After a long week of waiting, Karyn is done with the surgery and
resting back in our private room in 8 Long. The surgery lasted from
about noon to 2pm after which she spent about 2 hours in the recovery
area of the O.R. John Taylor (Dr. John Taylor that is) was working in
the OR today and was actually the anesthesiologist assigned to be the
attending for Karyn's case but declined since he is family.
Regardless, he was our mole and provided a lot of good information
while we were cut off from what was going on up there. He'll need to
get some of Alex's sold-out Zin for sure....so, um...Alex?
Perhaps the craziest part of the day was when I went to see Karyn in
recovery and found that her nurse was Lauren, a woman who lives 6
houses down from us! Then come to find that her assistant in training
was Stacey, the bartender at 19 Broadway in Fairfax who we have known
for years and who even went to birth classes with Eric and Susan. It
was a small world moment to find the woman I see walking her dog by
our house every day and the woman who has poured me a few Jack and
Cokes in my day both gathered around Karyn and gingerly caring for
her as she was escaping the effects of the surgery.
After about two hours in recovery I wandered into the halls of the OR
and ran into Dr. Parsa. Finally! A chance to speak to the man
himself. He now refers to me as "buddy" which I like because it
always comforts me when a person with his seniority and unbelievable
skill tip their cards and lets me know they're just a human too,
albeit a very smart one. He said the surgery went very well and that
he did not find much in the way of visible infection, though a
culture would need to be grown to verify that. Regardless, he said he
wanted to be safe and that he was going to try to get Karyn home "by
the weekend". Feel free to define what that means. We like Dr. Parsa,
he's been really comforting to Karyn and to us and we feel lucky to
be in his care.
One other meeting that happened today while Karyn was in surgery was
with her Neuro Oncologist, Dr. Susan Chang. While it would be too
much information to write out, we did see the two MRIs, the post-
operative and the one from Monday the 1st. The resection cavity (hole
where the tumor was) was huge in the first one but had nearly
vanished in the MRI from Monday. There are still some unknowns
pending consultation with the pathologists in tomorrows Tumor Board
at noon, but mostly to discuss the impact the infection (if there is
one) would have. There are some questions as to how effective the
Radiation and Temodar were but it appears that they actually *were*
helpful. There has been no real discernible growth in the tumor since
the surgery so we are confident that we are in a good position to
resume the fight. To this end we don't yet know what the chosen chemo
or drug therapy will be, but I did mention to her that we would be
consulting with nutritionist Jeanne Wallace as well as Michael
Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic. She was very open to this and
said that these are all complimentary and should be pursued.
So here we are, 10:05PM at UCSF. Karyn is sleeping soundly now and I
am going to head home to bed.... hopefully the Tivo got Lost
tonight.....
Once again, a HUGE thank you everyone for being so concerned about us
and for following Karyn's progress. We definitely feel all of your
various presences and are eternally grateful for all the support we
have gotten and continue to get from all of you.
~Julian
