Surgery Report

It's nearly 10:30 pm and I've just returned to the hotel from the hospital. Rich's surgery went well. Surgery didn't begin until nearly 3 pm and he was in three hours. The right node was large but OK, the left, smaller one, was cancerous. His voice box and vocal cords look fine. We won't know until noonish tomorrow if he will be released then or not. Already he's noticed an improvement in swallowing, so that's really good. He's walked a tiny bit, trying to get his legs under him. Doc says he'll have a sore throat and stiff neck for about a week. We'll have to return for the radio-active iodine tablet to kill off any remaining cancer cells.

Again, we are reminded of his April 28 physical therapy appointment and what a blessing in disguise it was. The enlarged thyroid was discovered in a body scan done here at KU during that first hospitalization. It would have gone undetected all this time! Again we thank God for keeping His hand on Rich.

Thanks again for your loving, prayerful support!

Hugs,
Carolyn