Eric Update...

We arrived at the James on Monday, June 1st, around 7am. By 7:30 we were called to the 4th floor where Eric's surgery would take place. Went to the pre-op room where they started doing vitals and tried to start the iv. He was extremely dehydrated and they ended up blowing his vein. They finally drew a couple of vials of blood and the anaesthesiologist gave him some relaxation medicine in his other arm. He then started the iv where the anaesthesia would be going in, which they sewed to his arm. Very weird. I have had anaesthesia several times and not once have they ever sewed the iv to my arm. Anyway, at about 8:30, they wheeled him into surgery. If any of you, or someone you know have ever had any surgery at OSU, they have a waiting atrium. Very nice, it's on the 5th floor. Access to Internet, tables, vending machines...pretty much anything you need. There is also a TV screen that updates anytime the patient goes into surgery, out of surgery, recovery room, etc. The Dr. also calls to update the patients family of when things are being done as well. So every time that phone rang, I jumped. The waiting is horrible!!! Fifteen mins., half an hour, forty-five mins., they finally called and said that they had started about 9:10. We had been told that the surgery could last 15 mins. to an hour and a half. I sat and tried to read...yea, that wasn't happening. I read the same line 30 times. I looked at the monitor about 20 times...it said the same thing every time I looked, patient in operating room. Finally an hour went by and two surgeons came into the atrium area. Dr. Ross, who is the head Thoracic Surgeon and his assistant, Dr. Patsy, who had performed the surgery on him. They had just finished up and Eric was heading to recovery. He did fine. They went down through the throat and took needle biopsies of the lymph nodes on the right side of the chest. Dr. Ross said that it "looked" to be benign, but he wanted to run more tests on the bio's to make sure. He said that someone would be coming to get me to take me to him. An hour went by and I finally was able to see him. He had a horrible look on his face and was white as a ghost. See, Dr. Ross had told us that if he got a good reading with the needle biopsies and it showed cancer, that he would stop the surgery and not cut him open. So Eric layed there for over an hour thinking that he had cancer because he had not been cut open. I told him that Dr. Ross had said that it "looked" benign. His throat was really sore from the vent tube down it. Dr. Ross came out and talked to us both and said he wanted to do a CT Scan on him. That is now scheduled for Monday. If the mass in his lung has shrunk, he wants to go a different route than having to take the lung. If it has stayed the same or grown, he will proceed to take the lung. We are waiting to hear back from the bio's, said it would take 5 to 7 days. More waiting... Dr. Ross also said that just because the right side may not be cancer, that doesn't mean that the left side isn't. It still doesn't explain why the mass is in his lung...that is not normal. So there you have it. Our day was quite long and emotional. We just can't get our hopes up yet, just to be knocked down again. So we will wait to hear and I will let you all know as soon as I can. Thank you all for caring and praying for us. We really appreciate it.