A Miracle and Recovering

Sorry for the late posting. I've been able to update Nick's Facebook page, Brighten the Light for Nicky, more constantly but because of internet issues here at the hospital it's hard for me to be able to post to his blog.
Nick had a very full week of appointments with many specialists, from anesthesia to nephrology to neurology and of course oncology. The doctors are very nice and really seem to want to get to know him so they can take care of him better overall.
Nick also had many tests. He had a CT of his abdomen, an ECHO, an EKG, multiple lab draws and urinalysis'.
Nick's ANC (absolute neutrophil count, when it's lower he can get sick very easily) on Monday and Tuesday was 400 even. He his ANC had to be over 500 for him to be able to have the surgery.

We prayed and we asked many others to pray with us that it would reach 500 so he could have the surgery.

They rechecked it on Thursday. It was 500 exactly! I could barely believe it! God is so amazing!

Then the surgeon went overt everything with us, how he thought he was going to be able to remove them and what could possibly happen if he couldn't get all the tumors from each kidney.

Nick had surgery on Friday. Dr. Davidoff blocked the whole day for his surgery, knowing it would be difficult and extensive.

Nick went back about 7:30 for anesthesia but they didn't actually start the surgery until around 10 a.m. They put in an epidural and tried to put an arterial line in and they stuck him probably about 20 times, including trying his femoral artery in his groin area. But could not get it. Thankfully, Nick was out and didn't feel it, but he has the marks to show for it.

The surgery took a total of about 8 hours. Then the surgeon came out to talk to us.

He was able to get all of the tumors!! Amazing! Praise God!

There is always some microscopic cells left which will be treated with chemotherapy and possibly radiation but he was able to remove them! He said it was very difficult but he was happy with the results.

Nick had to be kept intubated and sedated for the rest of the day and they were able to extubate him the next morning. He is also very swollen, all over. He can't even open his eyes they are so swollen. When they do a surgery like this, and remove half of each kidney, they push fluids like crazy trying to make the kidney's work hard to keep them functioning properly.

He has had issues with pain and keeping his oxygen up since.

Nick's sats dropped really low, into the 60's. He was coughing and seemed to be getting some stuff up so this other nurse comes in and started to suction him but she used an adult size suction tube and she must have stuck it way back in his throat because he started to bleed like crazy. Normally if I suction him at home he might bleed a little if I'm not careful, because his palate is unrepaired it leaves a lot more of his throat exposed than normal. Well this nurse was not being careful and he's had more and more issues since. It obviously caused swelling and a lot of irritation. The doctor was very concerned because of all the blood.

Well he keeps desaturating which requires him to be bagged, which is just more pressurized oxygen which pushes more air into his lungs. He does not like masks or anything on his face for that matter and of course he just keeps knocking things away because who wants air blowing in their face?

And this morning his sats dropped really low again, into the 40's, and he was having a hard time recovering. We tried many different things to try and keep his oxygen levels up. 

But they had to reintubate him. This is horrible. This is about 6 steps back. Being intubated is very hard for Nick and to get as far as we did and now we're going to have to do it all over again is gut wrenching.

He also is requiring plasma and blood. 

My poor baby. I knew this surgery would be hard but this is far worse than I expected. We haven't even gotten to see him open his eyes yet and now he's sedated again. 

Please pray for him, pray that he can heal quickly and recover from this difficult surgery.