DH and I went to Luke's class play this morning and then to meet with the surgeon this afternoon. She spent quite a bit of time talking to us about my upcoming surgery and answered any questions we had. She also did an exam on me and is very pleased with how mobile everything feels and how everything has shrunk considerably. She is very confident that the surgery will be successful and that they will be able to remove all the cancer that is visible and give me a good chance of a successful recovery. Her only concern is the tumor (or lesion) on my liver. It is in just about the worst spot it could be as far as being able to get to it. It is on the backside of the liver in the upper right corner. The tumor there has shrunk to more than half of its original size and she is confident that if they can get to it it will be fairly easy to resect that portion of it. They have been in contact with a liver transplant specialist and are trying to arrange it so that she can be there on hand to help my surgeon with the liver part of the surgery to ensure that we have a successful outcome there.

The not so good news is that this is going to be a huge vertical incision - from the top of the pubic bone all the way up to my sternum! The way she was talking it sounds like the absolute earliest she would think I might be home afterwards would be Christmas day. Everything will depend on how quickly I am able to get up and moving after the surgery and that I am able to manage the pain enough that I can manage at home with prescription medications. She emphasized that each person is different and it is very individual on how quickly one is able to recover from a surgery this major. The surgery itself will probably take about 3-4 hours! I will be first on the schedule which probably means we will have to be at the hospital around 6:00 in the morning again - I will find out next Tuesday when I call in to get my instructions. I also get to eat (drink) a clear liquid only diet the day before the surgery to make sure that my bowels are all cleared out and take a bottle of Miralax and some capsules of Dulcolax (both laxatives). Fun, fun, fun!

Oh, my tooth/jaw if feeling somewhat better today. I didn't mention in my last post that one of the reasons I am concerned about the pain is that it is in the spot where I have my implant and where I had my oral surgery (apicoectomy) several years ago, so it has been a problem spot in the past.

My goal right now is to get everything for Christmas taken care of before the 21st - including all the wrapping so that it will just be a matter of setting everything out once I get home from the hospital. Right now I am almost done with all of the shopping - just a few sibling gifts that I need to take the kids with me to help pick out.