Hello Internet Family & Friends! Kimberly (sister) here, standing in as substitute blogger for the time being.
As you are all anxiously waiting for an update, I’m happy to report that the surgery went very well and Andrew is starting his recovery journey. As you can see here, Andrew was just wheeled into his room but he was still able to provide a blog worthy picture.
We started off the morning by arriving at St. Mary’s Hospital around 6:45AM and he was officially admitted at 7:22AM. We were brought up to the pre-op area where Andrew and my parents entered a small patient waiting room while Jonathan, Joanna and I headed to the family waiting area.
One of the things I found most interesting during the waiting process was how real time updates were provided to family members. Similar to when you’re waiting for your table to be ready for Sunday brunch, each patient’s main contacts will receive text message updates whenever the patient moves to the next step in the operation process. Additionally, all of the family waiting areas have monitors that provide patient progress bars.
After a half hour, we were allowed to join Andrew and my parents in the patient room. The nurse informed us that there was a surgery scheduled prior to Andrew’s so the length of that operation would dictate when they would begin prepping him for his. We spent the waiting time by watching Tangled and got to the point (slight spoiler alert) where Rapunzel is starting her adventure with Flynn outside of the tower.
At 9:30 AM they were ready for Andrew to start his pre-op procedures and we parted ways. I’m not sure what the actual steps were prior to going into his anesthesia, but I’m sure Andrew will be able to share those details.
Finally, we settled in for a long day of waiting and trying to keep ourselves busy to pass the time…
Based on the patient progress board, anesthesia began around 11AM and the actual incision didn’t occur until noon.
At 4PM my Dad received a phone call that the surgeon, Dr. Wigel, was ready to give us an update. The first thing he said was “Andrew is fine, the surgery went well.” What a relief!
As Andrew shared yesterday, there was a chance that they would have to perform a hemi clamshell thoracotomy, an additional incision across his chest to fully get into his insides. The doctor shared that there was some overlay with the lung and tumor that required them to perform the extra incision.
As a result of the surgery the following was removed: 1/5th of Andrew’s middle lobe right lung, part of the superior vena cava heart vein, and the pericardium (sac) of the heart.
Although this sounds like a lot, the doctor was able to remove all of the tumor and Andrew has a high chance of being cancer free after this surgery! Based on how the tumor looked, much it was already made up of dead cells, a good sign that chemo made a significant impact. And don’t worry, the doctor said Andrew will be able to continue scuba diving once he is fully healed up. They were also able to take some high resolution photos of Derek, so place your bets now on what you think he’s going to look like! I’d like to imagine that when the doctor removed the tumor, it was kind of like the scene in Indiana Jones Temple of Doom….
After meeting with the doctor, there was still a good chunk of waiting that proceeded. The rest of the surgical team would need to put Andrew back together and sew their initials on his side just like any good work of art has. Then they would have to make sure he was stable, remove his breathing tube and wait for him to wake up from his anesthesia.
Probably because Andrew didn’t listen to my mom and go to bed on time last night, he was the last one on the patient board to wake up and have “All Done!” as his final status.
At 8PM we were finally able to go down to his room and see him get wheeled in, which tallied his total procedure time to be roughly 12 hours. I’ll be honest with you, this was probably the hardest part for me out of the entire day. Seeing and hearing the amount of pain and agony from him as he was transferred was a tough moment. From what I overheard the nurses say to him as they settled him in, they gave him an epidural to help relieve some of his pain. Also, due to the lung surgery they had to perform, there’s a likelihood that they had to collapse one or both of his lungs to get at Derek. They’ll continue to give him blood thinners and pain killers to prevent blood clots and help relieve the pain.
The doctor estimates that Andrew will be in the hospital for a week. He teased that compared to older patients, young men tend to take these surgeries much harder at the beginning but then recover in strides. Who knew “man cold” symptoms carried into surgery recovery as well?
All in all, I would say we are feeling very pleased with the outcome of today! We’re so grateful for all of the prayers and support we’ve received from everyone. Without our faith, I don’t believe we would have been able to go through this journey as strongly. And I’m thankful that God has allowed Andrew to continue to do His good works here.
Technically Andrew wanted to proof read this before I posted it but he’s currently floating in and out of conscious sleep so too bad for him. I just wanted to thank all of you that have been following along since Day 1 or jumped in some time after, I’m really glad he’s been able to have this community rooting for him all the way. As the sappy little sister, I’m super thankful to continue having my role model and one of my best friends still here today.
Thank God
Dearest sappy little sister 🙂 KIMBERLY,
Thank YOU for this (anxiously awaited!) wonderful post as I’m sure Andrew will approve! The Prayer Warriors ⚔️ for Andrew, your Dad & your entire family are BEYOND number! Thousands & thousands have been waiting with your family praying for His Best and the END of Derek! Andrew is so giving to SHARE this entire very difficult journey with the world and we have been 🙏ing & cheering for him from the Get-Go. Andrew is our “hero” of sorts and anyone could be in his place currently or facing this in the future…. We have learned SO much & (thankfully) even the medical community has taken NOTE to get a glimpse of the patients REAL perspective. BRAVO! for Andrew And your Precious family & Joanna + 🐾Speedy, ALL depicting that your endearing family unity is based on Faith, Hope & LOVE And our Awesome God has had HIS hand on you all every step…
Thank you all & I pray you have felt the Enormous Prayers & Love that will continue! Love & prayers,
Ellen Murphree