6:30 (ish) Update on Pappaw

This was a bit longer of an update because the main doctor was finishing up and came out to personally fill the family in. He says overall his part went well, took longer because the tumor had to be drilled out of the bone (usually the bone is softer in radiation patients and can almost just be scooped out). He had to have a small infusion of blood, some extra platelets because of the length of the surgery (it is much longer than anticipated). The titanium cage was not needed, only two ribs were removed and some sort of concrete filling was made to go in the place of the ribs. The doctor was very optimistic and said things went very well and says Pappaw should be back up on his feet in no time (hah hah!). He did say that the cancer was invading one of the ribs quite a lot and expanded it to 3 to 4 times it's normal size which could be what Pappaw had been interpreting as gall bladder pain. This is good news in that it seems a lot of Pappaw's pain should be relieved after the recovery. Plastic surgeon started about 6:30. His job is to somehow pull the muscles up over the concrete so that it does not rub directly against Pappaw's skin. If he is able to do it the preferred way it will take him two hours, but if he has to do something they referred to as a flap it could take three to four hours so we are definitely still in this awhile longer. Thank you for your continued prayers!!!