Making Progress

Troy is still doing well and making good progress in the healing process. The chest tube and one other drain tube was removed today. The heart monitor was also removed. That leaves only the central IV line and of course the feeding tube. He is finally free to move around as nothing is attaching him to any machines or IV poles. He even got out of that hospital gown today!

He has been feeling quite a bit more pain since they removed the epidural yesterday. He had so much pain last night that the doctors finally agreed to give him morphine in order to help get control over it. He's doing better this morning, but we are definitely staying "on top" of the pain using several medications.

The surgeon came in and spent quite a bit of time going over the pathology reports. I don't think we could have asked for better results. No cancer in the lymph nodes and, according to Dr. Ramchandani, he removed lots of lymph nodes for biopsy. The tumor had shrunk considerably and, if I understood the medical terminology, it had shrunk to what they call pre cancer cells, meaning that the radiation and chemo killed all the cancer cells and the surgery removed the remaining tumor. Praise God!!!!!!

You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in. ~Dr. Seuss