LIFE
If you are a regular reader of mine then you know about the last few days and my wifes surgery and issues.
And once you are better and being discharged from the hospital they don't mind telling you the full story.
On Monday the wife had a surgery for an injection in her left vocal cord to help get her voice back. It worked. Her voice was pretty much gone because of a tumor in her left side of her neck.
The surgery was schedueled for 1PM. And was 45 minutes long. After a few delays she was rolled in at 1:45 meaning she would be done for 2:30. With one hour recovery, ready to go home at 3:30. I was also told I could go in to recovery and wait for her.
Well, this all went out the window. From the information we where told that once she was awakened her lungs would not support her breathing. Her oxygen levels would not stay up on their own. They had to 'bag her' on the table. Just like you see on TV, with the face mask and the the big air bubble with someone squezing it.
As I sat in the waiting room watching the time pass I wondered what was going on. There was another lady waiting for someone else. She called in to find out what the delay was. She was told there was a
'situation' and thing where delayed. Something happened to one person and all staff had to attend to that person. Just before that the doctor that did my wife surgery came out and told me the surgery went fine, all is good, just a little trouble waking up. So I never gave much thought about the situation. Just figured that was the delay.
I fell asleep sitting up. 5:30pm i was awakened by a nurse who started to explain things to me. They had done their 3rd oxygen blood test, where then take blood from the vein in the wrist. If it came back better then the wife goes on ventilator. If it does not they will have to incubate her with a tube. I clued in that my wife was the situation.
Off to ICU she went. And as I learned you do not go to ICU as a percausion. It is because you could die if you are not intensivily cared for.
But my wife is a trooper. Tuesday morning she could breath on her own and her oxygen levels stayed up.
I got a call about 2pm to come and get her. I did and I brought her home.
Through it all they also did a CT scan of her head. She needed one for the upcoming radiation treatment of the tumor in her neck but that is not why the doctor ordered it. The wife told him about a lump on her head and the doctor wanted to check it out.
It turns out that it is cancer spread to her scalp.
"Scalp metastases refer to cancer the started in another organ and then the cancer spread to other parts of the body, including the scalp. Less than 2 % of patients that are known to have metastatic cancer will experience scalp metastases."
We where talking last night, and what we realied is that not very many people live to almost 10 years with their cancer. As it keeps spreading as cancer does, it is bound to show up in places most people don't have a chance for it to show up at.
At first it seemed odd for her to be the 2 percent. But then the fact that she has lived long enough with cancer to be in that 2 percent is something.
BBH
Update for you tommorow. I did not expect to wirte so much about my wife and here last couple of days. It just flowed out of me this morning.
ALIVE AND THRVING
BBH, INLEO, and WEAREALIVE are Alive and Thriving.
Bradley