Breathe

For the first time in several days, I feel like I can really breathe. I am also feeling major "let down." My body has been in crisis mode for a week straight now and finally we have some answers and they are answers of good news!

The surgeon, Dr. Meyers, "the master," as she is termed around here did a fantastic job on Sirri's surgery yesterday evening. She was able to do the whole procedure with the scope, meaning that Sirri's recovery will be less painful and quicker. The tumor was lying on her esophagus and "attached" to the aorta. Because of the attachment, there was a lot scraping done to remove the tumor that will cause Sirri some extra pain. The tumor (see how I can use that word so frequently now??!?! Aren't you proud? I used to call it a mass, cause that sounded less scary to me!!!) ended up being the size of a small potatoe (larger than originally expected) and is a ganglioneuroplastoma. That means that the cells were, "half chocolate and half vanilla." Of course when we refer to chocolate, we are refering to healthy, non cancerous tissue. (Chocolate could never be the bad guy here.) And so then, the vanilla is canercous tissue. Because she was able to remove the whole tumor, we are NOT going to have to do chemotherapy treatement. That is a big sigh of relief! We have not received the pathology results yet, but the only thing that could change after seeing them, is whether it is probable that this type of tumor will come back or not. Again, the doctor is optimistic that will not be the case.

Sirri is in recovery now and is in quite a lot of pain, but is managing quite well. She has three spots where they used the scope, one incisision being just large enough to remove the tumor. She also has a tube coming out of her chest that is draining fluid. This tube will stay for sevarl days. The doctors have said that incisions in the chest and side like hers tend to be the most tender and painful. She is pretty sedated with morphine and that has helped her to be able to rest. We are having to get her up and moving four times a day. She made it to the bathroom and back this morning and we are proud of her.

My mom has to leave today to go on a cruise with all of her siblings and parents for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. We (especially Sirri) will miss her so much. She has been an absolute life saver. Kendon has to leave today as well to get back to work and more importantly to see the kiddos. I am certainly not ready for either of them to leave but so is life. The bonus is that my sister Cindy is coming this afetrnoon to stay through the weekend. I'm excited about that, and if Sirri coule GET excited, she would too!

We'll continue to send updates. It is kinda nice to give me something to do while Sirri sleeps.

I love you all and again, thank you for all your prayers. Please don't stop praying for us. We aren't totally out of the dark yet, but we can certainly see the light.

As always, if I've left anything out, or you are confused about anything let me know. Sometimes it is hard to write a story as you are living it!