Follow-up

Mom and I went into Chicago today for a follow-up visit with the surgeon. Everything looks on schedule with my recovery and they removed the stitches and steri-strips covering the incisions. Also, the pathology report came back showing that there was no additional spread of the cancer to the lymph nodes in the lungs. This is good news, but it appears the cancer spread through other means previously, as there was no cancer in multiple lymph nodes from the first surgery either.

Next week, I will make an appointment with my oncologist to take about the plan for treatment.

Strange Dream, Annoying Morning

I want to apologize to everyone who has been receiving SPAM all night from my AOL account. I dreamed last night that my car had been broken into, and then woke up to almost 200 undeliverable emails, and a big mess. Sorry that you all got dragged into it.

Thank you to those of you who let me know, and warned others.

After I clean this up, I am headed to the city for a follow up visit with my doctor. I'm assuming he'll take out the couple of stitches I have and give me the results of the pathology test (i.e. whether there was cancer in the lymph nodes). I let you know how that goes.

Steve

Back Home

Hi everyone,

I got back home to Geneva last night. I'm doing okay. I'm still pretty sore and I am coughing a lot, but it's nice to be out of the hospital. The people at Rush were great, but hospitals are never fun. Mom is staying with the me at the Howells until August 2nd. Ruby, Jonah and Kim's dog came to great me in my room last night, too!

I have a couple of follow up appointments next week with the surgeon and another doctor.
Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will feel a lot better, so I can get ready for the new school year. In the meantime, I'm working on my graduate school class (the professor kindly let me off last week) and planning to help teach a district course remotely starting on Monday.

Thank you for all the kind notes, gifts and prayers that you have all sent my way. They mean a lot.

On the Eisenhower Expressway headed out of the city. Really tired. Will post more later.

Good Morning

Good morning, everyone. I'm feeling a lot better, and this morning they removed the chest tube, which makes it a lot easier to breathe. They're hopeful that I could go home tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. It's been a painful and difficult couple of days, but the video-assisted surgery will accelerate my recovery and let me get back to treatment more quickly.

Update for today

So it is now a bit past 8:30 PM on Thursday evening and I am sitting in the ICU while Steve dozes. He is waiting to be moved to his own room and out of here bit things don't move as quickly always as one might hope:-). Steve is doing well. He spent most of today sitting up in the chair as it seemed to be more comfortable than laying down. It seems that the doctors are pleased with his progress - there is still talk that he may go home tomorrow or Saturday. My dad heads back to Maine tomorrow but my mom will stay until august 2nd to keep Steve company. I will write more when I am on the computer but wanted to let you all know that Steve is a champ! He is even planning to watch the tour de France on his iPad in the morning!! Lance Armstrong has nothing on him!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and encouragement!

Out of Surgery

Steve is out of surgery! He went in at 9:14 AM and we met with the surgeon at right around 11:30 AM. The surgery went as well as they could have possibly hoped. They were able to remove the tumor through the VATS and he is now in recovery. Amazing! 3 little slits, a camera and a blade in a tube - and the tumor, the lower left lobe of his lung and a few lymph nodes are gone. The diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer was confirmed but with the tumor gone the best potential outcomes are made possible. The doctor said Steve should be able to go home by the weekend.

Right now he is in recovery for about an hour and a half. He will then be moved to ICU through tonight just for observation. By tomorrow, Dr. Liptay said he should be up and on a normal diet...if a hospital one:-)

My Mom and Dad are very relieved and thankful - especially after the duration of the surgery the last time around - which was especially brutal on them! We're so glad that this dramatically eases the recovery for Steve! Thank you again for all of the thoughts and prayers!

J.

Update 1

This is Steve's sister Janet - I'm on update duty today. There isn't much to tell at this point but Steve went into surgery about 30 minutes ago (about 8:45 AM CST). It should last anywhere from 2 - 5 hours, depending on whether they can do the VATS or have to do the traditional surgery. Steve was his amazing, gracious, laid-back self this morning. His blood pressure was 107/72 when they took it - which is lower than mine on blood pressure meds! Before going in to have major lung surgery!

My parents and I are now hanging out in the waiting area. I can't say I'm a fan of waiting rooms but all of staff and doctors here at Rush have been great today! We won't hear anything until the surgery is done but i will try to keep you all posted as we know details.

Thanks so much for your love and care for Steve and my family!

J.

Surgery scheduled: Wedensday at 8:45 AM CDT

Hi everybody,

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks of moving, working on my graduate school class and Harry Potter movies (okay, so one of those was more fun than the others!) With my mom's help, I moved into a room that Kim and Jonah Howells have graciously made available to me in their home. I have settle in well and really appreciate their generosity. My updated address is listed to the right.

My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:45 AM CDT at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. We're hopeful that the doctor will be able to remove the tumor on the lower lobe of my left lung using the video-assisted procedures, to reduce the pain and recovery time.

I'll try to make arrangements for someone to post an update on the blog, so you will know how surgery went and how I am doing. The length of the surgery could vary widely depending on what Dr. Liptay sees when he begins the surgery. After the surgery, we should have a better idea how long I might spend in the hospital and how long until I am fully recovered.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. They mean a lot to me and my family.