Jessica gets an operation date

On a beautiful sunny and warm day in Ottawa, we made our way to meet Dr. Chadwick, a stomach surgeon at the Ottawa Civic hospital. He usually doesn't work Wednesday morning but felt the problem with Jessica was urgent and needed to be looked at. He first explained to us what he had found looking at the catscan and MRI. He drew some us some pictures (see inset) with a description of the operation and announced he had found a time slot for him and Dr. Ling to perform the operation. It is scheduled for a week from tomorrow on April 6th, 2006. This works great because it is just after the end of the fiscal year (Jessica needs to work this week) but also allows us to go to Waterloo for Easter.

The operation is of medium difficulty because the mass is pushing against her uterus (actually dislodged it from its natural position) and also the anus passage and possibly the kidney. This would explain a lot such as pain in the back (kidneys), on the sides (uterus) and problems with bowel movement (anus). The sheer size of it (size of a softball) was cause for concern by the surgeon from the beginning and you could see from his concern, he wanted it out as much as we did.

Risks include a rupture of the bowel lining with feces still in there (causing an infection) but we will follow all the necessary pre-operation guidelines minimizing any risk. Another two risks are rupture of the main artery to the legs (very, very remote risk) or the two tubes leading to the bladder (very remote as well). All this amounts to a medium risk surgery with two experienced surgeons on hand (a stomach specialist doing the operation and a pelvic specialist on hand if the uterus is lodged and needs to be moved). The only cutting done will be close to the bowel so the doctor was confident that it should be a seemless operation. They will make a vertical incision of about two inches just below the belly button in order to reduce any damage to the abdomidal muscles.

This allows us to brief a sign of relief and thank God for answering our prayers for a quick operation. Thanks for everyone who prayed with us. Praying really does work, I've come to learn. Now, let's pray for a seemless operation and quick recovery for Jessica with no long term damage. We'll know better the situation in mid-April.