Update from Kara

Hello everyone. Just wanted to quickly give you all an update on my mom. Her surgery went well. They had some trouble getting the tubes in because apparently her airway is very small. It added a lot of extra time onto the procedure. But Dr. Landreneau said she did well and he removed 2/3 of the lower left lobe, and dissected the mediastinum area. He also removed some of the fibrosis in her lungs (from Scleroderma, chemo and radiation). Part of the tumor was attached to her bronchus, so he cut it out and repaired the bronchus. It is amazing what they can do! Because of the extensive manipulation of her airway, she will remain on a ventilator until tomorrow at the earliest. They don't want to extubate her too soon; her airway must heal and the swelling go down. I thought the wait during surgery was hard; but walking into her room in the Critical Care Unit and seeing her lying there on a ventilator, with chest tubes, nasogastric tubes, etc., was the worst. I can't even explain what it felt like to see my mom like that. I was obsessed with watching her monitors: her O2 sat was good (99-100), heart rate steady in the 60s, respirations even, and blood pressure was good. Occasionally we think she could hear us, and knew we were there. She would turn her head, and her eyes were fluttering open. Then she would lift her hands and feet, although she is restrained so she cannot pull out any tubes. I'm sure part of her cannot wait to be free of tubes and restraints! She is heavily sedated (Diprivan). We will be going back at 6 a.m. and hopefully it won't be long before she is breathing on her own again. More updates later. Thanks for all your prayers, everyone, they are working!