It's been a week now since Steve went in for his second surgery. Last Tuesday we headed down to the Huntsman Center once again. This time they did a complete lymph node dissection of his right axillary region. That means they went in under his right arm and took out all the lymph nodes and tissue surrounding them. It is a pretty big surgery that required them to leave 2 drains in him to drain lymphatic fluid until his body figures out how to reroute that whole lymph system. Pretty remarkable how the body can figure out how to heal and fix its self after something this altering. He was left with a big crater under his arm. He was really sore from the nerves they aggravated and the drains they left coming out his chest that are sutured to his skin. We have to drain the two bags that contain the drainage about 3 times a day for now. They said that will taper off when the lymph system starts to reroute. The doctors said that he would have the drains in for about 3-4 weeks. Not exactly what Steve wanted to hear. I think Steve expected that he would bounce back as quick as he did after the first surgery but that hasn't been the case this time. He was knocked down a bit harder this time. Although, we feel very blessed with the way things are playing out. The night before his surgery was a really bad day for Steve. We had about a 2 week wait from the time we first met with the doctors till the second surgery. For that 2 weeks we went back to our busy crazy lives as we knew it. We both kind of pushed the next step of this journey to the back of our minds for the time being. Then the night before his surgery, it seemed to all come crashing in. Lets just say, it was a bad day! Knowing this would be a bigger surgery than the last, I really felt like Steve needed another priesthood blessing. When I suggested it to Steve that night, his first reaction was NO! That is just not where his mind was at the time. For me, I really had concern and reason to worry for this surgery had more risk of damage to his right arm. If anything went wrong with his right arm, his career could be over. I personally wanted some reassurance from our Heavenly Father that the doctors would be under his watchful care. Once again, I won. I asked who he wanted to come over and give him his blessing and he thoughtfully named 2 great men that were our neighbors and friends. That night was an incredible and spiritual experience that neither one of us will ever forget. Not only did Heavenly Father assure me that the doctors would be attended to, but he promised some other very personal and miraculous things to happen for Steve. Both Steve and I felt very at ease and comforted by the power we both felt that night. The next day was his surgery and just as we had been promised in the blessing, everything went very good. His surgery was about two and a half hours long and recovery was another 2 hours. We spent most of the day at the hospital. I walked around a bit and went outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather that day. I talked to some other people waiting for their loved ones that were also in having surgery. It's like we have joined a club and in this club, you have an instant bond and support from these people in your same situation. Everyone has their own story but we all have a common desire to fight this awful beast. When Steve came out of his surgery, he was aware he would be a bit loopy. He was trying to be "normal" this time around. After his first surgery, he was pretty funny and really friendly to everyone, even the cows. The nurses could even tell he was trying really hard to be normal. When it was time to go, they all left the room so I could help him get dressed. He hadn't moved his arm yet and I don't think he expected it to be as sore as it was. Getting dressed turned out to be harder than he expected. I had to help him do everything and he didn't like that. When it came to putting his arm in his sleeve, he had a breakdown. He had to move it a little to get it in and in so doing, it caused him a great deal of pain. Since I was the one helping him, I got the blame for this. He sat on the edge of his bed and started to sob. Oh, I felt bad. I had really tried to be careful in helping him but it still really hurt. This was just the beginning. He pulled it together long enough to get out of the hospital but as soon as we got out the front doors as we were walking to our car, he started to cry again. He started to tell me how mean I was being to him because I was making him walk in the middle of the road. He could be hit by that "parked bus over there!" It was then it clicked to me that may be he wasn't quite in his right mind again. He was probably still under the effects of the anesthesia. So I just went along with him and thought the sooner I get him home and in bed the better. He just needs to sleep this off. We still had a hour and half ride home that seemed like forever. He saw a life flight helicopter on the roof of the hospital as we drove past and he wanted me to stop and let him ride that home. He said he would get home a lot faster if he could just ride that helicopter. When I wouldn't stop, I was again in the dog house. He started to cry again. He could tell he was being emotional, but he just couldn't help it. He wanted to listen to some music. I said, "do you want me to turn on the radio?" He got mad at me for that and said, "NO! you would probably make me listen to some stupid music, I don't want to listen to stupid music." This is when I decided I better get out my video camera and document some of this funny behavior. I knew after he came back from this he would get a good laugh too. The entire ride home proved to be pure entertainment for me. Good thing I didn't take any of it personal because he was really mad at me for everything I did. One thing he wanted me to do is stop and let him look at a herd of elk that he saw off I15. I told him we needed to keep going so we could get him to bed. He was not happy about that. When we got him home the 2 oldest boys were home and got to see some of his crazy behavior before we got him something to eat. After he ate, it was like a switch came on and he was back. Needless to say, we had a good laugh the next day when we watched the videos I took. Steve stayed home and rested and recouped the rest of last week then went back to work this Monday. He is still really sore and unable to do to much in way of adjusting patients. He can do neck adjustments because that doesn't take much muscle. His good friend is coming up tomorrow to help take care of his patients that he is unable to muscle. It will probably be a good 3-4 weeks before he's back to normal and able to adjust all his patients on his own. We have another appointment tomorrow morning down at the Huntsman. We will discuss the results of the pathology report and maybe some of our options. 3 days after his surgery we got a call from our doctors office. They called to tell us that they had gotten the pathology report and it stated that they had removed a total of 50 lumpy nodes. All 50 had come back clean from melanoma cells! Yea!! Steve says that he feels like he has won the national championship of life. The Nurse practitioner that had called to tell Steve the news told him that he has a "peculiar" case. We know it is peculiar because we are witnessing miracles right before our eyes. These little bits of good news here and there are nothing short of miracles in our lives and answers to prayers. We are so grateful for the collective prayers from so many people. It is the first time we have been on this side of so many prayers in our behalf. Let me tell you, it's powerful.
