Update on Wayne

The surgery went very well. According to the nurse, it only took 4 1/2 hours plus another 1/2 hour by the time he was in recovery. The surgeon, Dr. Ashish Kamat, said that everything looked good. He did not see any other areas of concern. We will have to wait for the pathology reports to see whether further treatment (chemo) is necessary. He will stay in a recovery unit overnight and then, if nothing goes wrong, he will be moved to a room...if they have one. What a busy place! Aren't we lucky to have such a facility so near by?

Wayne and I left home at 4:35 this morning and arrived at M. D. Anderson at about 5:45. After signing in, we were led to a staging area which looked like a huge warehouse. The curtained cubicles seemed to go on and on. After more than an hour in there, during which time Wayne fell asleep several times (completely unaided by drugs of any sort), someone finally came in to draw blood. His veins are still difficult to locate. It took the nurse two tries before she got what she needed. A little while later, two more folks came in to get a line started. They were both surprised that he already had a bandaid on each arm from the earlier blood draw. Both of these folks had trouble and you could hear each of them muttering, "it looks like a vein, but it's not a vein." Finally, of course, a vein was found and he was ready to go. A quick kiss and he was being rolled away.

Robin and Dee found me in the surgical waiting room and at about 10:05 we got the first update. The nurse reported that the surgery had started about 9:01, so there wasn't much to report. When we got the next update at 12:00, there was much more to report. We were told that the bladder, prostate, and lymph nodes were out and that reconstruction had begun. She told us that she would be out with another update at 1:45, but she wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Kamat beat her out. By 2:00 we had talked with Dr. Kamat. He said that everything he saw looked good. There were no problems during the surgery. Now we will wait for the pathology reports.

At 3:00 Robin and I were taken to the recovery area. Wayne was snoring, but would open his eyes and sort of smile when we talked to him. He talked a little, but would fall asleep in mid-sentence. We didn't stay long in there. Right after we got back to the surgical waiting area, our nephew, Kenny Waters found us. Robin was able to take him to recovery for a few words with Uncle Wayne.

It was a long day and I, for one, am ready to crash. I'll go back tomorrow and hope to be able to share more good news the next time I update.

9:10 PM
I called to check on Wayne. The nurse said he was sleeping on and off and asking for ice chips. No nausea so far. He has been moved to an extension of the recovery area on the 3rd floor.