Carcinoid Tumor Surgery: Thursday, April 20th

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This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube.

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Thursday morning I got a visit from Dr. Denis Wigle who performed my surgery. He had already explained this to Emily and our parents on Wednesday, but he gave me the report of how the surgery went. The surgery went much better than he even originally anticipated it would go. He did not have to fully disconnect my airways. He basically had to slice off the tumor on the backside of my right mainstem bronchus, This left a hole in my bronchial tube that needed to be stitched back together. This resulted in a less complicated surgery and much less chance for complications or infections. Dr. Wigle sounded very optimistic that the surgery was successful and said he planned to do a bronchoscopy on Monday morning to take a look at the surgery location and see how I'm healing and how things look.

Later in the morning on Thursday my parents headed home. They had a 10 hour drive ahead of them and it was pretty clear I was in good condition so they could get home to take care of some business they'd been needing to deal with.

Thursday I also had my catheter removed. They seemed to want to leave it in until Friday but we pushed them to take it out on Thursday because I felt good control of my bladder and it was annoying. The longer it stays in, as well, the more likely that it causes an infection. Emily and I were quite startled when she took it out. The nurse prepared to take it out for a few minutes but then yanked it violently. It burned a little but didn't hurt too bad but I think we were just startled that she pulled it so quickly. Emily says they typically pull it out slower. I must have still been a little groggy because a couple minutes later the nurse said she wanted to take another look at my epidural site (on my back) and I promptly proceeded to show her my "catheter site," lol. So yes, I flashed one of my nurses.

I felt better on Thursday and had a visit from Shari who is a physical therapist. We went on a walk with her while she described some of the things I should be doing and can be doing to help my muscles and lungs recover and we scheduled my first therapy session for Friday morning at 9am. The simple things she told me were super helpful. I was very stiff and gentle shoulder rolls and arm lifts started to loosen up my muscles and make me feel much more comfortable. It helps too, of course, that I had a personal care assistant who double's as an experienced nurse / nurse practitioner :) Emily's should rubs helped immensely as I started the recovery. Shari warned me that I want to make sure I avoid frozen shoulder, which is something that is a common side affect of lung surgery if patents aren't consistent with rehab.

I did sleep / rest a good amount during the day on Thursday as well. Overall it was a good day and I could already feel my body starting to recover. I believe Thursday was the first day I really got a good look at my scar, which is really big. Emily has pointed out numerous times that the scar would be a disaster for any woman, but it's the exact opposite for us guys- it's my battle wound and I'll be proud to show it off forever haha.

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