VAT Thoracic Surgery - Good News!! - June 30, 2010
Trish’s surgery today went great! The nodule was an inflammatory tissue process and the surgeon was sure it was NOT MALIGNANT. Will grow culture to see if antibiotics are necessary. Now Trish can move forward in the process of getting on the liver transplant list asap!! We are all praying for you Trish!
Update From Trish - June 11, 2010
Hello All,
Once again thank you all for your prayers, gifts, e-mails, and cards. It is truly a blessing to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring people. I cannot express this enough. I heard back from the Thoracic surgeon today. I am scheduled to see the surgeon on Tuedsay June 29th, and have surgery on Wednesday June 30th. The procedure I will be having is called a VATS procedure. It is a Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery. As far as I know, they will go in through my ribs and remove the lesion or lesions with the video assisting them. This procedure will be much less invasive than a traditional thoracotomy. My hospital stay will be anywhere from 3-5 days post surgery, and I will more than likely have to have a chest tube. I was hoping we could get done sooner, but that is just part of it. I am not sure God gave me the patience that I need right now, but I am trying to make the most of the blessings at hand. Good healthcare, wonderful friends and family, and the resources to find my cancer when I did. God bless all of you.
Trish
Once again thank you all for your prayers, gifts, e-mails, and cards. It is truly a blessing to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring people. I cannot express this enough. I heard back from the Thoracic surgeon today. I am scheduled to see the surgeon on Tuedsay June 29th, and have surgery on Wednesday June 30th. The procedure I will be having is called a VATS procedure. It is a Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery. As far as I know, they will go in through my ribs and remove the lesion or lesions with the video assisting them. This procedure will be much less invasive than a traditional thoracotomy. My hospital stay will be anywhere from 3-5 days post surgery, and I will more than likely have to have a chest tube. I was hoping we could get done sooner, but that is just part of it. I am not sure God gave me the patience that I need right now, but I am trying to make the most of the blessings at hand. Good healthcare, wonderful friends and family, and the resources to find my cancer when I did. God bless all of you.
Trish
Update From Trish - June 9, 2010
Hello to all of my dear friends,
Well I had my lung biopsy yesterday. Unfortunately it was very small and in a difficult spot for them to reach. To have the best shot they had to lay me on my stomach and go through my back. The lesion was located in front of my scapula (shoulder blade) which made the procedure quite challenging. My blood pressure, which always runs low, was too low for them to give me the usual pain meds, so they gave me a mild dose of something else and a lot of local anesthesia. It was tolerable and after quite some time, and approximately 10 samples later I was done. They did puncture my lung again, but after observing me for several hours they allowed us to go home. The radiologist that did the procedure felt that the lesion had been there a long time, and did not feel it was anything. So after getting our hopes up my Pulmonary doctor phoned me this morning to let us know that the sample was inconclusive. Which means they didn't hit the lesion. The radiologist was concerned this might happen, but felt he got a sample. So now the next step will be for me to see a Thoracic surgeon, and they will do surgery to remove the lesion. They are able to make a small incision and go in with a scope with video to remove the area and get us a diagnosis. This was not the news we had hoped for today, but we must roll with the punches, get back up, and continue to fight. I will do just that. Once again thank you for all of the prayers, cards, e-mails, phone calls, and gifts that I have received. The generosity is so overwhelming to me that I don't have the words to express my gratitude. It leaves me speechless. Which most of you know if very rare for me!!!!! Once again keep the prayers coming, and I promise to be strong, and face the challenge ahead.
God Bless You All,
Trish
Well I had my lung biopsy yesterday. Unfortunately it was very small and in a difficult spot for them to reach. To have the best shot they had to lay me on my stomach and go through my back. The lesion was located in front of my scapula (shoulder blade) which made the procedure quite challenging. My blood pressure, which always runs low, was too low for them to give me the usual pain meds, so they gave me a mild dose of something else and a lot of local anesthesia. It was tolerable and after quite some time, and approximately 10 samples later I was done. They did puncture my lung again, but after observing me for several hours they allowed us to go home. The radiologist that did the procedure felt that the lesion had been there a long time, and did not feel it was anything. So after getting our hopes up my Pulmonary doctor phoned me this morning to let us know that the sample was inconclusive. Which means they didn't hit the lesion. The radiologist was concerned this might happen, but felt he got a sample. So now the next step will be for me to see a Thoracic surgeon, and they will do surgery to remove the lesion. They are able to make a small incision and go in with a scope with video to remove the area and get us a diagnosis. This was not the news we had hoped for today, but we must roll with the punches, get back up, and continue to fight. I will do just that. Once again thank you for all of the prayers, cards, e-mails, phone calls, and gifts that I have received. The generosity is so overwhelming to me that I don't have the words to express my gratitude. It leaves me speechless. Which most of you know if very rare for me!!!!! Once again keep the prayers coming, and I promise to be strong, and face the challenge ahead.
God Bless You All,
Trish
Update from Trish - June 7, 2010
I got home from Omaha yesterday, after 3 days of pre-transplant testing I was ready to come home. Everything went really well, and was much easier than I ever dreamed it would be. They were unable to get me in for my lung biopsy so I will have to return next Tuesday for that procedure. I met with the transplant surgeon yesterday, and he was wonderful. He told me if the lung nodules come back malignant we will consult Oncology, and they can go in and do a VAT procedure to remove them. The lesions are so small they cannot see them on a plain chest x-ray, but there is one that is 1 cm that they feel confident that they will be able to get a sample of it. If they are benign, and we all pray they are, I will likely go on the transplant list on Wednesday. If we don't have a liver in 3 months we will write another letter and try to get me more points to move me up on the list. He is very confident that I will do very well, and he was so reassuring I could have hugged him. He thought the actual surgery would only take about 4 hours, that is truly amazing to me. His confidence made me feel very reassured, and I know in my heart (and liver) that I am in the right place. Due to the fact that I have cancer, my points for a transplant will allow me to be higher on the list. So keep the prayers coming, and we will hope for good results from the biopsy on Tuesday.
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