Liver Surgery

Greetings. Well the surgery has happened and I am now on the road to recovery. It has been almost 2 weeks since the surgery (12/16) and my liver is still in the midst of regenerating and I am trying to regain my strength. The pain from the healing is still there though it has become pretty mild the past couple of days and is controlled with Tylenol at this point.

On the day of the surgery my wife and I arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital around 6 am. The surgery took place a couple of hours later and entailed the resection (removal) of the right half of my liver (and removal of the attached gall bladder). The surgeon found that the previous PVE procedure that had been done had worked very well and the tumor had shrunk due to the decreased blood flow to it. With this Dr. Baker was able to remove the tumor by only resecting the right lobe and did not require the "extended right resection" as had been previously expected (which would have meant removing around 75% of the liver instead of the ~50% that was removed).

I was in the hospital for 2 nights and was very glad to be allowed to go home on Thursday (12/18) around 2 in the afternoon. I did not sleep well in the hospital though I don't know why I thought that I would the two nights after the surgery. Even when I got home things were more comfortable but good sleep was fleeting for the first week. Very few positions were comfortable in bed for very long due to the pain that I was still in. This has since gotten better and I am sleeping better at night.

Right now my biggest issue is stamina and strength. This is expected as during an early visit to the doctor she explained that the body uses an incredible amount of calories in regenerating the liver. This leaves you feeling like you have been hit by a truck for the first few weeks after the surgery.

I have already been back to the hospital once since the surgery (Monday 12/22) to see Dr. Baker. She was happy with how things looked and I have another follow-up after another 3 weeks. I am not allowed to lift anything more than 15 lbs until then and was told to not do anything that would exert myself. At this visit I also had my drain removed from my abdomen. This was very painful as the nurse had to pull pretty hard to get the tube out after my body was starting to attach to it during the healing process. (I know - "too much information").

The timing for all of this hasn't been very good especially with the Chicago weather. My wife and daughters have been doing snow shoveling for me while I have been laid up. A million thanks to them for this and the thousands of other ways that they are serving me during this time.

I am thankful it is over and I am seeing progress in my recovery. God is good!