There's No Place Like Home

After 8 days away from the girls and home, we made it back to Austin today. It has been a really hard recovery, but gets a little better everyday. As you read from Eric's update, my surgeons said the resection was a huge success. Dr. Almeda called this morning to give me the path results that we had been waiting on. The tumor had not invaded my lymph, vascular, or neural regions and they believe it is 100 percent gone. This was such a relief and also explained why I was not having any symptoms. The next step is to recover from the resection and decide whether or not to do chemo. Radiation is not necessary because there is no tumor to target. Chemo would be systemic since again there is no longer a tumor to target. Chemo would be more of a preventative measure at this point.

Dr. Almeda and Dr. Chadha, my oncologist, are undecided on how to move forward. They were very straight up with me and said they do not know of anyone with this cancer who has been able to have a successful resection and that it not have invaded other body systems. So there are no studies to say whether a follow up chemo treatment is beneficial. Dr. Almeda said, "This is a miracle." You do not hear that from the medical community very often.

We are very thankful to have this outcome but know we still have a long road ahead. I can not say enough good things about my surgeon. He was wonderful in every way: emotionally, physically, technically, etc.

Quick Update

Stacie is now out of ICU! she's in room 1279 at the University Hospital in San Antonio, TX.

Surgery Success!

after what was probably the longest, most anxiety-ridden night of our lives, Stacie and i woke up early this morning and headed to the hospital for her surgery. she went into the operating room around 8 am and was in ICU by 11:30am.

the results? the doctors are very confident that the whole tumor is out and they estimate that about 70% of her liver was removed along with her gall bladder. there were several concerns we had before the operation started (these are just a few):

• was it resectable/removable?
• was the tumor interfering with the inferior vena cava (IVC) - this would most likely result in a reconstruction of the IVC
• was the tumor blocking both bile ducts/veins/arteries - this would result in a reconstruction of any of the "pipes"
• will she lose too much blood?
• will the surgeons be able to get negative margins?

the doctor said it was an excellent surgery because it was, of course, resectable, they didn't run into any of the blocking/reconstruction issues, and she lost very little blood. all of this was EXCELLENT news. the tumor was removed with what he thought were negative margins, and we'll have confirmation of those margins after a pathology report of the tumor comes back (hopefully within 5 days). on top of this news, dr. Halff and team thought the remaining 30% of her liver looked great and they anticipate a full, quick recovery.

Stacie is in ICU now and slowly getting back into the swing of things. all of her vitals are looking good and we might be able to move to a regular room tomorrow. the doctors tell us that she should be able to go home in 5-7 days and she can't wait to get back to our "boring" life with the girls.

thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers! we're not out of the woods yet, but this appears to be a huge victory in our journey.

- eric

Surgery Plans

After visiting with both the San Antonio and Dallas transplant teams we decided to go with San Antonio. The surgery is scheduled for this Thursday and unless something changes Eric and I are headed up there Wednesday. The surgery will be somewhere between three and eight hours long. After that I will be in ICU for a couple days, then to a private room for 3-5 days. Eric will update the blog for everyone post surgery until I am able to.

I am really hopeful that they can remove all the disease with negative margins and cure me of this scary disease. I would love nothing more than to get back to our "boring" life without this huge cloud of anxiety over my head. Eric has been amazing over the past few weeks and there is no way I could have held it together without him.

San Antonio Transplant Team

We met with Dr. Halff one of the SA transplant team surgeons today. He had discussed my case with the other transplant surgeons and they are confident they can handle the surgery. However, he can not say with 100 percent certainty that the entire mass can be removed with clear margins. He did say that he would not undertake any surgery he didn't think he could do. Since it is rather complex, all three transplant surgeons would likely be attending.

We are meeting with the Baylor-Dallas transplant team tomorrow and hope to get the same answer. If they believe they can do it, we will need to decide which one to go with. It is a little weird to think about because it literally is a question of "Who do I think can save my life."

After talking with Dr. Halff it hit me that I am really going to have this major operation. I've been so caught up with testing, appointments, work and normal life that I hadn't even thought about the surgery in detail--- the large incision, long hospital stay, 8 weeks of no lifting over 10 lbs, etc.

Wish us luck tomorrow! Eric might need the most luck with me backseat driving for 4 hours. When we got back from SA today he requested that I bring magazines, books or something to keep me occupied....

The Girls

We have been getting a lot of requests for updates on the girls. They are doing wonderful! Addison is getting bigger by the day and not a day goes by that Hayden doesn't make us laugh hysterically. The girls had pictures taken this weekend and did great!

The Roller Coaster Ride Continues

The bad news...after further review the surgery is too complex for the two liver surgeons in Austin to do, so the Thursday surgery is off. They advised me that there is only one shot at this surgery and my best chance is to talk with a liver transplant center and see if they can help. It wouldn't be a transplant, but they are equipped to deal with more complex surgical cases.

The good news...Eric's Mom's neighbor is the Chair of the Department of Surgery at The UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, which just so happens to have a good liver transplant program. I spoke with one of the three transplant surgeons today and their team is going to review my scans and I will see them next week to discuss. In the next week or two we will likely fly to Arizona and discuss the resection with the Mayo Clinic's transplant team as well.

More good news...PET scan was all clear except the liver tumor.

I am finding that we truly have to take all of this one day at a time...some days even one hour at a time.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!