Biopsy #2

Well we're finally done with biopsy #2.  

When we were given the option to wait a month and do another PET scan or to do a biopsy of his chest, I easily chose the surgery and encouraged Danny to do so. It was the most definitive option and at this point we just need to know!

Sitting in the Stanford recovery room I wanted to take it all back.  This surgery was a lot more involved than we expected.

We went down to Palo Alto on Thursday after Back to School night at Lucy's school. Lydia had woken up with a high fever a few hours before. I decided to still go down to the surgery but decided to split the girls up the next day so that each baby would have all the snuggles they needed if they were sick. Katy stayed over night and took Lydia the next morning and Lindsay picked up Joyce for the morning. Katy got Lucy to school, home from school and entertained all afternoon. It worked out perfectly and I'm so grateful to these girls for helping out-it was such a relief to know they were in great hands.

 I was the only one able to sleep much that night (ever since the babies were born my body has been able to go to sleep at the drop of a hat). We woke up at 4:30 AM and reported to the Stanford surgery center in the main hospital. After checking in and getting settled in the pre-op unit Marilyn and I were able to hang out with Danny for an hour while various surgeons assistants, nurses and anesthesiologists checked in with him.

He had a flexible bronochoscopy (put a camera down his throat) and a mediastinoscopy (they made a cut in the base of his throat and took samples of lymph nodes right above his lungs).  He was put under completely for the procedure. It took about an hour and a half followed by two hours in recovery.  Marilyn, Steve and I had some breakfast and waited in the fmaily waiting room. They had a very cool color coded system that told us when he was in the OR, when they were finishing and what stage of recovery he was in.  I had my first Mr. Pibb at 8AM-I think that is a soda record for me. I never even opened my book because the time flew by chatting with Marilyn and neighbors and reading my trashy US weekly. 

 

After the surgery was completed the surgeon came out to talk to us. Before we could ask he said he couldn't tell anything by looking at the nodes. Sometimes the tissue can even look cancerous, but he said while the nodes looked a little large we'd really have to just wait and see.

After about four hours of waiting he was ready for discharge.  I was the only one allowed back to the recovery area. Danny looked horrible. His face was grey and he was still pretty out of it. Evidently he had been asking for us repeatedly but had been told he needed to be able to sit and move to a chair before he was allowed to see us. He said he moved as soon as he could. Poor guy, he should definitely have laid in bed a little longer and he realized that as I tried to get him upright and dress him.  After he was dressed the nurse hastily threw instructions at me. The recovery room was pretty grim. I've had a couple little surgeries and I remember being sectioned off in beds with curtained dividers, a chair by my bed etc. This place felt like a war zone. Beds were placed side by side with no dividers. As a caregiver walking through I saw all sorts of things I felt I shouldn't being seeing: blood bags, body parts-it was horrible.  After getting Danny to the car we knew we couldn't just make the long drive home with him. Fortunately we had a late checkout at our hotel so we took him back there to recover a bit before heading home. We stayed about three hours watching stupid movies on HBO. Danny was nauseated and in a lot of pain when he was conscious enough to be aware of it. The poor guy felt awful. It is hard to be a caregiver when you are helpless to stop the pain.

Over the weekend he was on lots of good drugs and slowly felt less nauseated when he moved around. 

The girls traded off having fevers and demanded to be held most of the time. With lots of family out of town Katy saved us. She spent the night every night, woke up with the kids in the morning and took one twin while I took the other and took care of Danny. We were surviving until Sunday night. That evening Danny started feeling really gross.  He had headaches off and on for a few days but started feeling very dizzy, more nauseated and just all together horrible. I came up to check on him later and he was really flushed with a fever of 102. He had so much acetaminophen and ibuprofen in him already I didn't know what to do...so I called Marilyn. She came over and I called the thoracic surgeon on call. After asking me tons of questions and having me take his pulse he told me to take him to the ER if he didn't improve by morning and told me how much additional Tylenol I could give him. He called me back a few times that evening (he was an angel) and told me we should go in to make sure it wasn't an infection.  Marilyn stayed with him while I got a little sleep and Katy woke up with sick babies.  I woke up each time Danny threw up and could help (he called my name when vomiting -so romantic:) After vomiting twice (imagine throwing up with a seriously sore throat and chest) Danny was begging us to take him in. 

By the time we got to the ER at 4:00 AM I was so relieved we were there. He couldn't walk or even remain upright and was hyperventilating with panic and pain.  They got him in quickly and gave him a good anti-nausea drug and awesome pain reliever through the IV, oxygen and a bag of fluid. After blood work and a chest x ray they decided he didn't have an infection and that the episode could have been from a stomach bug, constipation-any number of things.

It is so hard to watch Danny in pain. There is usually nothing I can do. I was so relieved when he started looking better, breathing better and was finally able to relax.

We got home at about 7 and Danny went to rest at his parents. Katy let me sleep for a few hours that morning and later the kids played at Grandma Marilyn's house while I checked on Danny.  Later that day we realized what had caused Danny's episode. He is on a medication that he had neglected to take since his surgery and was going through withdrawls. He had every symptom listed. He started taking his medication again and so we're hoping the nausea and fever will cease. 

We survived the weekend:) Sometimes it felt like just barely. Thank you to Katy, Marilyn and Steve for sacrificing everything for us this weekend. 

The surgeon said we should have pathology results in seven days. He had previously said 4-5 days, so I am really hoping we'll know by the end of this week or the beginning of next. It will be so nice to know...as long as its the answer we hope it is:) We'll see.