Friday Morning - Berkowitz Post-Surgery Visit

Dr. Berkowitz visited Mom at 6:50 am. He said that everything went very well. The cancer responded dramatically to the chemo. He removed everything bigger than a tenth of an inch, and there really wasn’t that much to remove. During surgery Dr. Berkowitz discussed with Dr. Berlin (Mom's oncologist) about putting in an abdominal catheter and they decided to put it in. Now chemo will be administered intravenously and through the IP catheter. They did take the appendix out, that was the only bowel work. The goals for today are getting out of bed with the help of the nurses and deep breathing. He said Mom has every reason to be encouraged by her current condition. The incision looked good – the dressing is nice and dry. They excised the old wound, so new tissue is being used to heal the incision. He emphasized that it is dramatic what the chemotherapy did. We have every reason to be hopeful that the chemotherapy will resolve the rest. The average is to be in the hospital 3 days. Hopefully she will be ready to go home Sunday or Monday. She can do the stairs in our house. The only restriction is from the perspective of her comfort. She shouldn't do stairs on her own, but she can do them.

In terms of her morale, Mom is quite peaceful. She is very lucid, much better than the last time. She was quite encouraged by the news from Dr. Berkowitz and is currently resting.

Stephen Juraschek