Surgery Day July 23, 2009

This morning we woke up before 4 am. We talked for a while about the day ahead, and managed to throw the covers off and get up by 4:30. Plenty of time to water some flowers, take a double cleansing shower and gather some crosswords to take and head for Methodist Hospital. Pastor and friend Don Portwood and Dr. and friend Pam Paulsen soon joined us at the hospital and were with us most of the day. Their support this day was critical for me!
The operation took 5 or 6 hours!
It was more complicated than the gyno-oncologist expected, because of the involvement of the omentum, but he said that the outcome was optimal (which I think means that they did as much as they could and were successful in doing it.)Doctor Argenta removed the cancerous parts of the omentum, the ovaries and a small section of bowel. The good bowel was stitched back together. There are little rice grain-sized bits of cancer scattered about which could not be removed, but those are small enough to respond well to chemo, so she will start chemo once she recovers from surgery.The best news is that Joyce did not have cancer in the liver or kidneys.Joyce will be in the Methodist Hospital over the weekend at least. Tonight she was kind of awake, but very tired, but not in pain, so I hope she gets lots of rest tonight. If you do come to visit this weekend, please think about what she has been through and keep the visits short. You can call my cell phone number to check on how she is doing. That number is 612-616-3724. You can also leave messages on the blog, or Joyce’s email.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers.
Doug