Connor’s Surgery

Connor had surgery yesterday for a tumor that they estimated to be about the size of an orange on his liver. I dropped him off at 8 a.m., and he was a very brave boy. I know that he knew he had to do this, and had resigned himself to that. I could see it in his eyes, and he was fine about being left there. I, however, had strong feelings about leaving him, and was teary-eyed all the way home.

Connor came through surgery fine. The surgeon reported that he is very strong, he never skipped a beat under anesthesia, and he was under for 3 hours. It was a very bloody tumor, she said, and he lost a good amount of blood…not a major amount, but she would say a “moderate amount.” He was definitely anemic when they did his bloods in the morning (and I had noticed that his tongue seemed very white recently, so, yeah), but his liver enzymes were down into the hundreds instead of the thousands as they were before, and his pancreatic enzymes were normal. She said the tumor she removed was more the size of a cantaloupe, and it was very involved in the right and central part of the liver, just as the vet who performed the ultrasound had suspected. It had also begun to spread to the gallbladder, so the surgeon shaved the outer wall of the gallbladder…and it had started to involve his diaphragm as well. 🙁

She got most of it out. She had to leave a bit, about the size of a walnut, because it was too close to the vena cava, and if she had tried she would have killed him. She found that the tumor was very mushy and soft and it broke apart as they touched it (hence the blood loss), and some of it in the center had gone necrotic, so she believes when that part died is when his liver enzymes shot off the charts.

To make a long story short, by doing the surgery we averted a time bomb, because she is pretty sure it was getting ready to burst open inside him, and he would have bled to death. And the involvement in his diaphragm, too, would be bad. AND she said we can’t be sure even now that we haven’t left cancer cells in the diaphragm to grow, either. That news pretty much resolved my tendency to second-guess myself about the necessity of putting him through this!

His pancreas, kidneys, lungs, heart, etc. , are not involved, as far as she could tell. She sent out bits of pancreas and ileum to be biopsied.

Now Connor has to recover from a major, major surgery. His RBCs were on the low side going into this and now he’s lost so much blood…but he’s strong, and he has an amazing number of people praying for him and sending him healing energy. And of course, his mom, being shamanically inclined, worked with some spirits from the Other Side yesterday while the surgery was going on, to help heal his spiritual aspect as his surgeon was helping to heal him physically.

I am confident that he’s going to be okay. And I intend to ask my spirits to do whatever is in their power to shrink what is left of this thing, once we have him past this critical recovery stage. Further medical treatment will hinge on what kind of cancer this is, which we will know once the biopsy results come back. I will keep you updated here.

Thanks to all of you who sent your prayers and good wishes. It really means the world to me.

– CLM