April 30, 2005
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Leif will definitely have surgery around 10 o'clock Monday morning...
the procedure is expected to take about 4-6 hours... We have a family
meeting with his surgeon tomorrow afternoon to discuss all details of the surgery...
He is in good spirits and feeling better than he has for a while. He has been given permission to eat real food again since surgery will not take place for a couple of days. They continue to administer units of blood and are monitoring is hemoglobin count.
He has had several visitors, medical staff, family and friends stop by to see him today... and he enjoyed some quality grandpa time with his youngest grandson Joshua (age 3 months).
Posted by Jenn at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2005
Friday, April 29, 2005
Leif had an appointment for an endoscope and colonoscopy this morning. He has been experiencing a lot of acid reflux-type chest pain which has gotten worse lately and the procedure this morning was to find out what's going on. WELL... when he got to the hospital his blood pressure was very low, they could not register his temperature and his hemoglobin count was 6 (should be closer to 13.5 for a guy his age)... so they admitted him right away because that indicates that he was bleeding... from someplace... the inital thought was a bleeding ulcer or his colon... After administering a couple units of blood the medical staff conducted the scopes late this afternoon.
Leif has stomach cancer.
A malignancy was found where the esophagus and the stomach meet. That's also what's causing the bleeding... which they are trying to get under control... they've given him 4 units of blood today... his hemoglobin count is still lower than it should be... but it is improving... they will operate to remove the upper portion of his stomach and his lower esophagus... good news - it doesn't appear that the cancer has spread anywhere... according to a CAT scan his liver and spleen are ok which is the direction this type of cancer has a tendency to spread... they will know more once they get in there... they have discussed removing some surrounding lymph nodes as a precaution... other good news - he will never have acid reflux again because they will cut the nerve that produces the acid causing him problems... and he will probably also lose some weight as a result...
They plan to operate Monday if the bleeding stabilizes and his hemoglobin count increases... there is only a skeleton crew at the Muscatine hospital over the weekend... so they would prefer to wait until they are fully-staffed Monday... but they will take him sooner if the bleeding continues to be a problem... he's probably been bleeding for a while... but it was all the prep stuff he had to do for his colonoscopy that made it an apparent problem... crazy. They did remove one polyp during the coloscopy but it was benign and there were no other concerns from that test.
Send positive thoughts his direction...
Posted by Jenn at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)