Stefan needed surgery this morning, 9/19

I got a call this morning, from Daniella. Hearing the words "Stefan is going in for surgery in twenty minutes." when the phone ringing wakes you up out of a dead sleep... well, that's just NOT the best way to wake up!

Preface to the surgery... Stefan had some visitors on Sunday afternoon, some of whom had noticed the left side of his face starting to swell. Some thought he might be on steroids, and some thought it might just be a side effect of the chemo. Daniella noticed it, and made a note of when it started. Over the course of a few hours, Stefan's fever spiked to 101+ and the swelling was very visible. She called the nurse and asked her to page the doctor. By nightfall, Stefan had a gaggle of specialists coming in and out of his room, scoping his nose to see his sinus cavitiy. They determined that he had a severe sinus infection, from an undetermined source - there could have been a "straggler" left behind that grew into this infection; there could have been something in the air; it could have been a fungus brought in by anyone. {The doctor made it very clear that anyone does indeed mean anyone - from nurses, doctors, housekeeping staff, the meal delivery staff, visitors - no one person can be blamed, if indeed he did develop the sinus infection from something someone brought in. The doctor was very clear on that, because she did not want any visitors to feel guilty, and she did not want the children (Steve's kids or mine) to be blamed either.}

The doctors kept coming in all night long - a CT scan, more scoping, swabbing, checking, and all. He had oncologists, residents, ENT docs, interns, even an Infectious Diseases doc - all sorts of specialists. So it'd be fair to say his "fan club" at NMH is growing. The treatment of choice? An endoscopy - a sinus debriedment - surgery under general anesthesia. Since the doctors wanted to go through his nasal passage, having an oxygen mask during surgery was not an option - Stefan would be intubated. Daniella said at his worst, the left side of Stefan's face had swollen so much that his cheek blended into his nose - the facial creases there had disappeared. It looked like he had a golf ball in his cheek. His eye had partially swollen shut. The left side of his lips were swollen as well. All in all, it looked like he'd been kicked in the face by a horse.

The surgery went well, and Stefan was a good patient. The doctors had to scrape the bone and remove some soft tissue from the sinus cavity; that was sent to the lab after surgery, and the results will be forthcoming after 36 hours. Stefan has no immunity now, so the healing process will take longer for him. The doctors also don't want him to develop scabs there, so they are flushing his sinuses numerous times daily with saline to flush any scabs out. He was still slightly swollen after surgery, but very much improved from how swollen he had gotten overnight. Until the swelling goes down completely, it is not possible to determine if any facial muscles or nerves were damaged by the fungal infection. More severe complications as a result of the infection could be eventual brain damage, if the infection had progressed far into the bone.

Stefan was taken for an MRI after 9:30pm to verify if the infection had progressed to the bone, and if so, to what extent. Right now, only time will tell how much damage he sustained, but as I spoke with him at length this afternoon, his memory wasn't failing him, and his cheek, eye, lip, and chin muscles seemed to be functioning normally. But then again, I'm not a doctor. I asked him questions about our family, and our family history. The doctors had better questions for him: What year is it? Who's the president? What's your name? What do you do for a living? He answered all with flying colors, but when he hesitated and said, "Ummm... well..." when answered the question about his work, the doctors looked worried... until Daniella told them that his job is complicated to explain - it's not a cut-and-dried answer. "I'm a lawyer." "I'm an astronaut." No, Stefan's job has many titles, so he hesitated. I guess it all worked out okay when he answered what he did with a thorough explanation, enough to cross the doctors' eyes. --Did you expect anything different from Stefan?

So, after getting no sleep Sunday night, and not getting much chance to nap between visits from his fan club during the day, let's hope Stefan gets a good night's sleep tonight. And Daniella too - she was up with him the whole time, only catching a few winks while he was in surgery.

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Sorry for not posting any updates on this sooner - it's been a hectic day. Daniella told me she emailed the info about the surgery out to a few people, so I didn't post anything this morning. I went to see him this morning; got back in the afternoon, just in time to get the girls from school. I had a church council meeting this evening, and didn't the chance to post before I left for that. So, better late than never... this is the WHOLE day's update! I'll post more in the morning when I hear from 1505 (Daniella & Stefan).