Bettyjo Status Report

I arrived at the hospital this morning at around 8am. She was still in recovery, however they had just taken the breathing tube out before I arrived, and she was able to talk with out any real trouble. I was able to sit and talk to her for about four hours. Between the incision in her neck, the wound to her arm created to form the esophagus, the skin graph taken from her leg to patch up her arm, she is in a tremendous amount of pain. They anticipate moving her to ICU step down this afternoon, as soon as a bed becomes available. Every thing seems to be going as planned and the new esophagus seems to be thriving. The best news of the day is that the vocal cords were not damaged in the surgery, and she is able to talk.

Please continue to pray for relief from pain, and a speedy recovery.

Surgery Day

Bettyjo went into surgery at 7:30am and came out at 2:50pm. Dr. Alam reported that the surgery went well. However, when they opened her up the spine had some dead material that needed to be cleared away by an orthopedic surgeon.

Normally the Dr. would put in a trachea tube, because of the overall swelling in the neck, but he did not want to do that to her, so she will be kept in recovery over night, and kept sedated. He has also administered an anti-swallowing drug. They will bring her around tomorrow, and she will be moved to ICU setpdown. In about three days he will have her try to swallow some water and ice chips. Dr. Alam is fairly confident that this surgery will be successful.

Please continue to pray for Bettyjo, as she is sedated in recovery, and that this surgery will work.

We Made It To Cleveland

Well......we have all made it to Cleveland, and are in the condo that has been graciously loaned to us. Bettyjo will have to be at the Clinic at 6am, surgery will be at 7:30am. The surgery will last 10 hours, and she will be in the hospital 7 to 10 days. The first 2 to 3 days will be in ICU step down, and then will move to a regular room for the remainder of the time.

We are both pretty nervous, please pray for peace of mind. I will post again Thursday after the surgery, and Bettyjo is in ICU step down.

Travel

Bettyjo and Molly Rosati will be traveling to Cleveland on Tuesday, please pray for safety as the weather does not look to be favorable. Bettyjo will have a number of tests on Wednesday, and the surgery is set for Thursday Feb. 28th at 7:30am. I will be going up after work on Wednesday.

I will post an update after the surgery to let everyone know about the outcome.