MD Anderson: Post-op Report

God is good and He does answer prayers!

We got down to MDA about 7 in the morning, on the 4^th floor of the Mays Building.  Felicia checked in at 7:30 and they called her back about 8.  Of course they had her undress and put on one of those fancy gowns that opens in the back (or the front depending on what you want showing!).  As soon as she was ready they moved her to the 5^th floor for the needle localization.  Which is a fancy way of saying they stuck two 4 inch needles in her breast to mark where the lump was.  I could tell when they called me back that she was hurting, but she bucked up and made a joke about the Styrofoam cup they put over the needles. You would think that with all the money spent that they would come up with a better way to cover them, but I guess sometimes the simplest thing works the best. 

They moved her back to the 4^th floor in the back halls and I can say that they completely confused me.  The surgical nurses were all very kind and knowledgeable; they acted as if they cared about her well being.  That was a real blessing.  I knew Shirley wanted to come see her before she went in, so I had to ask the nurse to direct me to the waiting room.  Turns out, it was right outside the room we were in!  Once I got back I waited for about an hour before the nurses came back and started giving her cocktails for the surgery.  As soon as they took her out of pre-op holding I moved out to the waiting room and the waiting began.

 We waited probably 2 hours before Dr. Wagner (the surgical oncologist) came out and told us that the surgery had gone well.   She had removed a couple of lymph nodes and said there was no cancer in them.  She sent them off to pathology just to be sure.  She removed the lump, took probably a little more than quarter size spot.  She said every thing looked good and she believed she had gotten all of the cancer cells.  About 1 ½ hours later Dr. Brown (the port surgeon) came out and said everything had gone well.  He placed the tube in a vein in her neck and then snaked in down to just above her heart.  He was very pleased.  She was in recovery for another 1 ½ hours.  As soon as she urinated they were happy to let us go. We got home about 6 last night and of course Felicia had taken some pain killers and was pretty loopy.  So, we put her to bed and she went off to la-la land.

As I write this she in conversing with her daughters, laughing.  She has been moving well almost all day.  She said she was sore like she had been in a car wreck.  Of course, she laughs about it when she tells me that!  Again, she is handling all of this with grace and style!  I am truly blessed to be married to her!

I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughtfulness!  Ya’ll have been a real blessing to both of us!  Most of all I would like to thank God above.  He proved out again!   I cannot imagine how someone who doesn’t know Jesus Christ deals with all of the stress that comes being diagnosed with cancer.  He told me to give it to Him in Philippians 4:4-7.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 The biggest thing to understand was that God has a plan, His plan may not fit my plan….but it is His will and not mine!  We gave the stress and strain to God (Felicia did it quicker than I did!  I might be a little stubborn.) and just lived by faith.

I read in Psalms 121 that God will always watch over us:

 ¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? ² My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.  ³ He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; ⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  ⁵ The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; ⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; ⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

It’s His plan; we just have to trust that he will take care of us and reveal that plan to us down the road.  Someone told Felicia to not “waste” her cancer, so there is no telling who He wants us to witness to or effect someone’s life with ours!  So praise the Lord!

MD Anderson - Pre-op

We had a long day yesterday, seems like we waited more than before.  But, it felt like we were constantly on the move.  We had interviews with the anesthesiologists, the doctor putting the port in and of course more blood work.

We got down to MDA about 7 and did not leave until about 6 in the evening.  Made for a long day, but it did get us prepared for today.

Again, I saw my bride handle all of this with grace and style.  All I can do is follow her lead, she is an amazing woman! 

Not much more to report right now.  She is in surgery as I write this, so as soon as she moves to recovery I will update.

Bad Bob

When I work for Sam Wilson, he owned Bob Acre Doc.  Bob was not a big horse but he was cowy and quick as all get out!   I have seen Sam with his boots dragging in the dirt when Bob worked.  Now that is impressive, until you realize that Bob was only about 14 hands tall and Sam was about 6’5”.  Still, Bob was a cow eating machine.  He really threw some good babies too.  Almost all of them were as cowy as he was, heck there were a couple that looked just like him. 

One of these was a horse we called “Bad Bob”.  Ya, I know…real original.  Bad Bob was not very big, he maybe stood 12-12.5 hands as a two year old.  But boy could he buck!  Don’t get me wrong, he couldn’t buck hard….he was just really quick!   When I started them in the round pen he out quicked me and dumped me into the dirt 4 times in a row (which is a fancy way of saying “he buck me off”).  He used to buck so fast that you felt like you were sitting on a fence post!  He would stick his head so far down between his front legs that you couldn’t see his head or his tail from the saddle!  He bucked out onto the concrete with me once, I was afraid to pull his head up and afraid to let him continue to buck!  I think it scared both of us!   I could just see him slipping down on the concrete, with me under him!  He bucked with me every day!  The other guys used to line up on the fence when I was going to get on, you never saw so much hootin’ and hollerin’.  To my recollection it felt like he was in training for 1000 days, but was probably only about 60.

One of Sam’s customers bought him and to my disappointment kept him there for us to get ready for the futurity.  Of course he did one thing that I liked, he gelded ol’ Bad Bob!  Now I took great advantage of that and only gave him one day off.  Turns out that was the only day he didn’t buck with me.  Oh, he wanted to….but was just way to sore.  I left there before futurity, so I don’t know if Bad Bob turned into any kind of a cuttin’ horse…..I just remember him as being a really quick bucker!