Dave's Surgery Day

We're up at 5:00 AM and out of the house by 5:45 AM to go to Crawford Long (now called Emory University Hospital Midtown) for Dave's surgery. Even with everything that I've gone through the last month, I'm so happy that today is finally here and Dave will be getting his Liposarcoma removed from his left thigh. Barbara (Dave's youngest sister), Dave and I arrive at the hospital right on time at 6:30 AM and he goes in for pre-op. Dave's sister, Deborah, and his parents, Rudy & Mary Jo, arrive shortly after we do and we begin the wait.

We see Dave shortly before his surgery in pre-op and wish him well. We see the surgeon, Dr. Dave Monson and meet some more of the operating staff. Again, we've been looking forward to this date from the time he was diagnosed on July 15th, 2008 and are so relieved this day is finally here. They take Dave back to the surgery area and we head out to the waiting area.

His surgery starts right at 8:30 AM and is over by 10:00 AM. Dr. Monson speaks with me on the phone and tells me that he was very pleased with how everything went. He thinks he got good margins and there's even a layer of tissue that was spared (considering the intensive chemo and radiation Dave went through, this is very encouraging news). By 11:15 AM, Dave is in his room and we all go down to get him set up. His sister, Barbara, is an Oncology Nurse and has offered to spend the night there at the hospital. I'm grateful for this because she is so good with Dave and I know that if the PT tells her he needs to do something, she'll make sure he gets it done. Dave's other sister, Diane, arrives from Kentucky and we're all glad to see her too. She stayed with me and the boys during Dave's first chemo round back in August, so it's kind of like we've come full circle. We're glad to have such supportive family and friends.

By 3:00 PM, the PT is there and has Dave standing up and trying to bear some weight on his leg. I'm AMAZED at what she's having him do, but Dave is a great patient and is trying his hardest. She has him doing leg lifts and gives instructions for what he should do every hour.

Soon after the PT left, Dr. Monson and his Resident arrive. They again tell us that the surgery was successful, so much so that Dr. Monson wanted to operate on the other leg (ha ha)...we need to wait for a good 5 days or so before we get the pathology report/kill ratio. Next week will be a big week for us.