Some tumors removed

Friday morning and JB is recovering from surgery to remove tumors from his neck, for a second time. He made it through the procedure but has not felt a great improvement from the situation before the surgery. Perhaps some pressure removed by debulking one of the major growths on his neck. Dr. Y did a meticulous job on what he attempted to remove. He noted that the tumors were heavily intwined with muscle, blood vessles and nerves. One of the major issues with all of the tumors is how invasive they are with many vital areas. Specifically he had to avoid damaging nerves that control heart beat, motor motion, breathing etc. He was successful freeing some of these improtant nerves from the cancer, but mentioned he had some trouble with a nerve which may result in loss of sensation from the left ear and left side of his head. He hoped that the right side sensation would compensate for this loss.
Today several visits are scheduled from different groups, including physical therapy, pain management, pallitive/hospice care and Dr. Y. It appears that the drainage from the neck wound is still significant enough that they will keep him in the hospital for one more night. Hopefully he comes home tomorrow to recover in the comforts of home.
Pain management is a high priority at the moment. It seems that the previous regiment for tackling the pain has been less than sufficient. Of course the last few weeks JB has been in acute pain as a result of the massive growths on his left bicep, forearm and armpit area. To try to deal with this Dr. A requested an increase in the pain patch dosage and allowed JB to take more oxycodone. But on further review from Dr. Y, he was under the impression that we should have been more proactive in communication with pain management specialists as there are likely better meds to work with for this type of pain. He was administered a new pain medicine which is a nerve blocking agent and JB mention that the level of pain went from a 8-9 (scale of 10) to 3-5. That is not optimal, but perhaps with further consultation he can get this down to 1-2 with better dosage or a combination of additional drugs. On top of that we hope that the pain meds can be adjusted so he is more lucid and not sleeping so much.
Further updates as we get them. Call or e-mail if you are interested in making a visit sometime today at the hospital.