A Little Update

Hi there friends! I know some of you faithfully read my blog and don’t follow me anywhere else. So many of you were so kind to leave positive and encouraging comments on Friday when I mentioned that my Dad was having surgery on Monday. This was big step 2 on his journey to fight sarcoma cancer in his jaw.

It’s now Wednesday and the last few days have been a BLUR. They simultaneously feel like the fastest time and like we’ve lived a million years. We are home now and the short version is that my Dad is on the road to recovery.

The long version, though. It’s a whole saga!

We had lunch on Sunday together and then finished packing and left for Columbus. It’s about an hour and half drive, so not too bad. We got there and unloaded, got set up and then went for a quick walk. We ate a snacky dinner (lunch had been really late) and then played a quick round of Phase 10. We headed to bed but were all full of nervous anticipation so I don’t think any of slept well.

Our alarms went off at 4:30 so we could have my Dad at the surgery center by 5am. Thankfully it was a quick 10 minute drive and we got him all checked in and taken back to pre-op by 5:15am.

Pre-op was about 2 hours long, and they wheeled him back to surgery around 7:15am.

The James Cancer Center is top notch and the building, facility and staff cared so well for us. Our only slightly silly complaint was how tiny all the rooms were! My brother and I were crammed into this 1.5 size bench seat for a couple hours – it’s ok, we made the most of it.

After my Dad was taken back to surgery, we hung out in the waiting room for about 5 hours. We went and found a cafe for some breakfast, and we all brought books to read so the time spent waiting wasn’t too bad.

Around 11:20, the surgeon called us back for a consult. He said that everything had gone great, the surgery had been faster than expected and he was extremely optimistic about recovery and the next steps. He was SO optimistic, we were in high spirits. The surgeon even said that as soon as he woke up, he would be able to go home that very same day. That was so far out of our highest expectations we were totally in awe.

We headed back to the waiting room for about an hour and then they called us back to the post op room. And here is where things took a turn. I did not take a single photo from here on out because…it was awful. It was rough. Our expectations plummeted into the ground. My Dad could not get out of the anesthesia. I will spare the details because they are quite gruesome, but it took him 10 full hours to be on the other side of the anesthesia side effects. It was scary, it was hard, it was honestly quite a bit traumatic. We didn’t know how to help him, and even the nurses were getting worried. Meanwhile, the doctor kept saying “oh, he will able to go home in no time at all!” Listen, sir. My Dad could not even lift his head, he was struggling to breathe, he couldn’t intake any meds and much, much worse. HOW IS THIS MAN READY TO GO HOME? We had to advocate a little bit for him to be admitted for the night, and we are all so glad that we did. He was in no state to be out of the care of hospital staff, and we were in no state to take care of a critically ill patient at home.

I left the hospital around 6pm when he was sorta stable and in a room. I felt like I was in a complete daze, like I had been hit by a truck on the inside of my soul. I went for a walk and just took some deep breaths but I felt shook to the core. Exhaustion, hunger and some trauma mixed together is not fun!

We decided to take shifts with him in the hospital, so my brother took 6pm-11pm, my Mom did 11pm-3am, and I did 3am-8am. It was a LONG night. I went to bed at 7pm so I could get up at 2:30 but even then I had trouble sleeping.

I was wide awake at 2am, so I headed in to relieve my Mom. My Dad was extremely restless and having a lot of pain and trouble sleeping, but thankfully he seemed to be doing much better from the terrible anesthesia side effects. You know when the patient starts complaining, it’s actually a good sign!

I laid in the recliner and listened to a couple podcasts, an audiobook and some of the Bible app reading the Bible aloud to me. I will confess that it was the Bible app that finally put me to sleep! Lol.

Morning dawned on Columbus, Ohio and things were looking much, much better. The main goal was to be able to eat some breakfast and keep it down, and then he could be released to go home! He was making huge strides of improvement, it was such a blessing! It was right around the 24 hour mark from when surgery started that he finally started to improve.

They released him around noon. We decided to spend one more night at the Airbnb close to the hospital so we could easily take him in if something went downhill. After seeing all that had happened the day before, we all felt way more comfortable being within a few minutes of that top notch medical care.

It is so good to see him sitting up, talking, and even eating some!

I left around 5pm to drive back home because I wanted to be able to attend the big town hall meeting that Theo was leading for our school. This is one of his biggest nights of the year and I knew he was both nervous and excited, and I felt like it was important to be there for it!

I was exhausted and pretty emotional, but I am SO proud of Theo and how he has been leading this school over the past 1.5 years. It has not come easy, and I’ve seen every ounce of blood, sweat and tears that has been put into the things that were discussed at the town hall. I’m just really proud of him.

I left the town hall and literally crawled myself into bed. I was SO, SO tired. I slept for almost 10 hours and I STILL feel so wiped. I mean…10 hours of sleep is more sleep than the two nights before that combined haha.

And then we woke up this morning and have a TEN YEAR OLD in the house! Today is our Kiah’s 10th birthday!

And I’m tired.

My Dad is doing ok, but he’s still pretty miserable. Having surgery on your mouth is just not fun. We would love your prayers for all of us as we continue to figure out how to best manage his recovery and care for him well. Pray that we can all get some good sleep/rest.