Past the First Hurdle

Just want to bring you up to date on my husband Gerry's condition:

The surgery was this morning. Mom and my cousin Ann were with me while waiting. Thankfully, it wasn't lung cancer, but it was a melanoma...which is skin cancer. Gerry had a melanoma on his right shoulder about 14 years ago. They took it out, and it grew back a few month later so they dug deeper. There was no follow up treatment (which is not unusual). However, obviously there were small cells that were left and they found their way into his chest and grew there. The dr. removed the whole mass, plus a small area of lung that it had grown into, plus an area of the heart lining (exterior) that it was lying on. It was done as open heart surgery....through the chest wall (a better recovery as bones heal faster than the muscle that would have been cut through if they had gone through his back). The dr. said that Gerry should see an oncologist, which we agreed he will do. ( I assume that is to make sure that all cells are killed off). The lymph nodes did appear to be clear and the dr. is very confident that Gerry will be just fine, even can go diving in a few months. Gerry is in ICU tonight and hopefully will get to go into a room tomorrow. When I saw him at 5 PM he was in and out of sleep, but at 8 he was awake and aware a bit more, though by 8:25 he was conking out again. Tomorrow, Thurs. they will get him out of bed (OUCH!!), get an X Ray taken, and he'll see his dr. I have no idea when he'll get into a room so I'll go for ICU visiting at 11 AM and plan to stay all day (thank goodness for knitting).

I want to thank everyone for their prayers, support and love. I know he's only just begun the long road back to normalcy, but you all helped us get through the first hurdle. A special thank you to some bloggers....Donna S., Heather, Sarah HB, my secret pal Kate, ...and of course, my wonderful daughter Alison, her mother-in-law (and my friend) Karen, Alison's sister Becca ( a non-blogger but how could I not include her?)...your constant well wishes, positive comments, prayers and support, along with those of our many dear relatives and friends, are what helped this scary ordeal have a good outcome. I so appreciate each and every one, and want you to know that you made this so much easier to handle.