January 4:Postop Day2

The surgery went well. The pathology report is still pending as frozen section biopsy was deferred. We will get the path report Friday at our postop visit. During the procedure, the urologist incidentally found an inguinal hernia and repaired that with a teflon graft. The general surgeon, who we initially saw in December and happened to be finishing a case himself, saw Craig in preop and was on the scene for that repair. Sweet.


As you know, the salon setee converts into a queen berth, so that is Craig's nest for the time being. He is generally feeling good, up and about and eating well, with even a short visit to the cockpit yesterday afternoon. His pain is well-controlled with the generous supply of Percocet, although getting up tweaks the incision pretty hard. He has been keyed up with the Percocet and is finally sleeping solidly today. Craig remains wildly hopeful for a complete bed bath with me in a saucy nurse get up. Dream on, precious captain! :)

For those clinically oriented:
This presents a strange case so we are anxious for the final pathology report. The ultrasound that started all this showed heterogenous echo pattern and vascularity for which malignancy could not be ruled out. No well-defined tumor, per se. The tumor markers are interesting. LDH mildly elevated, consistent with energy requirements for any tumor. However, the bHCG and AFP, specific to germ cell tumors, are stone cold normal. These are all done not only for staging but also as a baseline, with the expectation that they drop dramatically after the tumor is removed. So, there is nothing to drop. ??

With all this and other small details/decisions to date, we are hopeful that this is either very early in a malignant process, or some kinky nonmalignant tumor. However this works out, we are grateful that the hernia was found. I can't imagine being deep in the islands or on a passage and and having a little gut ache turn into incarcerated bowel loop.

All in all, we will keep you posted. We are so thankful for our family and friends and for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.