Beginning of Recovery

Hi everyone,

I know I'm late with this one, and I'm sorry--most of you are probably asleep already and will see this tomorrow morning. Doug made it through the surgery just fine, and now begins the recovery phase. Here is an overview of what the last few hours have been:

Surgery took a total of 12 hours. We got a call from the nurse letting us know that they were closing up and that Dr. Sardi would be out to talk to us in the next 90 minutes. The doctor came out and let us know that Doug was doing well--his diabetes was good throughout the procedure which was always a concern in the back of my mind. He removed a LOT of tumor from Doug's abdomen, and his body responded well to the heated chemotherapy. We will know a lot more over the course of the next few days as Doug is able to wake up and participate in our conversations with the doctor. I will be giving more updates over the next couple of days, as often as possible, I promise--I know there are a lot of concerned friends and family out there. with this thing, we don't always have answers right away.

Now my definite best part of the night---they let us into the ICU to see him!! Doug will be spending tonight and most of tomorrow in the ICU--he is still on a ventilator, although he's breathing just fine on his own it is normal to keep him on to make sure that the general anesthesiaa that "freezes" the muscles that help him breath have completely worn off. They let all five of us in to see him at once which was great, and then I got to spend a couple minutes alone with him before we left. He was awake, knew who we were and knew we were there. He has a fever and is in some pain (which i made sure to point out to the nurses up there so they are keeping an eye on his pain level and the fever). He was given a lot (i think Sardi said like 20 liters!) of fluid over those 15 hours he was with the team, so he's a bit bloated. I can't even tell you how brave he is and how proud I am of him. i could only hope that if I had to go through something like this I could be like that. It was painful almost to leave him there all alone, but I know he needs his sleep (and so do I....I'm running on about 48 hours straight of being awake--good thing UCONN trained me well for that!). I just want to protect him from this and I know I can't. We will all reconvene at the hosptial tomorrow around 9 am, and we will be able to see him off and on throughout the day. Our hope is that he gets to leave ICU by tomorrow night, and they will for sure have him sitting up and even out of bed once for a couple of steps tomorrow.

On a personal note if I could indulge for a moment---thank you all SO MUCH for today. I was in no way, shape, or form prepared for what today would be like--hardest day of my life by far and I pray that you guys don't have to ever share the experience. I know I didn't pick the phone when it rang, write back to emails or texts, but please know that I read and listened to every single one and it really kept me going. i saved everything to read and play for doug when he's feeling a little better. Its when times are the hardest and the worst that people become their best and thats what all of you did for me today. I'm really running on empty as you can probably tell by my ramblings, but I wanted to, out of appreciation for all you've done for me, and for Doug and his family today, to at least get out an update. I also was very glad to be with doug's family all day---it was easier being together definitely.

OK bedtime so that i can be ready for full speed ahead recovery for my favorite guy in the world (tied only with my dad of course!). He's not going to like everything that he's going to have to do to get better because its going to HURT so I'm mentally preparing myself for that! Love you all, keep the encouragement coming!

Also, I don't have a room number or address for doug yet, but if you want to send a card or anything else to him you can send it to me here at the Hope Lodge and I'll make sure that he gets it. Here is the address:

Lindsey Springer
American Cancer Society Hope Lodge Baltimore
636 w Lexington Street Room #208
Baltimore, MD 21201

OK more updates tomorrow.
Love,
Lindsey