S + 1

A very quick note - yesterday's surgery is done and Jimmie survived it.  That is certainly the important information.  There were a few complications.  The surgeon just said that the tumor was really huge, nasty, and difficult to get out.  And he was not able to remove quite all of it.  A portion had adhered to the wall of the vena cava and could not be extracted.  Hopefully, chemo will be helpful there as well as Jimmie's lungs.

But the major complication was that Jimmie lost a tremendous amount of blood.  The human body holds about 5 1/2 liters of it.  Jimmie lost 6 1/2 during the 3 1/2 hours of surgery.  He was bleeding it out about as quickly as they were pumping it in.  As a result, he went straight from the operating room into critical care on a ventilator.  But his vital signs were great and were still good this morning so the ventilator is out and he is breathing on his own.  His vascular surgeon figures Jimmie will remain in ICU through the weekend.

- Linda