SURGERY - Date set for next round

Patti and I met with my cardiothoracic surgeon yesterday. He felt that I was doing well and that I looked well. We talked about the next surgery and he decided that Monday, March 9th would be the date he will go after the tumors in my left lung. So that is the plan now, less than two weeks away. I cannot even begin to explain the emotions that come up when I think of going through this again. With God's help, all is possible.

During our conversation with the surgeon yesterday, I learned some things about this first surgery that I did not know. Of course, he tells me that he had this conversation with me while I was in the hospital, but I don't remember any of it, so this was all new to me.

Essentially, I lost about one third (1/3) of my right lung during the operation. The largest tumor, the one he reported was about the size of a baseball, had progressed beyond lung tissue and was invading the area in my chest called the mediastinum. This is the area between the two lungs where the heart, large blood vessels, wind pipe, esophagus (food passage), thymus (a gland), lymph glands and such hang out. The doc reported that the tumor had invaded the thymus gland and the phrenic nerve (goes to the diaphragm) so those were removed as well as the tumor and any lung tissue that appeared to have disease in it. No wonder it hurts to take a deep breath now.

In my last posting, I included a picture of some of the lung tissue that was removed, but I wasn't sure what it was. So, I'll post it again with another one showing the major resections of lung tissue from this first surgery.

















The first picture is the one I posted previously. This is the largest section removed and is the one that was invading the other structures described above and described as being about the size of a base ball. The second image, with two pieces of tissue shows what was removed from the lower lobe of my right lung. Both of these pieces contained tumor. If you click on the images, they will enlarge and you can see the rows of staples along the edge of the tissue where it was cut away from healthy tissue.

We read the pathology reports yesterday and learned that all surgical margins from this operation were clear meaning that the diseased tissue was all contained within what was removed during the surgery. A great blessing.

Thanks so much to everyone for your continued prayers. Your prayers and blessings from God are what keep us going and give us strength to face the next day. God bless you all.

Jim & Patti