It's Sunday Night, and We Wanna Go Home!

Ray didn't get much sleep last night because some several members of his roommate's family were on the other side of the room calling friends and other members of the family to let them know the good news: that Mr. See was expecting a set of lungs as soon as the weather cleared enough to fly the lungs to UVA. Today, though, for most of the day, only Mrs. See was there still waiting the arrival of the precious gift. Then, just after lunch, the anesthesiologist appeared to explain to the Sees what to expect, including the fact that our doctor, David Jones, would not be doing Mr. See's surgry after all, but rather that it would be done by a woman doctor who had come to UVA from another transplant team at another college; that they would replace the right lung first and then the left; that the surgery would take 10 to 12 hours; and other details intended to remove some of the fear of the unknown for the family. Then Mrs. See started helping her husband prep for his surgery, and around 3:30, a whole herd of people streamed through the door to reassure Mr. and Mrs. See that their support system was at hand. At 4:00 PM, Mr. See and his entourage disappeared down the hall toward the Operating Room. The Sees still need our thoghts and prayers. so please join Ray and me in sending positive energy to this couple. I will try to find out tomorrow how things went for the Sees.

Ray had a pretty good day today in spite of being tired,and was delighted that most of the tubes and wires attached to him in one manner or another, were finally removed. Now the only tube left is the chest tube which is draining fluid from the chest cavity where the upper lobe of the left lung was removed, and that tube will probably be removed tomorrow.

He's been eating good, and he sat up in a chair most of the day, and wandered around the halls of 4 West one time. Tomorrow we'll have to walk some more, because--instead of coming straight home from the hospital, we've decided to bring him over to the hotel where I'm staying where we'll stay one more night. This is a recommendation made by a friend who had to return to the hospital after arriving home when a complication arose. We still don't know when he'll be released from the hospital.

OK, that's it for tonight. I forgot to mention that I'm pretty tired, too. More tomorrow.

Later the Same Night

Late this afternoon, a man--with his family in tow--showed up to share Ray's room. He's supposed to be getting a two-lung transplant tonight. The nurses said it was the last bed available in the cardiac/lung wing. The nurse who came in to draw blood said she would be praying for "a perfect match". Sounds to me like a good thing to do. His name is Ron See and his wife's name is Kay. You've done so good for Ray and me, let's see what we can do for Mr. See, eh what! Thanks so much for the gift of your caring and love.

Ray is in a Room

When I went downstairs at the motel this morning, I was told that it would take 30-45 minutes to get a taxi. Probably because there was at least an inch of snow on the ground and it was steady coming down. A couple (the wife had had a heart catherization yesterday!!!) were checking out at the same time, planning to drive to Smith Mountain Lake (down the windy, mountainous I81 near Blacksburg!!) so they offered to drop me off at the hospital. I took them up on their offer to bring me to the hospital, and for their generosity, told them they were crazy to be driving to Smith Mountain Lake in this weather. The wife said, yeah, that's what their son told her. (Just what I need: somebody else to worry about.)

When I got to the PACU, Ray had had a "bath" and was feeling pretty good. He said they had taken him off the pain pump, and soon, he hurt so bad, he said I was right, that he SHOULD take the pain meds BEFORE the pain got bad, so he called for some. He also said he had tried to get up during the night by himself to use the urinal, and soon discovered that this was not a very good idea, just as I had told him. So, I said, is there any chance that you might start--sometime soon--paying attention to what I tell you. He said he would, but it sounded to me like he had stuck out his hand, palm-side down, and wriggled it from side to side. I assume you know what that means!

He was moved from the PACU to a room on 4 West about 11:30 AM. First order of business? Find the channel with a basketball/football/soccer game. Everything was then in order.

I'm not going to post his room number, because we're not going to be here long enough to receive cards or flowers, and phone calls are problematic because he's in a double room. No roommmate yet, but he may have one soon.

The biggest problem we have now is that I'm coming down with a cold, and I'm frantic to NOT give HIM a cold! What the hell can you do about a fledgling cold? I'm already taking about 500 mg of zinc and would take more if I had it. The nurse gave me a mask to wear, and I'm washing my hands frequently. Please put a big prayer for NO COLD on your list.

Some of you have mentioned that you weren't able to post a comment. Apparently you need a gmail account or one of the other communication items in the profile list. OR, click on Ray's picture, then click on the Mail link on the left and send him an email message.

OK, that's it for now. I probablY won't post again tonight unless something really exciting happens, but please send email though the mail link, and I'll be sure he sees it before I leave tonight. Thanks for keeping up with us. It means so much to us.

Today was a GOOD Day!!!

After talking to Dr. Jones last night after Ray's surgery, Ken and I sat around for a couple of hours waiting to hear that he was out of recovery, then went on over to 4 West where he was supposed to be taken. They gave us the number of his room and told us we could wait in a patients' day room at the end of the hall until they brought him in and got him settled. An hour later, we were still waiting, so I went to the nurses' station and was informed that he wasn't going to be brought to 4 West after all, that they were going to keep him in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) overnight. So we scurried over to the PACU and the nurse said she was keeping him sedated because he was very restless, but she woke him up to see us. He seemed to recognize us, but he was high as a kite, so we bid him goodnight and returned to our motel because Ken was leaving at 4 AM to drive to Dulles to catch a flight to the West Coast.

After a mostly sleepless night, I returned to the PACU about 8 AM, and there was the patient, sitting up in a chair with a gap-toothed grin. He harrassed me the entire day; that is, he had a really fun day. No pain to speak of, and by the time I left tonight, many of the tubes he'd been tethered to earlier in the day had been removed. He still has a drainage tube in his chest and heart leads attached here and there, and he's not moving very fast, but he's actually using his pain pump, and is in good spirits. He's still in the PACU, not because he needs to be, but because there's no bed available for him on 4 West.

I don't know where he'll be in the morning when I go back to the hospital, IF I get back to the hospital. It's supposed to start snowing tonight, so it depends on whether I can get a taxi to take me over to the hospital in the morning.

So anyway, the thoughts and prayers are still working, so please keep them coming. We're not quite home free. Much love and many thanks, Kay

8:15 PM & Surgery is Over

Dr. Jones just stopped by the waiting room to tell Ken and me that everything went well. He was able to remove the upper lobe of the left lung thorascopically (that's with the three little holes) instead of having to make a major incision. This is good news, of course, because Ray will recover so much more rapidly.

We left home this morning at 8 AM, planning for 1 PM surgery that didn't start until 5:15 PM, so I'm just about exhausted, so I'm going to stop with this short posting.

Ken and I will stay here until they bring Ray to his room, then we'll go on back to the Red Roof Inn, because Ken has to leave agt 4 AM tomorrow morning to catch his plane back to the West Coast.

Will post more late tomorrow. Love and gratitude to all, Kay

Ray taken to OR at 4:15 PM

Looks like it's going to be a very long day!

Boy, Am I Dumb!

It's currently 12:50 PM, and they haven't even called Ray up to pre-op yet. So don't expect a post on results until late.

Surgery Tomorrow @ 1 PM

Ray has to be at the UVA Hospital in Charlottesville, VA, at 11 AM tomorrow (Thursday, Jan 28). His surgery is scheduled for 1 PM, but may be later, of course, and will last 2 or 3 hours unless some complication causes it to last longer.

Ken, our oldest son from Pacific Grove, CA, has been in DC since Monday evening, and is on his way to Fredericksburg from Dulles Airport right now (Wed, Jan 27, 3:20 PM), so at least we'll be able to have a nice dinner and visit with him, and sleep in our own bed tonight before we go over to Charlottesville in the morning. Ken will stay with me tomorrow and overnight in Charlottesville.

OK, that's it for now. Will be posting again tomorrow evening after the surgery. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers and notes and calls. I can't tell you how much they mean to us! Kay

Next Post Will Be Late on Wednesday, Jan 27

The next big event is lung surgery at UVA on Thursday, Jan 28, but we won't know the time of the surgery until late Wednesday, Jan 27.

If the surgery is in the morning on Thursday, Jan 28, we'll go to Charlottesville Wednesday afternoon, Jan 27, and stay overnight at the Red Roof Inn near the University Hospital.

If the surgery is in the afternoon on Thursday, Jan 28, we'll drive over to Charlottesville that morning, check Kay into the Red Roof Inn, and go directly to the hospital to check Ray in for his surgery.

As soon as we get the information on Wednesday afternoon, Jan 27, about the time of surgery, I'll post to this blog.

Till then, thank you for all the responses we've received from the earlier post today, and check back here in late afternoon on Wednesday, Jan 27 for the next news event.

Our love and gratitude to all of you. Kay

Good News on Colonoscopy

Ray had his colonoscopy at 12:55 PM today, and everything is OK! I can't tell you how relieved we are. This means, of course, that the cancer really is confined to the upper lobe of the left lung, and we'll be going over to Charlottesville for that surgery on Thursday, Jan 28, one week from today.

Our oldest son, Ken, from Pacific Grove, CA, will be in DC that week on business, so he'll be driving over to Charlottesville to keep me company through the surgery, and our middle son, Andy, from Virginia Beach, will be coming over to stay with me over the weekend.

Jamie, our youngest son, in Portland, OR, won't be with us, but not from want of being there. He really, really wants to be there! But he spent a week with us in Florida when Ray had prostate surgery several years ago (and I don't know how we would have managed without him then because my knees were so bad I could hardly walk), but this time, it's his brothers' turn to look after the old folks.

As I said before, keep those thoughts and prayers coming! They really are working!

A Loooooong Day in Charlottesville

We went over to Charlottesville Monday afternoon so we could check out where we had to go for Ray’s 8 AM appointment on Tuesday with Dr. David Jones, the UVA surgeon, who—we hoped—would remove his lung cancer.

What we discovered was that a lot of walking is required (not one of MY strengths), but that--if we got to the West Complex early enough, we might be able to find a parking place. So we got up at 6:30 AM on Thursday and were at the West Complex by 7 AM, and there were parking spaces. We then found a cafeteria in the building and I ate some breakfast. Ray decided to keep going with his “mini-fast”, eating nothing until lunchtime (which turned out to be a major mistake). Then we made our way up to the 4^th floor.

Dr. Jones’ male nurse, named Andy (a good sign), took Ray’s vital signs, then a really nice young new doctor, Paris Butler by name, took Ray’s history. Then Dr. Jones appeared and told Ray that, if a breathing test and stress test came back OK, he would give us a date for surgery.

So, off Ray went for his breath test. After the breath test, which had been scheduled for 9:30 AM, we returned to Dr. Jones’ office where we learned that Ray has very good breathing function, so Dr. Jones will remove the upper lobe of Ray’s left lung on Thursday, Jan 28. He will be in the University Hospital for 4-6 days, and if there are no cancer cells in nearby lymph nodes, that will be the end of it. Except, of course, for periodic return checkups. We won’t know the TIME of the surgery until the afternoon of Jan 27.

After we got the word about the surgery, we learned that Dr. Jones’ secretary had also scheduled a stress test for 11:30 AM, so we went over to the Cardiac Center at the hospital. We were there long enough to make friends with some of the other relatives of folks getting stress tests, and one lady asked Ray’s name and said she would put him on her prayer list.

By the time the stress test was over, about 3 PM, Ray—who, remember, had chosen not to eat breakfast—was starving. As was I, who HAD eaten breakfast. So we went to the eating area, and shot our healthy foods efforts by snarfing down a cheeseburger AND French fries. And it was SOOOOOO good! The next two hours were spent pre-registering for the upcoming surgery. We finally started home a little after 5 PM. To say that we were tired when we got home is an understatement.

Ray’s PET scan from the middle of December had also showed what Dr. Jones calls “a hot spot” at the “caput cecum” in the lower right abdomen, so Ray will also have a colonoscopy on Jan 21 to see what’s going on there. Dr. Jones said that these are frequently false positives and he wasn’t really concerned about it. Let’s hope!

OK, that’s it for now. Next post will probably be after Jan 21^st. Every day, in every way, we’re getting better and better and it’s all thanks to your good thoughts and prayers, so keep ‘em coming!

Some Good News, Finally!

We just got the results back from the CT scans Ray had of his head, abdomen and pelvis last Thursday. They show NO cancer anywhere else in his body! So ... we are changing course and have asked Dr. Paquette to refer us to a surgeon at UVA, in Charlottesville, VA, who operated on a friend of ours 3 years ago, who is still cancer free. Ray now has an appointment to see the UVA surgeon at 8 AM on Tuesday, Jan 12. We'll get back to you after that.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers, and keep them coming. They must be working!

Kay