At Home Resting

Erica was discharged this morning and is home resting. The car ride tired her out, but I am sure she will be up and walking soon.

Janna

Recovery Continues

Erica continues to recover from the surgery, resting, walking and regaining her strength. She is off her clear liquid diet and was able to enjoy a delicious smoothie today!

She sends her thanks to those who were able to head up to Baltimore last weekend. Although I know she slept for some of the visits, she was very grateful as it broke up the days and the monotony of the hospital for her!

She hopes to be home by Friday. We will continue to update the blog as we know more about her being discharged.

Janna

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hope any of you who braved Black Friday has good luck and not too many crowds or traffic. Erica had a great Thanksgiving yesterday with her family. Cory and I went up to spend the day with her, Christian and our parents. It was a nice day of relaxing, playing cards, Uno, and walking around the 4th and 5th floors of Weinberg! On the 5th floor, Erica ran into some of the nurses who were on call during her chemo rounds. They were pretty impressed with Erica up and about and walking around after her surgery!

Janna

Room Change

Erica has moved to the 4th floor: 4D, Room 7. She is pretty tired so is taking today to relax and get as much rest as possible. Hopefully she will be able to get up and walk around tomorrow :).

Janna

Sitting Up

I spoke with Erica this morning and she is doing well. She is a little out of breath, but the nurses had her sitting up in her chair this morning! They should be moving her out of the ICU today and I believe to the 4th floor, but as soon as I get word, will post a blog. Soon Erica will be running marathons again!

Surgery is Done!

Erica's surgery is over and went very well! Her doctor is pleased with how everything went. She is currently in recovery and will be there for a few hours before anyone can see her.

Please continue your thoughts and prayers for her as she continues to recover. It will be a few days until she can get up and about, but I am sure we will be writing she is up and walking around soon!

Janna

Ready for Surgery

Erica is back up in Baltimore awaiting the surgery on her pancreas. She and Christian left last night to miss traffic and be ready for pre-op procedures this morning. She is resting and relaxing in a hotel and will be making her way to the hospital around 5 in the morning tomorrow. Her surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM. I believe it should last about 6 hours, so as soon as I have any updates, I will update the blog.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers...definitely keep those going tomorrow morning!

Janna

Here's a better view of the pictures. Enjoy...

Pictures, pictures, pictures...

I decided to post pictures from my birthday, but apparently I'm having some trouble getting them to the right size. For some reason, most of them came out very small...if anybody has any suggestions of how to make them bigger like the rest of the pictures, let me know. I'm sorry they're so difficult to see...

Amazing Regeneration

Who new that at 9 weeks post op my liver would be fully regenerated? I had my scans done on Monday and saw my surgeon on Wednesday. I was able to take a look at my CT scan and I could see a healthy full sized liver!! Hopefully it knows to stop growing... I was also able to see the shadow on my pancreas where my tumor is. It's not very obvious, but because my surgeon saw the actual tumor, he could identify it on the scan. It appears to be about 2 cm in diameter and doesn't appear to have grown or changed since it was identified on August 28th. All of this is really good news, especially because I haven't had any treatment for the past 3 months.

I am now gearing up for surgery in 2 and a half weeks (Nov 20th). I will probably be in the hospital for 6 to 10 days following surgery. The surgery will be a Whipple procedure where they will take out the head of my pancreas (where the tumor is), part of my small intestines and part of the common bile duct. Normally the gall bladder is also removed during this procedure, but mine was already taken out in my first surgery. It's a pretty complex operation, and is expected to take around 6 hours. I won't be able to eat for several days following surgery and then it will be a slow process weening me back onto food because of the involvement of my digestive tract. Recovery after this surgery will be longer and a little tougher than after my liver surgery. I should be able to get up and walk a little the day following surgery even with all of my lines and drains.
I guess I'm ready to go ahead and get this over with, though I can't really say that I'm excited about it...
Love,
Erica