Thursday Update

Good Evening All!

Mom's had a couple of rough nights these past two nights.  Her heart (when the rate went up the other night) went into Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib).  The cardiology team continues to try to convert her back into a normal rhythm with medication.  So far, no luck.  Due to mom's history of heart failure, her medical staff decided to move her back to the SICU at about midnight last night as a precaution.  Obviously, this caused some unrest for mom as she proceeded through the early morning. This is not the first time she has been in A-Fib, so she is very familiar with how it works. What brought this irregualr ryhthm on is uncertain.

Even through this, she continues to progress through the surgical part of her receovery well.  This is merely a hiccup in the process.  She is having no real ill-effect of the irregular heart rhythm (other than just being tired from the lack of sleep).  We're not sure how this will impact her discharge.  We will have to see how she progresses through this tonight and tomorrow morning.

In the mean time, we did receive word that the mass that was removed from moms pancreas was malignant. I must say, that we weren't completely surprised.   The good news is that all the surrounding tissue came back with negative margins indicating no spread of the cancer!!  Long term treatment will involve some chemo and radiation.  However, right now the focus is the short term goal of discharge and complete recovery from the surgery. 

Our prayers were answered with her tube feedings!  They have completely removed her from the tube feeding as she appears to be eating just well enough on her own!!  There was an indication from Dr. Ahmad that if mom continued to eat well, they may remove the feeding tube altogether prior to her going home!This would be great!!

We remain focused on all the positive (as these is a great deal of positive) aspects of mom's recovery.  We have 100% complete faith that God will guide us through this bump in the road. God is good and faithful!!

We continue to pray for mom's strength in the ongoing recovery process, her conversion back into a normal cardiac rhythm, and therefore a quick discharge home!!!

Thanks all!!!

Will