Jody's surgery and recovery

This might be the dryest blog entry in my 1 1/2 year blogging history.
We flew to MSP last Wednesday and Jody's dad picked us up. Jody had tests and meetings with the doctor and surgeon on Thursday. His surgeon and doctor were wonderful. He had the surgery on Friday morning. It took about 2 1/2 hours. It took another hour and a half before he came out of recovery. Right away when we went to his room, he was joking and giving people a hard time. He was in pain, so the nurse brought morphine which knocked him out. The doctor came in and said that he had removed about 60 lymph nodes from his neck to be on the safe side and 19 had been positive for the cancer. He reminded me that this cancer can be very annoying but that Jody won't die of it. He said he can't guarantee that Jody is cancer free, but he really trusts his ultrasound people to find stuff and that as long as we monitor it, if a little tiny bit pops up here or there in the next few years, they might be able to do alcohol ablation and avoid surgery. So, we didn't get the absolute resolution we were hoping for but we trust that this doctor really knew what he was doing and had a good idea of what we were dealing with. We went home and grabbed dinner and when we got back to the hospital, Jody was awake and we stayed there until quite late waiting for the doctor to come by, but he didn't make it, so we went home very late with Nick quite sick of hanging out in a shared hospital room. The next day, Nick was oficially sick of the hospital. I took him in to see Jody in the morning and he was just nutsy, so Jerry and I told Jody we'd come back in awhile and let him nap. His mom came by soon after that so cruel, selfish mother that I am, I dropped Nick back off there with Jody and his mom and her husband while I grabbed lunch with my friend Knelly. I earnestly begged her to have her water break and go into labor in the restaraunt like in the movies but, stubborn woman that she is, she did not oblige. They said Nick had a wonderful time in the waiting room, but I still know I was being a terrible mom. At 3:30 they released Jody so I took him back to his dad's place for the night. He got a sore throat that night and woke up miserable. I made him a milkshake and he had a cup of coffee but he could barely swallow and often choked on water even. We decided to move to Jody's mom's house that day, so I had a very busy morning and his mom picked us up around 1:00. We got settled in at their place and his grandmother came for dinner. I was so glad to see her, she's one of my favorite people in the world. I wish I could just surround myself with people like her so they would rub off and I could be a better person. Jody was able to eat. His throat had gotten somewhat better. But... that night at midnight, my dear Knelly called and told me her water had broken and asked me to come since her midwife was over 2 hours away and she didn't know if it would go fast or slow. I had dreamed of miraculously squeezing her birth in to our whirlwind trip, knowing I needed to prioritize Jody over everything. Well, I thougth he was better, and that Nick was asleep and this was a prime chance for me to indulge. I dashed over to Knelly's in my p.j.'s and watched an awesome birth. I'm a junkie. If there is one addiction I have, it's birth. Not so much having babies, as being there,, for that miraculous moment when a baby slips out into the world and is greeted by the people who love it more than anyone else ever will. I dashed up and down three flights of stairs all night long and then drug myself back to the house at 7. Lo and behold, Jody is sitting at the counter, looking like death warmed over. He could barely speak. I asked how he was and he said that Nick had been up from 2 to 6. I honestly can't think of a time in Nicks life that he has spent four hours of the night awake but of course it happend on the night I left Jody's side right after a major surgery. I went and laid down, sick as a dog over what I'd put him through. I tried to justify it and tell myself all of what I should have done but I guess everyone makes poor choices sometimes. I guess if I had it to do over, I would have asked Maureen if she would be completely available to Nick during the night and not let Jody touch him. I mean, at his age, he can handle a few hours away from mom. I just felt like dirt, that Jody had shouldered that mess. His throat got worse, so we called the doc and his nurse said that it was normal and to suck on throat lozenges. His uvula was completely swollen. We got on the plane and flew home that day. We arrived at the house around 8. Gin had completely cleaned the whole house, made Jody stew with tiny soft pieces but deliciously wonderful. The children were all dressed up in their best for our homecoming and the table had a beautiful bouquet, a pound of organic hazelnut coffee, a bottle of chianti and a card signed by every child wishing Jody a speedy recovery. It was very sweet. Jody was barely able to swallow the stew but he managed. The next afternoon, I couldn't stand it anymore. I called his doc again and they put me through to him. He sat and chatted with me for at least 5 minutes, going through theories of what might be going on with Jody's throat. We decided to take him off of his Oxycontin and put him on ibuprofen and benadryl. The benadryl was my idea for the swelling... the doc really thought it was irritation from the tube in Jody's throat during surgery but agreed that the benadryl wouldn't hurt. He asked me to make sure Jody was propped up during the night and please call him the next moring at 9:00 with an update. So, we did all of the above, I got Jody to drink lots of water, I had made several fresh fruit smoothies and homemade icecream by this point. The next morning he said he was a tiny bit better so I gave him two benadryl and more ibuprofen and by the time I called the doc, Jody was sure he was a little better. Despite this brief update, the amazingly nice head surgeon of endocrine surgery at the Mayo Clinic managed to keep me on the phone for at least another five minutes, telling me how glad he was that I was in my own words "neurotic" over Jody. He said he doubted the benadryl was hurting but it probably wasn't helping. He spent all of this time debating over the thing and convincing himself again that it had to be the tube. He has to be the most compelling doctor I've ever met. I mean it. People need to realize here, that I typically detest doctors in the medical setting, though I've found many to be very nice people outside of the medical setting. I find the doctor side of them to be controlling, insulting, manipulative and suffering from a chronic superiority complex. I finally ended the conversation by telling Dr. Grant that if I didn't worship God, I would certainly worship him. He got a good laugh out of that and sealed his position in my mind of the greatest, and most humble doctor in the world. When I got off of the phone, Jody laughed and said "what was he saying all that time? It sounded like he just dragged that conversation on forever." Obviously, I just can't get over this guy. LOL! I made pancakes and Jody was able to eat them, so I knew he was better. He quit taking the benadryl for awhile and started blowing his nose and sneezing constantly which hurt his neck and shoulder terribly. It was then, that we finally realized that Jody was either having terrible allergies or a cold. He's been taking the benadryl religiously and now his throat feels great. He can turn his head to both sides. He's sleeping well at night and feeling good. All in all, a few bumps in the road for Jody but he pulled through. I wish I'd done a better job of taking care of him, but I like to think I learn pretty well from these little life experiences.