We are a month out after surgery. Here's what's been happening...
Jimmy was up and walking the day after surgery. There was that embarrassing moment in the hospital when he was walking down the hall and, lo and behold, his behind was hanging out the back of his hospital gown. Of course he was on pain killers so he really didn't care...ha! He stayed in the hospital for 3 days. When he came home, he was in A LOT of pain but continued to try and walk. Of course, he was doing way too much too soon and ended up having to take it much slower. This was the time when he really couldn't do much for himself and it was frustrating for him. He needed help getting his clothes on and off. He even needed me to put on his socks and shoes.
His follow-up appointment with the surgeon was 3 weeks after surgery so his stitches stayed in for that amount of time. We had to keep his incision covered at all times and wrapped when he took a shower to prevent infection. His doctor appointment came and he got his stitches out. Everything looked good and he only needed to keep the incision covered for a couple of days after that.
The doctor confirmed that the scans after surgery showed no signs of metastasis in his lungs. The nodules are still the same size...thank goodness! She told us that the tumor was 8 cm, so there was no shrinkage at all since the inception of treatment. We knew to expect this so this was not a surprise. She told us the tumor was mostly necrotic, so the chemo worked to kill the tumor. She also said she had to cut a significant amount of muscle and tissue from his hamstring. As for the margins, she got good margins except around the sciatic nerve where the tumor was attached. There were residual sarcoma cells found but she assured us it wasn't anything to worry about right now. As far as the doctor was concerned, Jimmy was good to go.
As the weeks have passed, Jimmy has started to feel better even though the pain is still pretty bad and he has a slight limp. Aside from the incident where he got his foot stuck in the door of his truck and pulled his hamstring pretty hard, he's been getting around okay. The swelling has gone down and the scar looks like its going to look pretty good. The area around the incision is still pretty hard but that's to be expected as everything heals on the inside. The doctor said to massage the area to help break up the scar tissue that would be forming inside. It took just about a full month before he was able to put his own shoes on again. It is amazing the little things you take for granted of being able to do that become so hard after surgery. Here's a pic I took today...the dark areas of skin around the incision are leftover from radiation discoloring the skin. The whole area looked like that before but it has slowly been coming off on its own. The area is still hairless and we've been told that it will most likely stay that way.
Jimmy's hair is back...thin but back. He got his first haircut last week and was really excited about it. It was some sense of normalcy that was coming back. His hair is so fine and baby like now. It was very wispy on the ends before his haircut but looks much better now. It also came back a little lighter than it was before treatment. As it grows and he gets more haircuts, it should come back thicker and closer to the texture that it was before as well. Jimmy is also looking forward to getting back to work on a regular basis and doing the things he likes to do...like working out again.
This has been a really long year and I want to thank everyone again for their support through all of this. Thanks again to the people in 42 different countries that have let our family come into their lives. I do hope my blog has helped someone who may be going through all of this right now and to let them know that they are not alone. I will continue to keep everyone posted on how Jimmy is doing.
