The Next Mountain to Climb

Jim and I are back at Stanford. Last night, my gigantic spleen was removed. It weighed in at 6.4 pounds! A normal spleen weighs approximately five ounces. Congrats to Marlene H. who had the closest guess without going over.  Me in pre-op: Look at the shnazzy Stanford gown! Due to the size of the spleen, the surgeon had to perform an “open” splenectomy. That means that I have a lovely incision that flows from my rib cage down to about an inch and a half below my belly button. The amazing thing is that the stitches are inside which leaves what looks like a braid down my belly. My kids often ask me if I’ll ever get a tattoo. Now I can tell them that I have my own body art already!! Apart from it’s artistic qualities, and more seriously, I do find the incision to be quite fascinating. How do they tie the stitches off when they are inside the body?!?  As you can imagine, I’m on some pretty heavy pain meds. Prior to the surgery, the anesthesiologist came in and discussed the options...

Jim and I drove back to Palo Alto Wednesday afternoon. We met some friends for a leisurely dinner and then made our way to our hotel for the night. Yesterday, we met with a surgeon at Stanford to discuss my splenectomy. As with just about every medical professional I’ve encountered in recent months, his comment was that my spleen is “huge.” I told him that Jim and I have begun to jokingly refer to it as Jupiter, to which he responded, “That’s pretty close.” After a discussion of the pros and cons of splenectomy, we turned to the most pressing matter. How soon can the surgery happen? The poor surgeon started talking about “sometime in early September,” at which point I just had to speak up. As you know, this process has already consumed most of our summer and I am not the most patient person in the world. I’m ready to have the splenectomy, heal up and move forward. I want to feel better, I want to get back to work sooner rather than later, and I want to gain some sense of normalcy and e...

Before all of this Lymphoma stuff began, we had been meaning to do some backpacking this summer. Since I’m feeling pretty good and my surgery is soon, Jim and I decided to get away and at least do some day hiking.  It was quite an amazing experience and we are both feeling truly thankful and blessed.  Our adventure began Thursday afternoon after Jim finished his final summer school stint for the year. We loaded up and drove over Kaiser Pass, headed for Lake Thomas A. Edison (Edison Lake) and the Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR). Jim had reserved a tent-type cabin called a Yurt at VVR for three nights which gave us two full days for hiking. For those who don’t know, Jim worked as a cook at VVR for the three summers prior to us meeting in college. It’s not only nostalgic for Jim, it’s one of the nicest places to get away to in the high Sierra.  VVR is a great little resort. There’s a store, a restaurant, and they rent a variety of tent cabins, RVs, and the Yurt that...