Another Pre-Surgery Appointment

Well, we thought that Dad wouldn't have another appointment with the doctor before his surgery, however Dad's doctor called yesterday and said that he wanted to see him today. We were a little bit worried about what the doctor was going to say as Dad wasn't really expecting to have another appointment.

From what we know, the tumor hasn't changed in the last couple of weeks... which is good that it hasn't gotten bigger but also hasn't gotten smaller, least from what we can tell. The doctor doesn't think that Dad's speech will be affected post surgery and the only real concerns are his left side motor skills and the drooping of the face-the same symptoms that Dad is currently having. There's a chance of both temporary paralysis and permanent paralysis, just depends on what happens during surgery.

As far as surgery goes, we have to be there very early in the morning and it is scheduled to start at 7:30 am and is expected to last at least four hours, could last six, eight, ten hours. We obviously don't want the doctor to rush through it but it's nice to at least have some type of idea of how long it might last. It's going to be a very, very long day for us all. Dad has consented to be partially woken up during the surgery to check his motor skills, however this will only be done if the doctor feels it would be beneficial. If Dr. Chicoine thinks it would be too risky or dangerous to wake Dad up, he won't do it. But this will also help the doctor in determining how much of the tumor can be safely taken out. We still don't know how long Dad will be in the hospital after, could be four days, it could be a week.

While none of this is really good news, it certainly isn't bad and it's comforting knowing a little bit more about what the plan is and what we can expect. We encourage the texts and calls and don't want anyone to feel as though they are "bothering us"... especially on the day of surgery, it will be a lot of waiting and sitting around, hearing from family and friends would be an excellent distraction.

Tonight we had a great night as a family, I cooked one of Dad's favorite meals for everyone (Chicken Wonton "Tacos", except I make them in muffin tins) and played a couple of board games. We haven't played some of these games in a long time and it's been a lot of fun!

For those that didn't see this picture on Facebook, I thought I'd post it on here. The other day I was going through old pictures and found this one of Mom and Dad, taken September 1985, about a year after they started dating. I hadn't seen it before and I absolutely love it.