Pro/Forums - Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

Well, I made it to Washington D.C. even if I'm not doing any good for the politics here. I did get a chance to visit my senator's office, but I'm sure he won't listen to any of the suggestions I made. Sad. We could have solved all the budget problems, fixed the environment, and made world peace if people would just listen to me! :D

Seriously, we were here to be with my dad during his cancer surgery. Mesothelioma, peritoneal is the subtype name, I think, which means that it spread through his abdomen. Anyways, we got a pretty good doctor (Dr. Sugerbaker) who has a radically good approach that combines surgical removal with a quick 90 minute chemotherapy marinade of the innards while the patient is open to kill any leftovers.

Whew! My dad made it through the surgery, which he checked in for at 5am. The doctor finished up around 8pm which tells you what a long surgery it was! They didn't get all the stuff, but the prior systemic chemotherapy appears to have changed the widespread cancer into some fibrous leftover that we hope is non-malignant. He removed about a volleyball's volume of cancer and affected tissue, which tells you what it was like. The cancer was invasive throughout the abdomen and removed all hope of recovering the large intestine (it was removed) and about 1/3 of the small intestine plus some other small bits.

Prognosis is unknown. Large chunks of "stuff" were left behind because it was just too difficult to remove without killing him. However, we hope it is just cancer tissue turned into dead scar tissue by the chemotherapy.

He is recovering in ICU and we hope that he wll be up and out of the hospital in about 21 days.

Thanks for those who asked about him!