the weekend update...

trish woke up this morning feeling pretty good.
there is definitely soreness, but she can move around on her own just fine.


she didn't have a great nights sleep, but she has been up and about this morning.
walking around outside, chatting with the neighbors, picking up caden's toys, etc..


she will be able to shower and take off her bandages on sunday morning, and next friday we have a follow up appointment with dr. lee..


thanks for checking in

surgery update...

2:30pm update (that came at 10:00pm)

we got home at 2:30pm... trish is doing awesome. a little groggy as expected, but doing really well...

by the evening time, she was up walking around and getting some food in her.

trish got into bed by herself, and we both looked at each other, because she has not been able to do that in surgeries past...

things are good...


thanks for all the well wishes everyone..

ill give another update tomorrow evening..

12:30pm update

dr. lee came out at 12:25pm and let us know that he was all done, and trish did great. she is in recovery now, and hopefully we can see her in the next couple hours...

12:00pm update

trish's surgery officially began at 11:00am this morning, and is scheduled for two hours.

after surgery, she will be in recovery for ~2 hours, and then we will be able to bring her home.

so im hoping by 4pm today, we will be on the road back to our house, but things never seem to be on time around here, so im not holding my breath.


trish, ria and i arrived at stanford this morning at 7:45am. they got trish checked in, and prepped to be prepped shortly thereafter. ria and i were able to visit with trish from 8:40am to 10:20am when they brought her to the OR.

during those 100 minutes, dr. lee came in to visit with trish and to literally draw up the game plan on trish's front side. trish's nurses and anesthesiologist visited as well, and got trish prepped and the IV flowing.

at 10:20am they the anesthesiologist gave trish a little cocktail, and off she went to the OR and lala-land..


so about another hour to go in surgery, and then dr. lee will come out and give us the update..


stay tuned..

the last surgery... april 22nd

sometime tomorrow trish will go in for her final reconstructive surgery.

we will receive a call sometime today from stanford letting us know if we have the morning slot, or the afternoon slot.

either way, dr. lee said it will be a short 2 hour surgery, and trish will be coming home the same day.

we can expect her to be sore for a few days, but this surgery will be nowhere as intrusive as the previous two. basically the tissue expanders will be replaced with trish's final silicone implants.

dr. lee will also remove the healed up incision scars that have been radiated and stretched with the tissue expanders, and do his artistry by stitching trish up in a way that will reduce the visible scarring.

trish is ready physically and emotionally, and compared to everything else she has gone through, this will be easy. no drains, no deep wounds, easy recovery.


ill keep the blog updated throughout the day tomorrow for anyone peaking in..




evening update: surgery is scheduled for 9:30am, with us checking in 2 hours prior..

our angel...

two years...

wow...

two years ago today we received the results of trish's biopsy.

its baffles me how two years can pass by so quickly, and at times crawl to a snails pace.

things are good. things are different.

we had a small scare a few weeks ago, trish found a lump in her neck and worried it might be an abnormal lymphnode.
on march 23rd, trish and i headed down to the stanford cancer center for the first time since november 16th so dr. robert carlson could take a look.

a place we had spent so much time at, it was odd (and good) we hadn't been there in over 4 months.

but the trip was stressful. emotions and worries we have pushed down over the past two years began creeping back to the surface.

the 2 hour wait to see dr. carlson didn't help either.

when we finally did see dr. carlson and nurse jan, they were really happy to see how well trish was doing and how long her hair was.
i think dr. carlson even smiled when he felt trish's lump, because he knew it wasn't a lymphnode.

doc carlson assured us there was nothing to worry about.
trish's lump was a swollen salivary gland, probably due to her recent sinus infection.
he wants to continue to see trish every three months just on a checkup basis.
this is good... it will give us a piece of mind that trish will have some trained eyes on her every few months.


and like the days of old... we stopped at the dutch goose on the way home for some lunch..


so yesterday, april 6th, trish and i were back at the cancer center, but this time we met for a pre-operation visit with dr. gordon lee, trish's plastic surgeon.

trish's final phase of reconstructive surgery will be on thursday april 22nd, and yesterday's visit was to chalk up the game plan.
the surgery will be a couple hours long, to swap out trish's tissue expanders with silcon implants.

trish will get to go home the same day, and not need to stay overnight at stanford.
dr. lee says this will be the easiest surgery to date for trish, and trish should be feeling good a couple days after.


anyhow, thats the update from here.

thanks for checking in...