Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Recovery Mode

I can't thank everyone enough for their thoughts and prayers yesterday. The outpouring of love and support for our family is truly overwhelming and so humbling. To our Birmingham "family"--thank you for the visits, the sustenance, the checking in--the list could go and on. We feel like we have an army of people taking care of us. And, to our friends and family farther away, thank you for the love and support we feel through the calls, texts and emails.

The surgery went great ("perfect" was the word the surgeon used!). They only made one incision which is amazing. They used the robotic arm to get 25-30 biopsies of the mass--a big chunk, said the surgeon (see, "chunk" is a medical term). They also drained the pleural fluid and left a chest tube in to continue to let the fluid drain. They drained two liters in the operating room and about 300 mL have drained since he came out of surgery. The doctors were also able to move the tumor a little bit away from the heart and then move the lung back in place.

Parrish is in a good bit of pain today--from the chest tube and just from the surgery itself. To be expected, of course. But he is resting now. He did crack a joke this morning which was the first one in a couple days. So, I am hoping that is a sign that things are moving in the right direction!

There really isn't anything to report as far as the biopsies go. The pathology should be back late tomorrow or Friday. So we won't have any specific diagnosis until then. For now, Parrish is just working on recovering from surgery.

Thank you again to everyone--we couldn't imagine going through this without all of you!

Love,
Molly



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