Surgery Over

This is Stephanie. Posting for mom again.


Surgery is over, and mom is in ICU recovering. All went well. They clipped her mouth muscles and were able to replace the tissue so scar tissue shouldn't form again. That means she can open her mouth nice and wide. Hooray.

They removed several lymph nodes. They seem to think the one was definitely cancerous. They removed the others as a precaution.

The flap in the room of her mouth looks well. They took muscle and blood vessels from her forearm to reconstruct this. The incision on her arm is 8 X12 centimeters. Then they took skin from her thigh to cover her forearm. There is a lot of extra tissue in her mouth from the flap. The tissue will shrink as healing takes place.

She has a trachea and feeding tube. She will have a feeding tube for app. 7 days and the trachea for 5 to 6 days.

Although none of this is funny, I almost let out a chuckle when the doctor was talking to us after surgery. He mentioned they were doing a sponge and scalpel count. Good to know she'll still be able to walk through the airport metal detectors.

We are in the ICU waiting room. Hopefully we will get to see her soon.

Thursday's Visitors

Mom's Favorite Visitor

Josh, Misty, & Renee

Stephen returns...today's menu: Spaghetti!

Friday Morning

There's not alot that's changed since yesterday morning. Still on the morphine pump. Still hurting if medicine has worn off. Still drinking some but not a lot. Still don't know when we might be going home. The Doctors are a little concerned with her oxygen level. They've hooked her back to a monitor to watch it. Just about the time she falls asleep it starts beeping and Wendell or I are reminding her to take "deep breathes" Yeah, she's over us.

A speech theripst came in. She listen to mom make some sounds. Mom is very understandable. Her speech might be a little slurred but part of it is from being so sore, and part of it is from the morphine. She probably will not even need speech theraphy.

About the picture: It was taken right after surgery when they first moved mom to a room. I had to crop mom out of it because I'm the nice daughter (look close, you can still see her nose). As you can tell we were acting a little silly.

Before Surgery Pictures

Check out the cool heated gown from the pre-op room. Mom was all about it of course.

Out of Surgery

Hello Friends and Family. This is Stephanie. You know, mom's cute, funny, wonderful, and favorite child (It's really great having mom's blog password). Mom is still a little too loopy to allow on the computer. You never know what she'll say when she's not doped up. Doped up is far to dangerous.

Watching Wendell talk on the phone yesterday I can't imagine someone doesn't know all these detail but just incase someone missed out.....

Well surgery is over. Dr. Netterville talked very positive and told us that mom has a "bright future". The tumor was some-what bigger than what they expected. But it had defined edges(this is a good sign). Of course nothing is for certain until her biopsy comes back sometime next week. When I left the hospital last night, she was in a lot of pain. The doctors were assuring us that this would be even better this morning.

Along with the tumor, the doctor had to remove 3 back teeth. You won't be able to see these. (Pun intended). Seriously, it shouldn't be noticed in her smile....she still won't look like a true and tired Tennessean!

Since the tumor was bigger than they thought the orbturator was still not large enough to cover the whole in the roof of her mouth. Dr. Netterville was able to use some material in the operating room to extend it (these guys are amazing). This was only a temporary one any ways. She will probably being stopping by Dr. Clayton's office before she leaves Nashville.

After surgery Dr.Netterville decided not to put in a feeding tube. They are going to start her on a liquid diet this morning. If that goes well she won't need the feeding tube. If I know my mom she'll be chugging whatever necessary to avoid the tube. She was dreading it.

The tumor was also pushing into the muscle. For this reason he had to go up "into her skull" (his words not mine) and cut out of some of the muscle. These are interior muscles and not exterior so will create no change in her outward appearance.

I have took a lot of photos and will try to put them on later today along with an update. Keep checking back. Also Dr.Netterville drew a picture of everything. When I get around a scanner I'll get that on here also.

If you haven't got a personal phone call through all this....let me assure you that we still love you. We are tired, grieving, healing, and just carrying on. We may have forgotten a few along the way but never intentionally.

With much love,
Stephanie