Okay.....

Mark is still in recovery. He got there about 3:05. They told us we would get to see him by four, but that hasn't happened. When I went back at 430, I did get to talk to his recovery nurse who said that he was still very sedated and had not been awake. He did respond to her, but she was very worried about his sleep apnea. She said she will be keeping him in recovery for quite some time to monitor him. She assured me that if he started to arouse she would call me. That means I will go back in just a few when she doesn't call!

So the surgeon came out after approximately 2 hours to talk with us. We were all able to be in the room for this. Basically, things were more complex upon visualization than the CT indicated. There are more lesions than could be seen on the CT scan and more than could be operated on. So, the liver was not resected, and the lymph nodes were not removed. multiple areas were biopsied and all were cancerous.

These findings excluded him from being a candidate for a surgical cure. He did proceed to remove the gallbladder and reported that it will inevitably cause trouble down the road. Also, the largest tumor is compressing his upper intestine (duodenum). He is concerned that this could later cause a blockage. He did another procedure to reroute the small intestine to empty in another part of the stomach. By doing so, if the compressed intestine did become blocked, then it would divert to the reconstruction.

Tomorrow we will see the oncologist again who will dicuss any medical treatment available.