My Friends

That makes total sense. At this point all they care about is that biopsy so anything else is moot.

Great thing we can have friends here we have never and may never meet. You have obviously made quite a few and it is obvious that they all along with myself are in your corner.
Thanks for sharing your struggles with us and keeping us posted.

My wife is recovering from her biopsy. Preliminary results are mostly normal with one they want to take a closer look at. The surgeon does not seem to be alarmed about anything. He did not think it was cancer going in, so far the only doctor saying that.

She thanks you for all your prayers and support. Just a few more days of uncertainty but it is looking good.

Good news so far, hang in there we are all thinking of you...

It is routine to not commit 100pct after the first look at a specimen. The staining process can take a few days depending on what is being tested for...so to speak.

Almost there now...

Yes, I'm still not too concerned. My wife is kind of freaking out though. It did make her feel better when the surgeon said what he did but she's still stressing out. I can't really blame her. I'm fairly tense as well. Trying to keep my mind off things and do other things. I had my heart check up on Friday and was all worked up about that. Everything is fine but we discussed what happened to me in more detail and that freaked me out. I figured it was time and the nurse practitioner said her father died of what I had, an aortic aneurysm. She said his was 7cm. I know that is large due to a support group I joined in November of last year. They are getting surgery at 5.5cm. I never knew what mine was so I asked and she tole me immediately that it was 6.1cm. So I then asked is she had all the info there and she did and printed it out for me. I was told by my surgeon after surgery that a five minute delay would have killed me. That I ruptured as they opened me up. I was OK with that. Got over it and all that. I now found out that I actually ruptured when I was at home. That was the tearing sensation I felt when I stood up. I was lying at the hospital chatting with my kids and the wife and I was slowly bleeding out into my chest. The first CT told them this. There was so much blood in my chest it was obscuring several organs. This was when they got verbal confirmation from me to transport me to Lancaster General by ambulance. In the meantime, they sent me in for a CT with contrast and that's when I lost consciousness and Lancaster General then refused to take me and recommended life flight to Philadelphia. So I passed out due to blood loss by the looks of it. Not sure why the surgeon told me what he did, maybe the tiny tear let loose as they opened me up. Anyway, it happened 3 1/2 years ago so it shouldn't bother me but it did. I'm over it now, just adds to the story. The thing that bothers me the most is the lost memories. At least two hours were lost including that verbal confirmation. My wife didn't even know about that. I will be glad when we get things settled Friday and she can begin actual treatment. She wants to get moving. We both need less stress.

If that was a thoracic aneurysm that is huge. Abdominal aneurysms (AAA) are considered huge over 6cm as well but thoracic is much more serious. Neither are a joke.

And after reading your message I would say that you likely had been bleeding and it had slowed...untile the surgeons opened your chest and basically removed the clot that was holding pressure on the rupture site.

When there is only so much space in a cavity and it fills with clotted blood..that can essentially stop the bleeding as there is no more space to fill.

We used to note that small framed people who had bleeds were less likely to crash than someone with a lotta internal space to bleed into .

Wow, didn’t even consider that but it makes sense. Oddly enough, that makes me a little calmer about the whole thing. It was right at my heart. Ruined the valve in the process.

Weird episode with the wife this morning. She got a notice there was a message for her on the hospital site. She didn’t want to read it, I did. She eventually said OK and then I couldn’t find anything useful. It looked as if the surgeon said nothing further to report but we don’t have the lab results yet.

We had a consult with the oncologist this morning, she does not have any cancer in the liver. I told them that two weeks ago but I didn't push the issue. They had to make sure. Anyway, she has some sort of rare condition, could have told them that also, but it is apparently harmless. They did send a sample to John's Hopkins for a consult. Her chemo starts Monday and after that will be every Tuesday for the next twelve weeks. Then she switches to a new form of chemo every three weeks. We are relieved, big weight off our shoulders.

Good news! We'll pray for a good round.

Bob