You Will Heal Very Well

We wanted to let you know Mom's surgery went very well yesterday. (Sorry not to let you know earlier - the hotel we stayed at last night in Boston did not have a wi-fi connection.) The surgery lasted less than two hours, which was much shorter than expected. The surgeon said everything went well, there were no surprises and the two large cysts were removed. Mom was in a fair amount of pain when she first reached the recovery room, but she got better as the day went on.  

Today the doctors have said she is doing so well that she can probably go home tomorrow, on Sunday, just two days after the surgery. Mom has been up, walking around, eating well, and chatting with the nurses. She still does experience pain when she gets up from laying down or sitting, or when changing her position in bed, but after major abdominal surgery that is to be expected.  We will know tomorrow for sure if she will be discharged but she certainly is on the road to recovery.

Mom attributes much of her healing due to the great power of people's prayers and to positive thinking.  So many of her friends and our family friends have sent prayers and good wishes - we are all grateful.

At the suggestion of the hospital she read before the surgery, "Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster", a book by Peggy Huddleston of mind-body techniques. Mom really responded to the positive messages in the book, using guided imagery to focus on healing and not on the pain. She had the surgeon read several healing statements during the surgery.  At the end of the surgery while she was still under anesthesia, he said, "Following surgery, you will heal very well so you can pick shells up at the beach."

So hopefully she will be able to pick up shells on the beach soon!  She and dad have plane tickets to go to Florida in a few weeks.  We will keep you posted.

Wisdom for Life

A much delayed entry . . .  partly due to the fact that for much of time Mom has been doing pretty well, and partly due to my life at the farm getting busy during pumpkin season.

Mom did have a very good September (more about that later), but she is currently dealing with two large ovarian cysts that need to be removed surgically. The doctors have been monitoring the cysts since May, but in the last weeks the cysts have grown to the size of grapefruits. Mom was feeling intense bouts of abdominal pain and found out after a trip to the ER one night that the cysts were pressing on her colon. The cysts are not cancer tumors but their growth is related to the cancer. As one doctor described it, they are by-products of the cancer.

Mom needs to be off chemo for about two weeks before having the surgery. Surgery is scheduled to take place on October 25 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Being that it is abdominal surgery she will be in the hospital about three to five days.

Understandably Mom is frustrated how this issue with the cysts interfered with a planned trip to Rochester for her 50th high school reunion and visits with family. Also, she and Dad originally planned to drive to Florida this week to spend a month there before returning to RI for Thanksgiving through Christmas. If the surgery and recovery go well, she hopes they can still fly down to Florida for a few weeks before Thanksgiving.

The scans of the ovaries and surrounding area showed that the tumor in the pancreas is stable and has not grown, so that's good news. Hopefully it will continue to be stable as she will need to be off chemo for a few weeks due to the surgery.

Mom did have some very good times in September.  Over 30 of her college friends joined her and Dad for a lunch at the farm.  Mom went to the College of New Rochelle, an all women's Catholic college in New Rochelle, NY - that's where she met Dad.  The college's motto is Wisdom for Life.  Her college friends are a such a wonderful, warm, friendly, down to earth, interesting group of people.  As Mom told them that day, her college friends and college experience were not the wind beneath her wings, but the very wings themselves, bringing her to new heights as a young woman and supporting her now.

Another great time was when Mom and I returned to the eastern end of Long Island for a weekend trip. We visited the Montauk area where our family had our annual camping trip for over twenty-five years. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane - a perfect time capsule of our much loved family vacations.  Our trip was complete with a visit to see Jane, one of Mom's dearest friends and mother of my good childhood friend from when we lived in Baldwin. It was great to see Mom and Jane talking and laughing just like old times. Though things had changed so much for both - Mom dealing with cancer and Jane the loss of her beloved husband - they still had much to laugh about. When I wrote Jane after our visit to say how inspiring she was to me, she said she could not do without the three F's - Faith, Friends and Family. 

Mom will be looking to faith, friends and family in the next few weeks when she is in the hospital. Thanks for your love, good thoughts and prayers.