Surgery is very successful!

Here is our first posting after surgery. Everything went well. We started late because the hospital lost the insurance authorization but the surgery itself only took about 3 hours. Dr. Perry and his team of doctors are so experienced at this surgery, that each one worked on her in a different area. They did everything just like I told you earlier in another blog that they would do. They cut her esophagus off at her lower neckline. They cut about 1/3 of her upper stomach off and eliminated that part of her body. They tested all of her margins and did not find any cancer in the remaining esophagus and stomach. They also took out all surrounding lymph nodes and found no cancer in them. Dr. Perry was impressed with how much good the radiation and chemo had done and how little scarring had occurred. They took the remaining 2/3 of her stomach and attached it to her remaining esophagus and stapled it together. Her new esophagus/stomach will act as both soon.

Dr. Perry and his assistant told me that there were absolutely no complications and everything went as smoothly as possible. Louise is in good shape and her vitals were strong through the whole operation. They have left her in kind of a sorry state right now. I am sitting with her in the intensive care room. She has a respirator in her mouth. They have kept her sedated the whole time so she doesn't even know what you know about what happened. They have lowered the sedation a few times because her blood pressure is too low. Each time she wakes up a little. She opens her eyes and nods or shakes her head to communicate. But she is really out of it. I'm not sure she will remember much right now. They really want to take her off the respirator in the morning and wake her up but they will have to test her then to see if she can breathe on her own by then. She could be on it longer. She has every drain tube and feeding tube that you can even believe coming out of her. She might have to stay in ICU for several days and it would be good for her not to have any visitors until she is out and has some abilities to communicate. I will make many posts to this blog and will keep you as up to date as I can. i will not be leaving her side much for at least a week. She still has a real tough road to endure especially in the next few days. But she is certainly a fighter and she will win this fight also.

Thank you all for your prayers and fasting. The Lord has recognized your faith and has answered all of our prayers. Keep them coming to help her make it through this tough recovery. And as you do, please thank Him for the blessings he has bestowed on Louise and all of her family.

Love, Spence