Surgery is over!

Jennifer here again.  Dr. Steinberg just came from the OR to talk with Chelsea and me in the Surgery Waiting Room.  He said that the surgery went well, that the bladder, prostate and lymph nodes are out, and that the neobladder has been constructed.  Ken didn't need any blood transfusions during the surgery, though occasionally patients will need them in the few days afterward, depending on how everything heals up - nothing to worry about.  He also said that although there were several enlarged lymph nodes, none of them actually looked too worrisome, yay!  Even though on the CT scan the lymph nodes looked enlarged, he said cancerous lymph nodes (and even those affected by chemo) often "stick" to the blood vessels around them, but Ken's didn't, which is a good sign.  We'll have to wait for the pathology reports to know for sure.  They dissected out the lymph nodes from the pelvis all the way up to above the bifurcation of the aorta, on both sides, and Dr. Steinberg's not sure exactly how many they took out.  We'll have to wait for the pathology to learn what all was involved, but unfortunately the pathologists here work at a snail's pace - it will probably be a week or more before we find out.  When Chelsea asked if it looked like the prostate was involved, Dr. Steinberg said he didn't see any visual evidence of that, and that the prostate wasn't enlarged.  He said he was able to spare the nerves as well, yay!  Chelsea asked some more technical questions about the neobladder, learning that they use part of the ileum up until about 15 cm proximal to the ileocecal junction, to preserve B12 absorption capability; they keep the original blood supply.  Now, we move on to waiting for the pathology results - deja vu.  Ken will be in the recovery room for a couple of hours . . . more waiting (are we there yet?!? are we there yet?!?) and then we'll get to see him!