update from Bob Shalowitz

HELLO to all of our friends and relatives. Sorry for no updates but the last 1-2 weeks have been stressful with many Dr appointments and very slow progress.
Next time anyone tells you that you will be fine 2-3 days after a surgery, let me tell you, based on 30 years as a doc myself: it may not be true! The surgery may be done perfectly, but every patient reacts differently, and doing surgery on a person is not the same as changing your car's spark plugs!
With Maureen's emergency surgery in June, we were all told to expect her to be home in 3 days-instead she was on a respirator for 6 days, in the ICU for 10 days, and in the hospital and rehab for a total of 6 weeks.
With her current surgery(left femur rod placement), she has been very sore, is walking short distances with a walker, and requires a lot of medicine. She has a hematoma near the upper of her 2 incisions but it appears to no be growing. Her blood thinners have been stopped and she is scheduled to start radiation treatment of the left femur this coming monday for a total of 13 treatments.
We both are very happy with the surgeon, Dr Durbhakula and the surgery was done perfectly. But everyone recovers differently and recovery is unpredictable, even with more minor procedures.
This is why when a women tells me to just take her uterus out, she doesn't need it anymore, I refuse unless she really needs it--because I know that complications can occur no matter how simple the operation, and certainly more with complicated ones.
It is probably going to take a total of 6-8 weeks for her to walk without a walker, but I have to say she is doing a little better each day.
GOOD NEWS(we certainly need some): Her CA27-29 tumor marker has dropped from 448 to 202, more than a 50% reduction, probably secondary to the medicine she is on(aromatast inhibitor) and the fact than some tumor was scraped out of the bone when before the rod was put it. This is a significant postive.
She has a lot of trouble getting in a comfortable position and thank god Eileen is here-I could not do this without her. She manages to work her sister into some type of position she can stand, using hot packs, cold packs, pillows, towels. The Ipod also really helps her sleep(thanks Susan Shalowitz).
In any case, the summer of 2009 has been a nightmare that we keep hoping we will wake up from, but since that doesn't look like it is going to happen, I have to say, that in view of the initial emergency in mid June, things COULD have been much, much worse by now. Her leg is stable, and hopefully the recurrent breast cancer will continue to respond to the medication as it appears to be doing.
Will try to update more often-
Thanks to everyone-
Bob S.