Tumor resection surgery

We were very worried about the delays that took place. The surgery was originally scheduled for Wednesday 20th February 2008. It was postponed the first time as he had a low platelet count. The procedure was rescheduled for 27th February 2008. The surgeon was very concerned about us making it to the hospital @ 6.30am due to bad winter snow storms, that he requested us to stay the night at the Delta Chelsea hotel across the hospital. In the morning we were all ready to go for the procedure, when 2 emergency cases came in at the same time. The surgeon anticipated the emergency procedure to last about 4 hours, unfortunately it took longer and they had to reschedule our child's procedure again to the coming Monday.

My son finally had tumor resection surgery today 3rd March 2008. The surgeon, Dr Girstle, claims to have successfully removed my sons primary tumor which was slightly larger than an egg. It took him 2 hours to remove the primary tumor but 4 hours to removed the infected lymph nodes. There were a total of 5 specimens (1 tumor and 4 lymph node specimens) removed from within the child.

We got to see our son after about 8.5 hours, the sight of so many more tubes into our child made our hearts sink even more. He now had a new epidural tube for pain control, a chest tube to drain fluids, 2 intravenous lines (one in each hand) and a catheter in his penis to help drain his pee . There was a large L shaped tape on his abdomen, covering the stitches on the surgical incision.

The most traumatic thing for the child was the catheter sticking to his penis. He demanded that it be removed immediately and fell asleep again.