Caroline Recovering Well from Surgery

Caroline's thyroidectomy was today. She did great.

We were asked to be there at 7:30am for pre-op. We checked in and went to the room where she got in her hospital gown and had an IV put in. (The nurses had to try 4 different times because Caroline was so dehydrated. That happens when you're asked not to drink or eat after midnight the night before surgery.) We were hoping that was it for the day's mishaps. Thankfully it was.

I got to stay with Caroline until they brought her down to surgery shortly after 10am. The sign indicated she was in surgery at 10:42. I waited with my friends Randon and Kelly Willard who were in the area and offered to come by.

Somewhere around 12:30 pm, the surgeon came to find me with the good news. He was short and to the point, but this is what I learned:
1) The surgery went very well.
2) They were able to completely remove her thyroid.
3) They were able to identify and preserve her parathyroid glands (near the thyroid, regulates body's calcium levels).
4) They were able to identify and preserve the nerves that lead to her larynx (so her speech was not affected).
5) They were able to look at her lymph nodes and keep them in as well (doesn't look like the cancer spread).
6) She'll be on a pill a day for the rest of her life to replace her thyroid hormones.
7) She'll be checked periodically to ensure that the cancer doesn't reoccur.

Then the real waiting began. I wasn't able to see her until around 3pm, and I'm still not exactly sure why. But when I finally was able to see her, she looked tired and sore, but generally OK. She quickly perked up after getting some pain meds (Tylenol with Codeine) and a glass of water.

We spent some time together, and after Caroline had an early dinner (turkey, stuffing, roll, cake, etc...), I went to check on my mother-in-law and Olivia. They were doing well, we went out for a quick bite to eat, then back to the hospital. They hung out for a while, I brought them back and went back to the hospital for another couple hours. Got back to the hotel in time to help Olivia fall back asleep (I guess she woke up after only being asleep for an hour or two.)

Olivia did AWESOME today, by the way. Bev said they had a great time together.

For those of you that have been praying for us, thank you so very much! We do feel that this whole thing went better than expected. Please continue to pray that Caroline continues to have a smooth recovery. She's staying the night, but we expect she will be discharged early tomorrow morning.

We go back in a week for a check-up and to get her prescription for her thyroid hormone replacement meds. In a couple of months Caroline will undergo a radioactive iodine treatment to kill off any remaining thyroid cells throughout her body. We'll keep people updated on that as we learn more ourselves.