Thursday, February 6, 2014

Pre-Op


Yesterday, Harv battled Seahawks Victory Parade traffic on his way to and from his pre-op appointment. Thankfully, he allowed plenty of time to get there... It took a while to get home, though. The 12th man was out in force yesterday! We heard that there were between 700,000 and a million people there for the celebration. (I was happy to watch the festivities from the comfort of my home.)

Here is the information that Harv learned from talking with Dr. Park:

The largest tumor (there are some smaller ones) is close to a major hepatic vein. Last liver surgery, when they removed 60% of Harv's liver, they took one vein and one artery. This time, Dr. Park's plan is to cut out all of the visible tumor (and the smaller ones that he can see) and leave that major vein intact. But if, in order to remove that larger tumor, he has to cut into that major vein, he will do that. Harv said that while it's POSSIBLE that that will happen, he doesn't think it's PROBABLE.

If he DOES do that, though, then the portion of the liver that depends on that vein will have to be sacrificed. And, if that happens, then Harv will be left with only the minimum amount of liver nodes that he can have to sustain his life. Which means -- no room for further disease, etc. Dr. Park did say that, if he knicks that vein during surgery, that is okay. Knicks can be repaired.

Surgery tomorrow... Not sure yet of exact time, but we think he'll check in at 9:00. If I recall correctly, the surgery lasted about 6 or 7 hours. 

SO! Please pray:
- that Dr. Park can get all the tumors and lymph nodes that are visible
- that he can get all of those tumors without having to sacrifice any veins
- that Harvey heals quickly
- that he and I both get good rest while we're down there (that can be tricky --- especially for a hospital patient.)

Thank you so much for standing with us.... Wonder if we could make some Seahawks 12th man analogy for our 2014 Harv-support motto???   :-)

Love you.

2 comments:

Michael Kuhn said...

Thanks for the update... We'll be remembering you and Harv and the girls.

Carrie said...

Thank you!
<3