Mission Accomplished

Paul had his surgery at Huntsman Cancer Institute on December 17. He had to be to the hospital by 11 a.m. so we spent the night before at Brent and Angie's home in Layton. The surgery was supposed to begin at 1 p.m., but they were running behind schedule. They finally took him back to the operating room just after 2 p.m. Paul said he still had to wait for a while before they put him under. There was a doctor in a different surgery who wanted to sit in on Paul's surgery. So they waited for him to finish up so he could watch the master surgeon, Dr. Andtbacka, at work. Brent and Angie took the day off work to come and wait with me. They took me to lunch and kept my mind busy. Mom and Dad Carling came at about 4:30 p.m. so Brent and Angie could get to Cory's concert on time.

The nurse called my phone at 5:30 p.m. and said the surgery was finished, they were just sewing him back up. Dr. Andtbacka met with us at 6:15 p.m. He said everything went well. He removed 32 lymph nodes, two of which were the size of his fists, from Paul's arm, underarm, and neck. The lump we could feel and thought was a tumor was actually one of the lymph nodes. There was no cancerous tissue except what was inside eight of the nodes. And that cancer was dead. None of the arteries or nerves that he was concerned about were involved, so everything went smoothly. Paul did get a bit nauseated when he came out of the anesthesia, so he stayed in recovery longer than the usual hour. They brought him out to the room at 9 p.m. and we left the hospital at 10 p.m. We drove to Mom and Dad Carling's, spent the night, then drove home to Rexburg the next morning. Paul and Tyler drove back down on Wednesday afternoon. Paul had a post-surgical appointment with Dr. Andtbacka on Thursday morning. He said everything looked good and he didn't need to see him again until April. When Tyler asked the doctor how many stitches Paul got, Dr. Andtbacka said, "about 30, but you can tell people 200."
Paul has a drain in his side that he has to empty twice a day. It will stay in place until the amount of fluid is below 30 ml in a 24 hour period. That will probably be another week or so. He is feeling a little better with each passing day, but it's going to take a while for him to regain full use of his arm and to build up his strength. Our staff Physical Therapist, Lynn, gave Paul some rubberbands and pulleys along with some exercises to help. Paul worked part of the day yesterday and today.

We had a wonderful Christmas! Santa came on Christmas Eve and left some packages on the front porch. The boys were very excited. Santa really knows what they like! We have been blessed by kind and generous friends and family who seem to know when we need a little help. You know who you are. Thank you! We hope someday to be able to repay your kindness. It has been a very humbling experience to be on the receiving end of things. We are grateful for a loving and knowing Heavenly Father who blesses us through the hands of those around us.

Parker and Hayden were able to serve at the VIP day for the Rexburg Temple Open House yesterday. They helped by putting shoe covers on the people who attended. Parker put booties on Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve. He addressed the 20 or so youth volunteers in the chapel before the tour. Afterwards, they got to have a tour of the temple themselves. It was a neat opportunity for all of them.

The boys go back to school on January 3rd and my first day at BYU-I is the following Thursday, January 10th. We are all anxious to get back to work, especially the boys (ha ha ha). We hope you have a happy and healthy 2008! Stay warm and safe.