The Second Surgery

We stayed at a hotel that was just 2 blocks away from the hospital so that it would be easy to get to the hospital on time and not worry about traffic, weather, etc. We obviously left our brains at home, cause we had to keep calling the front desk to let them know about things that we had left at home--hairbrush, deodorant, razor, etc. We finally got it together enough to get to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at about 6:30 a.m. and Darrell got admitted. Darrell's brother Glenn and wife Dale, and his sister Sherry met us in Admitting. Later, Darrell's mom and new "hubby" Dan met us in the waiting area. We had so many folks who came and sat with us during the surgery--Bro. & Sis. Wesson and James Duckworth from church, along with Julie Pierce and Chuck Kennedy from the Birmingham area. Angie & Neal came, too. Some of Dale's family (her brother Jim and his wife Sue) were at the hospital, too, along with Sherry and Darrell's Mom's pastor, Rick Bradley. (I hope I didn't leave out anybody).

The pre-op area was so small so just a couple of folks could come in to see Darrell before surgery. Pastor Wesson and James came back and prayed with Darrell, then some of his family came and visited for a short time. Darrell was so relaxed, compared to the previous surgery. He said God had given him such peace about everything.

Darrell's surgeon, Glenn Peters came in and reassured us that everything was going to go well and when Darrell asked him if the surgery was going to take about the 2 hours that we had been told, he laughed and said that he didn't have enough to take out to take that amount of time. He said it would be much less than that.

He told us that Dr. Boyce (not sure if that's the correct spelling) would be the Anesthesiologist (I'm sure that's not even close to how to spell that word--but I hope you'll know what I'm talking about). He is the person that we had heard about the week before that is the "king of airways", just like we had heard that Dr. Peters was the "king of thyroids.

Dr. Boyce also asked Darrell to tell him about his voice and why it was so quiet and he said that it was just a "numb nerve" and called it something (I'll try to remember the exact medical term) and that he thought it would come back within 6 to 8 weeks. We were ecstatic (what's wrong with my spelling tonight?--not sure if I spelled that word right or not, either)!!!!! Finally someone had told exactly what it was and gave us a "firm" answer when to expect his voice back.

The nurse came in and told Darrell that he had the "dream team" working for him today in surgery, so we knew that we "favor" going into this surgery.

They took him back to surgery at about 8:55 a.m. and before 10:00 a.m. the front desk said that I had a phone call. It was the doctor and he said that the surgery was over (in less than an hour) and that everything had gone really well--no trach was needed--the right nerve "behaved" itself, he didn't need a drain tube, and that things had gone exactly as planned, actually a little better. He said that he would be in recovery up to 2 hours. Within an hour, the nurse from recovery called and said that he was improving so fast, that they would call soon and that I could go back to see him and that if all went well, he could go home pretty soon. We were thinking about mid afternoon, but they let him go home a little after noon! Can you believe that? God just worked everything out today "perfectly".

I can't believe how fast it all happened today, but we just got home from Darrell's surgery (2:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon). Everything went so well and so ahead of schedule, that they sent us home right after noon (which was a couple of hours ahead of when we thought he would come home). Renae Stephenson cooked him some soft food for supper and he ate very well, despite the extremely sore throat.

God has been so good to Darrell during these surgeries. Everything went well--no complications, no drainage tube, no trach, just a miracle and excellence on the part of the "Master Physician" as he used two "dream team" surgeons.

Thank you guys so much for praying. He'll be home this week recuperating. His incision is sore as well as his throat where they had the intubation tube and the ride home wasn't exactly comfortable, but thank the Lord we're home so that he can rest and life can start resembling some side of normalcy again for us.

He goes back to the doctor on Thursday of this week and we'll get report on the right side of the thyroid (which is going to be positive remarks, we are believing) and also instructions on future radiation treatments to destroy the remaining cancer cells on the left side.

Thanks again for your prayers. God is good!

Keep his "spot" warm in the choir!

~Vickey