Liver Surgery

5.23.25
Today I am 2 weeks post OP. Thinking about how far I have come in just 2 short weeks and everything I have been through is so crazy to me. I am back at my house, my arms are still bruised from the post surgery shots and blood draws and the swelling in my stomach has significantly gone down. I am still wearing a compression wrap around my abs to help reduce swelling and for additional support.  Thankfully (as of today) I am able to manage the pain with mostly Motrin and Tylenol.

My liver surgery was on April 29th at 7am- it was still dark out when we left our house in south OC. We were one of the first people to check in at City of Hope Duarte and they took me back to the pre OP room to get me all ready for surgery. I got into my paper gown, and after 2 attempts at putting in an IV the 2nd nurse was able to get one in. Then Mike joined me in the pre op room and the anesthesiologist stopped by and then my surgeon Dr. Melstrom. 

The surgery was a success!  We knew the lesions on my liver had shrunk so small they were unmeasurable on the CT/MRI so Dr. Melstrom had to change her plans a little bit once they opened everything up. They abladed an artifact of a lesion that was on one lobe and she was unable to see the remaining 4 lesions that had shown to be clustered together on another lobe. So they decided to measure and resect where they had previously showed. (Pathology later showed 2 lesions in the resected portion). Dr. Melstrom believes the 4th and 5th lesions to be fully gone as a result of my previous chemo treatments. When we asked how much liver they removed- one of the Drs said, "about 2 Ice Cream scoops". They also removed my gallbladder. 

Since my torso is so petite, she also had to adjust the way they made the incision in order to  fit the pump and keep everything far enough away from each other in case of infection. Instead of a strait line down my midline, she made a backwards L from my midline then over to the right just at the bottom of my right ribs. Then they placed the pump on my left lower abs, so I have a separate 3-4 inch incision on the left side. The surgery took about 5 hours.

When I woke up from surgery I had a bunch of tubes everywhere- I had an IV in each arm, a catheter, a monitor on my finger and an NG tube in my nose. The incision from my liver was covered with a glue and the incision from my pump has some gauze over it so I still have not seen what it looks like. 

Mike came in shortly after I woke up and then my dad drove up and stayed the night at the hospital with me. The whole night, every time I would close my eyes and start to sleep my resting heart rate would drop below 50 and trigger the machine to beep. I felt bad that my dad had to listen to that all night until the nurses put a heart monitor on me and silenced the machine. 

I spent 7 nights at the hospital. The next morning (and the following mornings), a nurse would wake me up for a blood draw, then a blood thinner shot in the back of my arm and a few minutes later a group of doctors would come in to check on me. The nurses would do another blood draw each night before bed as well.

The first morning, 4.30.25 they took the NG tube out. (this was put in to drain fluids from my stomach) I was so thankful to have it taken out. Later that day my friend Alexis came up to visit and that night my sister in law Ashely came up to visit. I remember waking up in the middle of the night on this night and being in so much pain from all of the anesthesia wearing off. 

5.1.25 PT came to take me on a walk and Mike and I did a painting class in the afternoon

5.2.25 My friend Ashely came to visit me and they wanted to do the "pump study" where they find the center of the pump with an X ray machine and then inject a solution into the pump to make sure the solution is going to the liver. The pump study was SO painful- they took a big needle and pushed it through to the pump. Im not sure why it was so painful but after they injected it- they brought me to a CT machine where they took images and the solution glowed. Thankfully it glowed in the correct spot (my liver). Then after returning to my room, they had me go back down for a SPEC CT to get even more images. Later that evening my friend AnnMarie came to visit.

5.3.25 My friend Stephanie came to visit and did some walking and she brought a picture hunt game that kept us entertained. Later in the afternoon my friend Lori came to visit. She brought a card game and we sat in the lobby area on the floor and got to enjoy the beautiful view while we played cards.

5.4.25 My younger brother Michael came to visit. We got clearance to go walk outside so I got some fresh air. Later that day we noticed a giant bruise forming on my left side and my pump area was really swollen. 

5.5.25 My hemoglobin levels were low so I had a blood transfusion. My whole stomach was really swollen so the Drs decided to do an ultrasound on the pump area with plans to drain any fluid that had built up around the area. They pulled out 30 CC of fluid from the area.

5.6.25 We did another CT scan to make sure the swelling was not caused by anything of concern and once the results came back they discharged me from the hospital. I headed back to my parents for a few nights to ease back in to the routine of things and then on friday 5.9.25 after a visit with my friends Ally and Eilene- I headed back to my house. 

I am so thankful for the amazing staff at City of Hope and my wonderful surgeon. I am also thankful for everyone who came to visit me and keep me company over my 7 day stay. I am so thankful for everyone who held down the fort back at home- everyone that sent meals, picked up/ dropped off the girls, hung out with Luca and made things back home "normal" for the kiddos while I was away.