Successful Surgery

4 Nov

We are back in Austin, after a whirlwind week.  Susie did indeed have her surgery on the 30th of October.  Prior to the surgery, she met with Dr. Sawaya (Head of Neurosurgery) and Dr. Ferson (Anesthesiologist).  They explained the surgery plan, so that Susie was aware of what would be happening, especially if the surgery was to be awake.  They answered all of her questions and she felt like she was in very good hands.  Susie did a functional MRI the day before the surgery, where the MRI highlights brain activity based on questions/ activities that Susie would respond to.  The end result is we found out the morning of the surgery that Susie’s surgery was to be asleep.  She was quite happy to hear that she was not going to have to answer questions while her head was open.

The surgery was quite quick.  I checked her in at 6 AM (Main Building 5th Floor, Next to Elevator F), we met with a smiling Dr. Ferson around 7 AM, she was rolled into the operating room at 8 AM and surgery began at 9:18 AM.  We met with a nurse at 10 AM and then with Dr. Sawaya at 11:45 AM.  The surgery basically took 2.5 hours.  Her original surgery took around 7 hours.  Nevertheless, Dr. Sawaya confirmed that it was indeed a tumor (definitely malignant), he was able to cleanly remove it, along with some of the questionable tissue around it.  He expected Susie to recover quickly and could be out of the hospital by Friday, probably Saturday.

Susie was in the recovery room for a couple of hours.  Only two people at a time were allowed to visit her.  Leora (Susie’s Mom) and I went first.  Yvonne (sister-in-law) joined next.  Susie was talking and quite happy.  She was very thirsty, but the nurses were trying to control the amount she could drink.  If she drank too much, it could cause nausea.  So, everyone that came by, Susie asked if they could get her more ice chips.  After a couple of hours, she was transported to the 8th floor where she spent until Saturday recovering.

The nurses on the 8th floor were terrific.  They were very helpful, kind and considerate.  Susie as she does, quickly got out of bed, started walking around and made a concerted effort to try and get out of the hospital as quickly as possible.  She enjoyed the Halloween outfits worn by the hospital staff, especially the super hero costumes worn by the Occupational and Physical Therapy Team.  There was even a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

We return the week of the 11th for learning next steps, based on the tumor’s pathology.

2013-11 MD Anderson

Guy Lipof

Accomplished Engineering Executive with deep consulting and sales expertise in healthcare and life sciences, particularly in oncology, driving business strategy, delivering innovative solutions, and improving patient outcomes. Care partner and advocate for raising awareness about and investment towards Brain Cancer Research, such as Glioblastoma Multiforme and IDH mutant gliomas.