Daddy's Surgery

April 16, 2013 ~ Today is dad's surgery. Last month his was diagnosed with Stage 1 Prostrate Cancer and today they would be removing the whole prostrate thus removing his cancer. We were ready to get this over with but we were all nervous. Mom and dad had just retired in February and haven't really had a chance to really enjoy their retirement.

We all met at Boone Hospital at 11:00 AM to get dad checked in. They were pretty quick to get him back to surgery after they got his IV's in and they took him to surgery around 12:00 PM. It was an emotional time for us. We knew he was in good hands and once this surgery was over he would be cancer free but there is something about your family having surgery like this that pulls at your heart strings.

Jaxon was watching the window washers on the side of the building. He thought they were pretty cool! We finally got called back to speak with Dr. Dressner at 3:10 PM. Dad was just trying to wake up from the surgery and in about 45 minutes he would hopefully be moving up to his room. (Honestly he may be a great doctor but he was a total smart ass. As long as my dad receives great care then I could care less but he could take a lesson in bedside manners) He said that dad did great and should be able to go home tomorrow.

 It was now 5:15 PM and we still haven't heard anything. I finally went over to call back to recovery and see what was going on. They are getting ready to move him to his room and he didn't want to wake up from the surgery. (Makes you so nervous when they tell you it might be 45 minutes and 2 hours later you finally hear something) Ashley had to take Jaxon home as he missed his nap and was getting cranky. Mom and I went up to his room to wait for him. Once they got him there he was really hurting. He said it felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach several times. He wasn't going to take any pain meds (my dad is pretty tough) but we told him he would need them for the next couple of days at least because he had a major surgery.  They gave him some water and 2 pills and because he had nothing on his stomach he just about got sick. They had to give him some meds through his IV to keep him from throwing up. (When dad was 2 years old he got an infection in his belly button and had to have it removed. They said they had a heck of a time getting through the mesh/scar tissue to get the machine in for surgery and this is where he was hurting the most)

Mom stayed the night with him and based on how he was doing they thought they would stay another night but he started making good progress and got to head home the next day as planned.

UPDATE:
The 7 days after surgery took a toll on dad (mom too). He didn't feel good and couldn't wait to get the catheter out as well as the 19 staples. He went to his post op appointment and they filled his bladder and there were no leaks! Woo Hoo! They took everything out and told him that they got all the cancer and he was officially cancer-free! The best news ever! Since then he has felt much better and hopefully mom and dad can get to enjoy retirement the way it's supposed to be! Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, text messages, phone calls and hugs.... means a lot to have such great friends/family! A special thanks to the team at Boone Hospital for their rock star care!