Surgery Consults

Both consults for Chad's impending surgeries have been completed.

Neurosurgeon - April 26 - Dr Hall. We went to see Dr. Hall again yesterday to get the ball rolling on scheduling Chad's surgery. While the timing is up in the air, we have three things in motion.

1. Actual Surgery - Since Chad's hernia surgery is more urgent, that will come first. Both may happen at relatively the same time, it depends. However, we cannot officially schedule this surgery until we know the date of his Hernia Repair, as Dr Hall requires at least two weeks between surgeries.

2. Physical Therapy -  This did help Chad previously, so Dr. Hall has put in another reccomendation for more PT, pending VA approval.

3. Pain Management - The third go with this really seemed to help Chad have very little pain. Dr. Hall has submitted further pain management shots

General Surgeon - April 27 - Dr Swain. Dr. Swan was on the agenda today. He did not have the actual CT Scan images yet from the VA so the schedule and plan for surgery won't be confirmed until he has a chance to review those. He is hoping to do it as  laparoscopy and suggests Chad may have multiple hernia's, he's not sure.  He also provided some possible reasons as to the on-going, never ending pain and bloating that no one else seemed to have any answers for.

I mentioned previously somewhere - Dr. Swain was the doctor who took out Chad's Gallbladder and Appendix and originally found Chad's cancer. Due to his surgical skills - and the fact he even removed the appendix - it can be said that Dr. Swain essentially saved Chad's life. With that considered, we have always wanted to go and thank him for the work he did and the care he provided both before, during and after surgery. But we never did. Until today. We bought him a little thank you gift and gave it to him today.

Chad explained the impact he had and one of the funny things... When I mentioned to him that Dr, NOT something they usually do. He said they rarely even look at the appendix and basically gave praise to God for that. While I agree, it just solidified that Dr. Swain is not only a great doctor, but a great person.
Sardi said had the cancer remained in Chad's body another six months, we would have had a very different outcome (Probably would've burst, causing Stage IV Metastatic disease) - so the insight to even remove the appendix was a life and death decision. Dr. Swain responded that that was probably a higher power because that is

That's all for now. I'll update more when I have dates and details.