Surprise From Erin's LAX Team!

Look what a nice surprise I got from Erin's lax team:

All the girls on the lacrosse team surprised me with a big bouquet of good wishes after a lacrosse game this week.  It was a very cold afternoon so I watched them win the game from a nice warm spot in a friend's car.  Erin scored!

Many thanks for all the emails, cards, books, meals, rides and both floral and edible arrangements!! I feel surrounded by love and prayers.     

A bit of new news ...

I am getting stronger every day and relying on pain medicine less and less so that is good news.  I have been able to go on walks every day since I got home from the hospital and several were over an hour long.   Last weekend was busy with a lacrosse tournament and a track meet on Saturday for my daughters.  I went to both events, but only got a picture at the track meet.  My Mom and my runner girl, Katie, are in the picture with me.  I have NOT shrunk - we are standing on stadium steps and I am still taller than both of them!

I did get some bad news today, though, that the cancer has spread outside of the colon.  Of the 25 lymph nodes that the surgeon removed to test for cancer cells, 3 tested positive.  I don't know much more than that except that I will have to have another round of chemotherapy after I heal from the surgery.   I don't return to Duke for a followup appointment with the surgeon and my oncologist until April 10th, so I probably won't know anything more until then.

Chris Is Home.

Chris was discharged at 2:30 today, and is recovering at home.  She is doing very well.

Sorry for the delay in posting news!  Duke Hospital is extremely busy for the patient, and caregivers.  There was rarely been any down.

Done!

I just met the surgeon, and she said everything went "as perfect as she could expect".  The tumor was completely removed, with a sufficient margin.

I am waiting to be called to the recovery room.

Not much from OR...

I just got the informative update from 2:53pm: "We're still working on Chris".  I think they updated me now because we passed the 6 hour mark, and the target range was 6-8 hours.

2 out of 3 Procedures Done

The first 2 procedures, which are the prep work for the oncologist, are done.  I met with one of the surgeons, and he said the tissues surrounding the tumor look good.  The oncologist started her part at about 1PM.

Got Paged!

Don't get too excited.  The message was from the docs at 11:55:  "The procedure started at 10.  We apologize for the delay informing you".  That's it.

So they don't get that 1/2 star back, yet.