Friday's visit with surgeon
- Cewanda Todd
- Aug 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 2
The surgeon was awesome and we really like her as far as her teaching of the function of the spleen, what happens when you have 1/2 of the spleen removed, and what to expect when the entire spleen is removed. She was one of the most informative and caring doctors that we have met. So glad she is part of Kendall's care team. We were left with no unanswered questions. She said "Glad to have met you but I hope you don't need me." Me too!!!!
She said there are 3 options and surgery would be the last option.
I told you on the last post about a conference that all of the specialists meet and discuss cases. She said she will not be available for that conference but she is going to reach out to the hematologist, oncologist, radiologist, and the transplant team this week so they can come up with a plan. Her schedule is booking up fast and if she needs to schedule Kendall she wants to do it ASAP because August is full, September is almost full, and she doesn't want to wait until October to schedule her if that is the plan.
These are the takeaways we got:
The hematologist may be able to find a medication that does not suppress her immune system further and/or interfere with anything else that's going on in her body.
The radiologist could do the procedure where they go through her groin and inject medication, or coils that help to stop blood flow into the mass on the spleen that would help stop the growth. There are a lot of risks with this one: infection, abscess, and having to repeat this procedure multiple times before it takes affect to shrink the mass.
Surgery- She said normally she suggests taking 1/2 of the spleen out and leaving 1/2. The spleen is responsible for helping with the immune system and in Kendall's case it would be better to leave 1/2 of the spleen in. But....she said it is ideal to take the bottom 1/2 of the spleen and leave the top but the mass is on the top part of her spleen. If it is decided to leave 1/2 of the spleen it would be done laparoscopic and it can be removed through 3 incisions on her abdomen and the recovery time is quicker and she would have less pain and restrictions. If it is decided to remove the entire spleen it is a longer recovery time, a very lengthy surgery time, more painful, and more restrictions. Antibiotics for 1 year because there a lot of viruses, bacterial infections, and higher risks of sepsis that would cause her to be sicker than a person that is not immunocompromised and had a transplant.
The endocrinologist(diabetes) doctor called a few hours after we got home. She was telling me that Kendall was ready to start the weaning process off of steroids and that she was sending the prescription to the pharmacy. She also said that we have to come into the office to be taught how/when to give an emergency medication if Kendall started to show signs that she wasn't tolerating being off the steroid dose she was used to. They go very slow on the weaning process so it won't affect her kidney function. After she told me all of this I asked her if she was aware of the lymph node biopsy on Monday. She was not aware of this or the latest lab reports and will contact oncology on Monday. She said the medications will still come to in the mail and we can just hold off giving them until the biopsy is back.
I'm simply delivering the facts that were told. We always want to be informed and be able to ask questions in order to get a better understanding. No matter what the facts are, we know facts change all of the time and knowing that, it keeps us encouraged.
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