever having been present. Huge praise!!

The 8 remaining areas all had evidence of previous cancer. BUT currently there was none! So while we only ever saw 3 tumors on the scans, at some point there were 3 times that amount of tumors. It appears immunotherapy worked on all but Mooney! 

Additionally, all 16 lymph nodes removed were negative for cancer! All around an incredible report. 

So while Mooney was a stubborn little booger! A scalpel took care of him! And all visible signs of cancer are gone. NED - No Evidence of Disease so far with another set of tests and results coming back in 6-10 weeks!

Next steps: 

Discharge

6-10 more weeks of recovery

Follow ups next week

CTDNA Blood Test in 2-4 weeks to test for microscopic evidence of disease

CTDNA Results 4-6 weeks after test m

Regular Follow Up Scans etc

From this point forward, Dr. Dude, Dr. Big Sis and Dr. Wise One will be actively following Alan! We cannot begin to express our gratitude! While we still have a long way to go on his recovery and on adjusting to some permanent changes, he's here! Praise the Lord, he's here. 

Thank you all for your prayers! This could not be a better report! Thank you, thank you, thank you!