Aaron is doing good. He had his surgery on Thursday, called a Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection. He checked in at 10:30 am, started surgery at 12 or 12:30 (can’t remember), I received a call at 3:30ish from a nurse who said that Dr. Elmgren wanted us to know that Aaron was doing good, but it was more delicate than expected and it would be another hour, and 5:30ish Dr. Elmgren came out to talk with us.
Surgery went well, but there was an additional mass around the appendix that was not seen in the CT scan. He decided to leave the appendix and just took out the mass. He also had to sever a nerve that would cause some numbness in his right leg.
We got to see Aaron around 6:30/7:00pm and he was pretty alert and making jokes within the first few minutes. I have to admit, kind of scary looking, but same good ol’ Aaron. Seemed like a lot of tubes: epidural catheter, urinary catheter, oxygen tube, and a gastric tube. The gastric tube, which runs from the stomach and out of the nose, relieves any pressure and fluids that are produced in the stomach. This is used since his intestines are kind of “sleeping” at this point and the body is still trying to adjust. He should have it in for 2-3 days, or until his intestines begin to work.
They are really pushing for him to move around and get walking to reduce chance of blood clots and to get his body functioning properly as quickly as possible. Late last night the nurses helped him roll out of bed on one side and walk to the other side. Today, they set a goal of 4 times that he would need to walk. He walked an entire loop before the afternoon and another before dinnertime (well, my dinnertime, Aaron can’t eat yet). By the time I left around 7:30ish, I think he still had the two to go, but he was seeming a lot more interactive at that point, so hopefully he was able to do more.
Little Tidbit: "Testicular cancer usually spreads via a very predictable route through the lymph nodes upwards to the lungs, and then outward to the liver, brain, and elsewhere. The affected lymph nodes are call the "retroperitoneal lymph nodes" and they are located behind all of the major organs in the belly, basically between the kidneys and along the vena cava and aorta. […] A number of people may need this surgery after chemotherapy. The chemo may kill the cancer, but one of the things left behind, teratoma, must be removed. Teratoma is a benign tumor with a tendency to grow or degenerate back into another cancer. If the stuff left after chemo is large enough (perhaps more than 1-2cm), it is likely that the doctors will want to remove it. In a few cases it is possible that the chemo did not completely kill all the cancer. In these cases, removing the lymph nodes might also be therapeutic and cure the cancer. The RPLND involves an incision from just below your sternum to below the belly button […]. Your intestines and associated organs are literally lifted out of the way [put in a bag and onto the chest], nerves are identified and hopefully moved out of the way, and then the surgeons remove all the lymph nodes that were connected to the testicle containing the tumor." (from http://www.acor.org/TCRC/rplnd.html)
Thanks again for all of the prayers and support!
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