What to expect -- it depends...

This is Roni writing from Kevin’s hospital room. He’s been admitted, fed Jello, pricked, EKG’d... All the usual pre-admission stuff with the usual result – “otherwise healthy”. It’s a blessing that he’s going into the surgery strong.

He had the consult with surgical oncologist Dr. Loggie at about 11:00 a.m. Central time. Just a confirmation of what he’d said before: Plan A is to go in and remove the two tumors that appear to be active along with the spleen. However, Dr. L. is keeping all options open – everything from removing nothing (Plan never-mind) to going after the other two tumors plus any others that might be discovered and giving the heated chemo (Plan go-for-CURE! I like this one.) It all depends on what he sees once he goes in.

The reason for the wide range of possibilities is that the CT scans don’t:

1. always show all disease; per Dr. L., CT scans “lie” a lot. But Kevin’s have been consistent enough that his are somewhat more reliable than most.
2. show extent of scar tissue, which is a huge factor in what can be successfully removed

The good news is that even with worse case scenario – can’t successfully remove tumors – chemo is still an option. But we are praying that the outcome of the surgery will be cure, or at very least, remission and chemo will not be needed to keep the disease from progressing. Basically, we are asking G-d to restore quality of life as well as length of days.

It’s standard with these abdominal surgeries to give a private room and have the caregiver stay with the patient, so Kev’s hospital room is home base for both of us until the morning. They’ll come at about 6:00 a.m. Central time to take him to the OR. In between answering questions, getting X-rays, etc., Kev’s been listening to music, trying to rest some and battling his nerves. Just being in a hospital room and wearing the gown brings back a lot of memories, none of them pleasant. He has been buoyed up by the emails and facebook messages he’s received since we left home yesterday. What wonderful, caring people we have in our lives!!

The surgery tomorrow is expected to take 4-5 hours, give or take several hours, depending on what plan ends up being enacted. Holly, Dr. L’s fabulous NP will be giving me updates every couple of hours tomorrow during the surgery. I’ll pass along updates as I’m able. Recovery time also depends… with Plan A, hospital release may come as soon as Friday, but we would have to stick around a few days for post op visit. Kev will be in ICU from 1-3 days. I’ll move the to hotel across the street tomorrow, then back into his private room once he’s released from ICU.

Contacting us:

To reach Kevin, emailing (kevkersey@me.com) or leaving comments on this blog are best. That way he can read as he feels up to it. Plus, he’ll have the dreaded NG tube in for the first few days, so it will hurt to talk.

I’ll have my iPhone with me and will be checking it often for email (ronikersey@me.com) and voice mail messages. Any calls made to our home phone will be relayed to my iPhone.

Snail mail is:

Creighton Medical Center

Kevin Kersey -- Room 5514

601 N. 30^th St.

Omaha, NE 68131

We feel the love and prayers,

Roni