Hey guys, I've missed you...

[Notatourist]

Bru-

Thinking of you in this hard as heck time.

[Princess Susi]

Sending prayers your way and hoping all goes well tomorrow! May God be the surgeon's guide and your dad come out with flying colors!
I will be thinking of you all day tomorrow...
Hugs!
Susi

[Elena (aka: Bubble Lady)]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]dearest bru...i'm thinking of you now (have been thinking of you for a long time) and will be thinking good and positive thoughts for you, your dad and family tomorrow...remember, your friends here are as close as your pc and your heart...kissesssssssssss and HUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGSSSSSSSSS[/font]

[DisneyMom]

As Always, wishing for Your Father's and Your Comfort and many more happier days together. :)
And,Lots of strength and not so much stress.

[February]

Hey everybody,

I apologize it's taken so long to get you an update. As you can imagine the past three days have been a blur. But I had several moments of near panic during the surgery- which went on much longer than expected- where I had to physically get out of the hospital- I sat in the courtyard- where the sun was shining and thought about all of your kind messages over the weeks since this has all started and even though you weren't physically present, you all brought me comfort and for that I sincerly thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Surgery ended up lasting nine hours.

Then the surgeon had to go into a meeting immediately and they didn't tell us so two hours after that when we were told I should come see my father in recovery- we had not been briefed by the doctor and had to wait another hour before he came back to talk to us- though I did appreciate that he did that at all his day was monsterously long.

Dad's blood loss turned out to be minimal- but the surgery was as extensive as imaginable. They did a total laryngectomy with 'selective bilateral neck dissection' I will leave out the details for the squeamish but suffice it to say it's as hideous as it sounds.

They also had to take his thyroid but we were warned this might happen.

The biggest shock to me was that they insisted they were going to put him into a 'regular' room on the surgical floor and not ICU. I tried to argue the point with the surgeon but I don't know if he isn't high enough up the food chain or what- but I ended up staying all night at dad's bedside because the nurses were only coming in every hour and the man was so whacked out between the anesthesia and the morphine that he couldn't even hold onto the button for his morphine drip let alone hit the call button if he'd needed to! It was insane. I cannot imagine that they would have left him alone but I'll tell you this much, if I hadn't been right there he would've yanked his NG tube out at least twice. And with it being sewn in, that would have been BAD.

The nurses were so sweet they brought me a reclining chair and blankets but it was freezing in his room and I was already feeling sick with some of my normal non-contageous health issues- but I managed to get a half an hour sleep here and there while he was completely conked out after they finally listened to me and restrained his hands so he couldn't accidently pull anything out. He relaxed after the restraints were on and managed to get a little sleep even though they were waking him up every hour.

This, it seems now, was the honeymoon period.

I came home Saturday morning around 10- dead on my feet- and went straight to bed. Slept for 10 hours, husband fed me, then back to sleep. My brother stayed at the hospital Saturday from the time I left until yesterday morning- but is now at the dentist getting an emergency root canal apparently.

Meanwhile, I woke up sick and with a fever yesterday morning and have a full blown respiratory something. There is no way I can expose my dad to this (the nurses concur) which is really hard because he keeps asking for me. I told them to put the phone to his ear and I explained to him that my daughter and I are both sick and that I can't be exposed to him right now but he is complaining that he's in pain and that he has numbness in his face and arm. That can happen, I understand, from nerve damage during the surgery and may or may not be permanent.

So right now I am frustrated by my own limitations and also the knowledge that no matter what we do right now he's going to be in pain.

My husband has volunteered to go see him right after work (no small thing- it's a long haul :( he isn't sick with whatever this is so hopefully he can go in and see what needs to be tended to to make dad as comfortable as possible.

I'm really beginning to worry, though, that he may have lost some more cognitive functioning through all of this- since end of July he has been child-like and easily confused at times...I'm beginning to wonder what kind of outcome we're really going to have.

So that's the update. But you all would've been amazed. The girl who cries like a baby at Wall-E kept it together the entire time at the hospital- and managed to keep from passing out as well.

keep the good thoughts coming please...and thanks again for all your support.

xoxo
Bru

[Ladyfair]

Sending you major hugs and all the healing vibes I've got!

I feel for you, Bru, and I hope you can get some healing rest before you go back to the hospital. FWIW, my mom had a period like that of childlike behavior just after her surgery/beginning of chemo (she had a severe allergic reaction to the chemo and went into anaphylactic shock, code blue and all that). She came out of it and is just fine today, but it took a little while.

I don't know what else to say, but please know that you're in my thoughts and prayers.

[GaTechGal]

Bru, glad y'all have been able to get through and now are a bit further down the road to recovery. Let me give you some comfort on your Dad's cognitive abilities. It might just be the drugs. When my dad had quintuple bypass surgery he came home and had A LOT of trouble with getting his thoughts together. He couldn't pull the name Cheerios out and had other weird problems reasoning stuff out. It TOTALLY freaked my Mom out; she was really worried that he had had a stroke during surgery that no one had noticed. But it got better over time, and after about a month or 2 Dad was back to his old grumpy self. We never got an answer as to what caused it all except that it "may have been the medicine". Not sure but it sure was scary.

Relax as much as you can now gal, and get well yourself. You've been your Daddy's rock through all this, but you need to take care of yourself too.

Still sending prayers and pixies your way.

[DisneyMom]

Hey Bru-
Glad your Dad made it thru with minimal bleeding-the surgeon must have been VERY careful, thus the long surgical time. I'm sure he'll gradually improve and they'll be able to adjust his meds to give him better relief-I'm assuming the Morphine drip is given at a baseline level as well as on demand.
Once again, your Father is lucky to have you around. :)
Hope you feel better soon, too.

[Belgarion42]

Bru,

I'm glad your Dad came through the surgery as well as he did. You are still in our prayers, both for him, and for your health.

[Notatourist]

Bru-

Been thinking about you all weekend. HEAL! Then, help Dad heal..ok?