Surgery Day - 2:30 pm

Dad is out of surgery.  The nurse who gave us the news last said that it would be at least a couple more hours so when the floor nurses came to show us Dad's room, Mom, Evan and I went to drop off some of our stuff.  Well, of course, the doctor comes to tell us Dad is out of surgery.  We were pretty frustrated that the doctor wouldn't wait for us and that the nurse in the waiting area refused to let us see the doctor after we came back.  After all, it was the MDA nurses that took us away from the waiting room!!! 

Anyway, Dr. Swiffer---as I like to call him---actually his name is Dr. Swisher (the surgeon), came and talked to Kim and let her know some details of the surgery.  He said everything went well.  There weren't any visible signs of cancer seen at all.  They took about 1/3 of his esophagus and about 1/5 of his stomach (as planned).  They will do testing on the removed tissue to see if there is any cancer present in them.  

Right now, Dad is in recovery.  We haven't been able to see him.  They are waiting until he wakes up before anyone can go see him.  They said it could take a couple hours and since Dad likes his sleep, I don't doubt that will be the case!  Dad did have an issue with the epidural that he was given, but since we weren't here, we don't know the details of that other than they are going to redo the epidural.  This will help with his pain management as it will numb him from the upper chest down to his stomach.  So, hopefully that new epidural will work for him!

They will have him up and moving today or early tomorrow.  He won't receive anything via his feeding tube or by mouth for 3 days and so will receive nutrition solely through his IV for those days.  We don't know how long he will be in the hospital... they said some have left in less than a week and others have stayed more than two weeks.  10-14 days is the norm.  Dad will have drainage tubes put in and those will probably be in for a week.  Also, he will have a tube going up his nose to keep his stomach decompressed so there's no leakage.  I hope it comes out quickly as Dad has been saying he is worried about the discomfort of that particular tube.

Nurses said that they will be coming in hourly for at least the first couple of days to check his vitals and his breathing... so he may not get that much rest after all. 

We are all so anxious to see him.  Dad said he thinks he might get the wrong idea when he wakes up and sees his entire family circled around him!!!  :)

I will post more later after we see how he is doing physically and have a better idea of how he is handling his pain.  Thank you all for your prayers and love.... we are feeling it... BIG TIME.