Back to the Story

The following is an email in it's entirety that I sent out after Judy's procedure. I was going to edit it and or comment on it since obviously things have changed. I think that I will not though. I will comment later as I bring everyone fully up to date on our journey.
Peace - Chris

(emailed Aug. 24th, 2008)
Hello friends and family,

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.

The Cryo-ablation procedure that Dr. Charlie conceived and performed went very, very well.

Just prior to the procedure, Charile verbalized his intentions. He would get enough of the tumor to allow Judy to proceed with the pregnancy. Maybe 80 - 90%. If he could get more, he would but he didn't want to damage any nerves or vessels 'trying to be a hero'.

As I mentioned before, the hospital was buzzing about this procedure. Prior to beginning, they asked if they could take pictures and video. The procedure will be written up for the medical journals and the pics/video will supplement the write up.

The anesthesiologist offered Judy the option of staying awake. Instead of putting her under, he could do a spinal combined with a sedative Judy bravely took this option and avoided the risk to the twins and the painful after effects of general anesthesia.

The procedure was very popular. There was quite a crowd in the room and out.

Charlie met me in the hall after a 3 1/2 hour procedure. We sat down in the waiting room where he told me the good news. It had gone even better than he'd expected. I knew it would go well. During my wait, I never once felt any worry or concern. However, I did not expect to hear what Charlie said next. 'I think I got all of it'.

The babies did great. They were totally fine throughout the procedure and a quick ultrasound after confirmed their well being.

We'll do a scan in a couple months to check the tumor area. For now, the goal is getting Judy strong. She will need quite a bit of physical therapy. The tumor had consumed most of the psoas muscle and killing the tumor meant killing the muscle. There's a little left but lifting her leg is going to be tough. All the therapy will be small price to pay if she is cancer free.

Hopefully we'll be home sometime next week.

Chris