We got to RMH around 6:15 and got checked in. About 6:30 they took Josh back to pre-op and around 7:15 they called me back because he didn’t remember his medical history since May. I’m honestly not sure if he didn’t remember or didn’t care to keep repeating the information over and over again. About 7:30 they took him for the MRI and to place the fiducial markers which are just little foam things that help the surgeon get within millimeters accuracy. He came back to the pre-op room about 45 minutes later with 11 fiducial markers on his head. Surgery was set to begin at 9 but the anesthesiologist and surgeon didn’t come in to talk with us more until about 9:15. The surgeon agreed to take pictures of the tumor for Josh since he couldn’t save it for Josh to see so we showed him how to work the camera. Josh happened to know the nurse in the OR..he went to school with her..she took 21 pictures…so we have pictures of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, the tumor, the “stealth” (the machine that assisted in the surgery), Josh’s skull, and his brain before and after the tumor. They finally took Josh back around 9:30, by then we were both a complete ball of nerves. The surgeon told me on Wednesday that it would take between 2.5-3 hours. Around 12:45 I called the OR to get the status and they said that they were almost done and that the surgeon would call me in a few minutes. I waited and waited and waited. To make matters worse their was someone else with the same last name having surgery so they kept coming out calling family with Robertson and every time I got excited only to find out it was the OTHER Robertson! Finally around 2pm the surgeon called and said that the surgery went well, Josh was awake, talking, and moving all extremities. The surgeon said that he had been out of surgery a while but it took him longer to wake up and they didn’t want to call me before then. He said that the pathology results were already back…it was metastases of testicular cancer, it was the same kind of tumor as the one biopsied in his spleen. Dr. Harron also said that the tumor was flesh like so he wasn’t able to get the best picture but he got one and that’s all that mattered to Josh!
I sat with him until the ICU visiting hours were over tonight. While he is in ICU only immediate family, 1 at a time are allowed back so please no visitors yet. He is feeling well but is in a fair amount of pain. He isn’t really allowed to have any pain medications until he is out of the critical phase which is 24-48 hours after surgery.
I’m going to try to get my first real sleep since I woke up on Wednesday morning. When I get up in the morning I am going to the hospital to sit with Josh as soon as visiting hours start.
This post was posted on Friday November 21, 2008 at 8:14PM
