Surgery

A lot has happened since the last post and all is good.  

We have received so many flowers, goodies, and prayers from all of our family and friends.  This picture isn't even the half of it.  We are so loved and so blessed.  

John had surgery Wednesday night.  We were hoping it would be between 4-5pm but they came to get him at 9:00pm.  The waiting was no fun, but it was probably for the best.  When it was over and they brought him up from recovery, he was able to sleep all night.  He did awesome.  

Before surgery. 

 While waiting for John to get out of surgery, we got a competitive game of Spoons going.  It got a little loud on the fifth floor of Baptist and we had to shut the door.  Mrs. Judy and Mr. Larry may or may not have fought over several spoons.  It was actually a nice change and we were all able to forget about everything for a few minutes.  

My mom and our babysitter have been texting me some pictures throughout the week.  Brody apparently had an explosion during nap time .   They had to give him a full bath.  He still looks cute though.  

And he is just destroying my parents' house.  

Yesterday was my 30th birthday.  I know everyone thought it wasn't a great way to spend a birthday, but all I could have asked for was John to have already had his surgery and get this process started.  Not to mention, my parents brought the boys up to the hospital.  We really have not seen them in days.  They have done great and love spending time with their grandparents, but we were all happy to be reunited.  

Mason and Mickey Mouse made me a cake, and he was very excited to bring it to me.  He started singing Happy Birthday all on his own.  Theres nothing like cake for dinner.  

The kids did great in the hospital.  John was worried what Mason would think, and it really didn't phase him.  Brody just stared at him for a good five minutes when they first got here.  We told Mason his Daddy was sick and needed medicine for a while to make him better (althought he brought him a homemade Christmas ornament to make him all better again)  

We told him at the hospital that we can't jump on him because it would hurt him.  Next thing I know, I was putting Mason on the hospital bed to take a picture and he starts freaking out saying he's gonna hurt his Daddy sitting up there.  We were able to assure him it wouldn't hurt him.  I think he was pretty comfortable about it from then on.  

It was so nice to see them.  It gets a little depressing in this hospital, so they brightened everyone up and made some extra noise.   I loved being able to tell Mason I would pick him up from school the next day.  

That means we are getting out of the hospital today!  Woo hoo!  We are actually sitting here waiting for the paperwork as I type (and John is writing work emails).  

We spoke to all three of his doctors yesterday:  

*Dr. Greenberger (urologist) said his insicion site looks good and he could go home whenever.  No heavy lifting for 4-6 weeks and no work for a week.  We will see him back in 2 weeks just to check surgery site. 

*Dr Smith (general surgeon) told us we can't place the port a cath right now.  It isn't a good idea to go under for surgery twice in one week.  Not to mention, if for some reason it caused a slight fever, they would have to remove the port a cath thinking he had some type of infection.  It's just a safer bet to wait a bit.  With Christmas coming up, it makes things a little tricky.  We probably won't be able to put the port a cath in until Tuesday, December 31st.  

*Dr. Weeks (oncologist) came in last night.  He does not have the pathology reports yet (maybe 2 more days) but discussed a chemo time line.  Again, Christmas being on a Wednesday kind of makes things a little more difficult.  He came back in this morning after thinking about it last night.  John is just in so much back pain from the mass in the abdomen that he feels (and we ALL agree) we need to get this pain under control sooner than later.  The only way to get rid of the pain is to shrink the mass with chemo.  We will now go in this Monday, December 23rd for his first dose of chemo.  We will not have the port a cath in, but can just use an IV.  He will get four doses like this and then get the port a cath.  It isn't the ideal way to do chemo, but it is safe (if not done for a long time) and will help.  We will do the traditional way with the remaining cycles.  

We are very thankful for these doctors.  We could've never imagined Monday morning when we went into the ER that we would have gotten this much accomplished by Friday (or would've ever guessed what the problem was).  They understand the amount of pain he is in and have moved so quickly to make sure he can get healthier as soon as possible.  The nurses were amazing.  Every one of them. 

We are ready to kick this thing to the curb.  We are going to spend these next couple of weeks with family and friends, but most importantly, with our two little boys.  We are going to make their Christmas just as fun as it was to be before the cancer, and we cannot wait!