I visited with him in recovery before he went to ICU. He was uncomfortable (neck pain from the way his arms were positioned during surgery... kind of a knot in his shoulder/neck area) and his abdomen is not feeling totally cozy either... But! He was in good spirits and was joking with me and trying not to laugh ('cause it hurts to laugh).

I can't remember diddly squat (that's for you, Sarah Chute), but i feel like he's perkier this go 'round than he was after the last surgery. Maaaaybe that's 'cause they didn't take out 60% of his liver this time. :-)

Oh! And, btw, Dr. Park said that his liver looks healthy -- the part that didn't have cancer looks good. So! That's good!

I am now in my hotel room -- drinking a glass of wine (later than I like to) and eating a delicious meat and cheese plate that I made for me. I am not gonna set an alarm tomorrow and I will go over when I wake up.

One thing you notice when you're in a good hospital is how many people are working to make sure you &/or your loved one are well taken care of. There are a lot of cogs to the wheel that is University of Washington Medical Center... and I am thankful for every one of them!

Thank you so much for your well wishes and your prayers and your love.

Dr. Park said that the surgery went as well as he could've hoped... I'll try to sum up as best as I can.

He was able to get all of the tumor without cutting the vein. It involved scraping the liver as he removed the tumor.  He got one of the two lymph nodes that were on the scan. It was the bigger of the two. The other one was in a spot that was too difficult to get to without cutting the vein they wanted to avoid cutting. There were a couple of other little spots on the CT scan that Dr. Park could not find during surgery. He said he felt around the liver, but couldn't find them... (Hopefully that's a good thing.)

He lost a fair amount of blood, but didn't have to have a transfusion. His hematocrit is pretty good, but they believe it might go down a little. Dr. Park believes he has a good buffer, though. 

I am currently waiting to go see him in recovery. 

He will spend the night in ICU and hopefully move to a room tomorrow sometime. 

His job will be to do a whole bunch of laps around the hospital floor and to practice breathing into that tube-y thing. Please continue to pray for healing. I'm hoping doing the laps becomes easy very soon.

Thank you so much for loving us.

Surgery is over. They're just finishing up. Waiting to talk to Dr. Park. Then I'll get to go to recovery to see Harv. Thanks for hangin' out with me today.   I'll update more when I know it....

Just took him back for surgery. Will update when i know something more... It'll be about 5 or 6 hours of surgery.

11:55 a.m..

Harv's all sleepy. The epidural is in. Waiting for Dr. Park to arrive.

Surgery update #1

We're checked in... Harv's gettin' prepped for surgery. I'm all sqwunched up in a folding chair in the pre-op room.... We believe they'll give him an epidural and then surgery is scheduled for 11:30.

More as I know it.

-chc

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.