The Plan

If the surgery goes as planned, Dr. Gimbel will cut the sigmoid colon on either side of the tumor, remove it and reconnect the severed ends.  If there is too much cancer or any other issue that would make it difficult to safely reconnect, he will redirect the colon to the outside of the stomach, leaving Amos with a colostomy bag for an unknown amount of time.  Please pray that they will be able to reconnect.  Before ending the surgery he will also get a portion of the mass outside the colon to confirm the cancer has spread without having to take a biopsy of the masses on the liver.

Freebe

Amos’s dad told us how awful and expensive the surgery for a herniated belly button was.  Amos also has a herniated bellybutton so I was joking with him about asking the doctor to fix that up for free while he was in there.  I actually asked the doctor today and he agreed saving us $40K and another surgery. 🙂  #neverhurtstoask

Robotic Surgery

We found out today that Amos is going to have robotic surgery.  This is good news because it is less invasive and he needs to heal quickly so he can start Chemotherapy.  He will have to stay in the hospital for 3 to 5 days then he will have up to 6 weeks of recovery even with the less invasive procedure.

Timing

Amos’s siblings and parents are coming this Thursday.  We will have a fantastic weekend with them, then his surgery will be next Thursday (April 21st).  Even though his condition is urgent, they can’t get him in any sooner.  He will have to be very careful with what he eats until then.

#teamamos

We were so grateful to have Amos’s dad and my sister Amy there with us today.  The surgery can have a few different outcomes and we wanted her to help us ask all the important questions.  We needed Dean as comic relief.  He actually told the doctor he was going to try to get rid of it with a hanger and a firecracker!  The doctor validated him. :-0  Dr. Gimbel seems to be an expert in his field and we are grateful to have him on #teamamos .