End of Day 3

Steven had his first visit with James tonight since the morning of his surgery. It was great to see his face light up when James came in. Which reminds me of some other very important news: Cory and Amy had a beautiful and healthy baby girl just hours after Steven finished up his surgery on Wednesday. So we will be celebrating the 28th for years to come! Congratulations you two.

After another day of dealing with pain management Steven had a smile on his face when I left tonight (it helped that I brought James in to say goodbye) and he ensured me he expects to have a much better night. His pain is finally at a 6/10, much improved from yesterday and earlier today. John and Ethel are headed to the hospital now as we've started to divide up the visits.

Steven may or may not get the epidural tomorrow - there are lots of pros and cons to consider but I guess if it was simple the decision would be made already.

Good night :)

Tracy

Mid Day Update

Last night was a rough night for Steven as he was in a lot of pain. This means he is on a lot of pain medicine today and feeling groggy. They wanted to give him an epidural but could not do it today because the nurse had already given him a blood thinner so he needs to wait 24 hours. The pain team promised they will see Steven first tomorrow unless an emergency happens and they have to go to the OR first.

Steven continues to be a trooper. Hopefully the epidural works tomorrow and we can move to another room. We overheard that they want to move him from the ICU today because they need the bed but the nurse said they'd have to fight Dr. T if they want to move him because Dr. T wants Steven to stay in the ICU until his pain is under control. Steven wants to stay in the ICU so I am prepared to make a fuss if need be.

Love to all.

Tracy

Morning,

We are off to the hospital for Day 3. Steven was warned prior to his surgery that Day 3 is the worst. I am not sure if they meant Day 3 after surgery or including the surgery day (Caylee)? Steven has really enjoyed receiving everyone's texts yesterday. One of the first things he asked when he was writing his questions is about the comments on the blog :)

A special thank you to Jason for entertaining us with your texts!

xo Tracy

End of Day 2

Hi Again,

Steven is amazing! He kept checking with John, Ethel and I to make sure that we were okay today and he made sure we left at a reasonable time so we can get a good sleep tonight :) I LOVE THAT MAN! He continued to do well tonight. We will head back tomorrow morning hopefully early enough to get the next update from Dr. T.

Thanks for all your love and support. I read Steven text messages all day and he really enjoyed hearing from you.

Love Tracy

Roller Coaster

Roller coaster is definitely a good description for today. The morning started off low. We arrived around the same time they woke Steven up (he was sedated over night) and he was in a lot of pain and not comfortable with the respirator tube. Dr. T stopped by twice during the day and told us that Steven did very well over night.

Steven was able to communicate by writing things down and one of the first things he asked was how I was doing and then about the comments on the blog. Eventually they got Steven's pain under control and took out the respirator tube. I think he was really happy to have it out. He was then able to brush his teeth and wash his face. He is having a nap now and we are at the condo eating dinner. We will head back up afterwards and give another update tonight.

The highest high of my day was when we were leaving tonight and I heard the nurse call me back into the room (Steven's throat was too sore to call after me). He told me he loves me and waved me in for a kiss :) I wish everyone the ability to appreciate those little things that make our lives wonderful - Steven's kiss is definitely one of those things for me :)

BIG thank you to my mom for taking exceptional care of James all day. Really grateful I could focus all my attention on my big man and know my little guy was happy.

Love Tracy

Day 2

Morning,

We are soon heading to the hospital. The Dr in the ICU mentioned they might try to start waking Steven up around 8am. I will try to post again mid-day and tonight.

Love Tracy

Surgery Complete

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay in this update. It was a long, hard day at the hospital which was reflected in Dr. T's description of the surgery. Steven ended up having cancer locations that were more difficult to remove and resulted in some repair work to tissues in the abdomen. Dr. T said he completed about 20 surgeries on Steven during the one operation. He also stated that he believes that he got all the cancer removed but Steven will have some changes to his lifestyle but nothing that can't be dealt with.
We were finally able to see Steven at 9pm. He is sedated and on a respirator and will stay that way at least throughout the night.

Love Tracy and Family

Day 1: Surgery

Steven's parents, my mom, James and I all accompanied Steven to the hospital this morning. I waited with him until 7:45am and then he went into the operating room. They expect the surgery to last 6-8 hours. We saw Dr. Temple before he went it - he is an amazing doctor and we know Steven is in the very best hands.

Thank you

Thank you to all friends and family from near and far. We are blessed to have such amazing support.

Love

Steven

Surgery Time

We received word from the hospital for tomorrows schedule.  Checkin at 5:30am, and surgery: 7:30am (Alberta Time).

Another video about the 'Hot Chemo'

CTV News - Hot Chemotherapy Offers New Treatment Options

A short video about the surgery.

Dr. Temple will be performing my surgery of Nov. 28, 2012.

Year Recap

So we are finally starting a blog. If you are reading this you likely already know a little about our crazy year but here is a quick recap:

This past January Steven and I sat down with his doctor to discover that what we thought was a hernia was most likely cancer. That same weekend we learned we were expecting our first baby. Steven had an exploratory surgery where they removed his appendix, section of bowel, and took a few biopsies. Two weeks later the pathology results arrived; we were informed he had stage IV appendix cancer.

Unfortunately the doctors in BC didn’t give us much hope but one doctor told us about a surgery that could offer Steven a cure. She just happened to be working at the Port Alberni Hospital where Steven had the surgery. She had completed some of her residency under a surgeon in Calgary who performs an aggressive surgery for appendix and colon cancers. We contacted the surgeon and met with him in June, he said that Steven would be a good candidate for this surgery. We decided that it would be best if we had the surgery after our baby was born in September. 

From April to September Steven also completed eight cycles of aggressive chemotherapy. The treatment was a three week cycle consisting of one day of IV chemo, two weeks of oral pills, then one week off. Steven handled the treatment fairly well with not too many of the bad side effects. However the later treatments were delayed due to low white blood cell counts, this gave Steven an extra week off. We enjoyed these bonus weeks during the summer as Steven was feeling his best at these times.

Preparation for the surgery consisted of many scans and tests (MRI, CT scan, renal scan, PET scan).

That is how we wound up in Calgary. Tomorrow Steven will be getting the “Mother of All Surgeries” (MOAS); I will do my best to keep family and friends up-to-date with this blog. 

Of course, our year also included the birth of James Andrew Cargo on September 16^th. Steven is an amazing dad and I am happy he has James to offer extra incentive in his fight against cancer and journey to get better.

Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support.

Lots of Love

Tracy & Steven