The day had finally arrived! We had been anticipating this day for a long time now. We tried to prepare as much as possible and I think we were as ready as ever. It helped to know that this is what was going to essentially cure our baby. This surgery was going to remove the cancer from her body and make her better. After talking to our surgeon about the recent MRI she felt confident with doing the surgery now. She thought that the tumor had shrunk away from the delicate blood vessels in the liver making it possible to be removed.
This is a diagram of the liver that the Dr. Myers sent me. It shows the 8 different sections of the liver. The yellow shaded area is the tumor and where it is located. The sections that were removed were sections 1, 4a, 4b, part of section 5, and part of section 8. The gallbladder was also removed. It ended up being about 30% of the liver that was resected.
On the morning of the surgery we talked things over with the surgeon one more time and hearing the plan made it stressful. Dr. Myers is amazing and we knew that we had to put our faith in her to know what is best for Jaycee. The tumor in Jaycee's liver was in a difficult spot to remove, it was right in the center of the liver resting on delicate blood vessels that supply it with blood. Because of the location Dr. Myers said that she would have to do the surgery similar to how she performs a liver transplant. For a short time the blood supply will have to be cut off to avoid bleeding to death. Also if the blood supply is cut off to the liver it can cause it to become sick and possibly go into liver failure for up to several weeks. Hearing these things were difficult and all our minds could do is think of the worst. That being said, Dr. Myers reassured us that Jaycee's tumor is quite small compared to others she has removed and that she was confident that her body would respond well. We were told that it could take up to 9 hours depending on how things went. Dr. Chen, the Anesthesiologist, talked to us about the sedation and what she would have to do during the surgery. She was going to have to put in at least two IV's, an arterial line to monitor blood pressure and a central line in her internal jugular vein to monitor venous pressure. Plus other countless monitors, tubes, and catheters. Her job to was to keep Jaycee to sleep and to give her blood when needed.
Once we talked with all of them it was time to get started. Jaycee was so good and full of smiles like always up until it was time to hand her over to Dr. Chen at the operating room doors.
Ready and waiting for surgery to start!
Walking to the Operating room.
Saying goodbye at the operating room doors as Dr. Chen takes our sleeping princess away from us.
Now it was a waiting game. It was going to take up to two hours for them to prepare and place all the tubes and lines for the surgery. It was 10:15am when they took her back. The nurse would call us every hour and a half with an update. He called about 12:00pm and said that they were ready and the surgery was starting. I think this was the longest day ever! We were sitting with dozens of other families waiting for updates. The secretary at the front desk would answer a phone that was connected to the operating room. The nurses would call with updates and a family member would walk up and get their update over the phone when it was their turn. Every time the phone rang we would get anxious and wonder if it was for us. Throughout the next few hours we would take our turn talking to the nurse about how things were going. He was very reassuring that everything was going well and as planned. They had to give her a unit of blood and plasma but that was expected.
Took a break from the waiting room and went to the Ronald McDonald family room to try and relax.
After waiting for almost nine hours we got the final phone call that they were finishing up the surgery and that Dr. Myers would be out to talk to us. After waiting for a few minutes Dr. Myers came into the waiting room and sat down to give us the news. She said that she felt it went really well. They didn't have to cut the blood supply off to the liver for as long as they thought. Jaycee had responded really well to the procedure and her liver function was looking good. They were worried about bleeding but she didn't even bleed as much as they expected. Considering everything, it went very well!! This was a huge relief.
This is a cross section of the piece of liver that was removed after being sent to pathology. The black in the center is the tumor. Dr. Myers said that with the naked eye it appears that the whole tumor had been removed but Pathology will look at it under a microscope to confirm that it was. We should have the final results within a week.
Now the next step was getting through the next few days. We had to wait about an hour before they had her situated in the PICU before we could see her. It was hard to see her with all those tubes and wires. There were more than a dozen tubes and wires coming out of her.
Just finished surgery and getting admitted to the PICU.
Dr. Myers expected her to be on the ventilator for one to three days. Jaycee had her own plans and schedule, she was sick of the tube in her throat by about 4am the next morning. She began to be very agitated and started pulling at all her tubes and wires. She would thrash her head around and throw her arms around. This made it very difficult for the nurses to control her and get her comfortable. They would give her more pain meds that were suppose to last up to two hours but after about twenty minutes she was back thrashing around. After several hours of holding her down they tried some other sedation medications along with the pain meds but she still would fight it. The last resort was to try a paralytic to paralyze her body so that she would stop moving. Twenty minutes later, to the Doctors and nurses surprise, she was thrashing around again. At this point they gave up the fight with this little feisty girl. They stopped the sedation and were able to pull out the breathing tube. After about a minute she began to breath normal again with out assistance. This helped her relax for a little bit. She was still agitated and we had to take turns holding her little hands from pulling everything else out.
Holding her hands trying to calm her down.
She was pretty groggy the first day, she opened her eyes a few times but was still drugged up. They were trying to control her pain the best they could with out causing her to stop breathing again.
Every once in a while we got to look at her pretty blue eyes! But she slept most of the day.
Then was awake most of the night! HELLO!!
Mom was lucky enough to pull an all-nighter with her!
The second day went better. We saw a huge improvement within just one day. She was becoming more alert. She was able to stay off of the oxygen most of the time. We were finally able to hold her today. The surgical team was very pleased with her progress.
First time mommy got to hold her. It took three people to get her out of her bed and into her arms. All the cords and lines made it very difficult. The arterial line in her wrist actually got pulled out right here because there was so many lines to watch. We didn't realize it until we went to put Jaycee back in bed and Angie had a huge blood stain on the side of her shirt. Luckily the bleeding stopped on its own! oops!!
After two days in the PICU Jaycee was finally good enough to go upstairs to the ICS (Cancer unit) where she will stay until we go home. They got her ready and we made the trip upstairs.
She was a trooper and just laid there while the nurse took her central line out of her neck. I think I would've cried but she just fell asleep like it was nothing!
Ready to leave the PICU.
Headed to the cancer unit, goodbye PICU!!!
Since we have been in the ICS Jaycee has improved a ton! She is definitely ahead of schedule on when we are able to leave. Everyday she is able to get rid of a different tube or line and now on Monday (24th of February 2014) we are down to one IV and the drains coming from her stomach. On Sunday she was able to start feeds again. It had been four days with out any milk at all. She tolerated the initial feeds well and now she is able to eat whenever she wants. Were praying she continues to improve like she has been and we are definitely loving her smiles!!
The Doctor took the bandage off the 7 inch incision. She is going to have one awesome scar!
SMILES!!!
Catching up on sleep. It was my turn for the graveyard shift and get up with her so I might as well take advantage of a power nap when I can.
The doctors said that if things continue to go well we will be able to go home by this weekend. It will be good to be home. Our second home here at the hospital is nice but we miss our OWN home and BOYS!! Thanks for the all the visits, it sure makes the days go by quicker. We will continue to post on her progress this week and the weeks to come. We are grateful that the surgery went so well and that she has surpassed the Doctors expectations with her recovery.
