Home and rocking it!

Hi friends! We went down to Mayo on July 26. The following day was a whirlwind of appointments and scans. At 5:30 Friday morning, July 28, we checked into the hospital at 5:30 am. To our surprise, Mayo is a very busy place that early. Ravi went into surgery at about 9am. Our hotel was right across the street, so we did not have to wait in the waiting room all day. We slept, paced, prayed and tried to remain composed. I think Robert did a better job of being composed than I did. The hospital sent us texts throughout the day to let us know how our warrior was doing. At 8pm, we got the much-anticipated call. We were to report to the recovery room. At 9pm we were allowed in to see Ravi. He was very sleepy, but showing nice movement with his left hand, fingers, and wrist. By 10 pm we were in a room. The surgeon reported that he had removed all of the cancer from the left humerus with good margins. Total surgery time was about 11 hours. We spent 4 more days at the hospital while Ravi got antibiotics and adjusted to life in a sling. The following Wednesday we were released to go home. Thank you to everyone who checked in with us, looked after our pets and brought over food. Much appreciated.

Yesterday we had an appointment at Journey Clinic. Ravi’s oncologist was very pleased with his progress. We have a consultation at Mayo next week to talk to the top thoracic surgeon. Ravi still has nodes in his lungs that need to be taken care of. We are not certain yet when this will happen. He checks in for 5 days of chemotherapy on Monday, August 21. Then he has 15 days off, and then another 5 days of more chemo. We are hopeful that these cycles of chemos will convince the other mets to leave and we will be done with chemo altogether. There may also be radiation in his future, but that is not decided yet.

So, where are we now? Basically, we are just delighted to be home. Ravi is weaning off the heavy painkillers and doing well. He enjoys going for short walks to build up his endurance. He is eating and sleeping well. In another week he can get rid of the sling. The splint will probably come off in early September when we have a follow up with his surgeon. The fact that his surgeon was able to salvage his arm is nothing short of a miracle. We are praying for more miracles. Ravi deserves all the miracles. Thank you all for your prayers and good energies. They are really helping. We will keep you posted. Be good humans and pat all the dogs. Harriet and Ravi.