"Miracle Surgery"

[Jay Markanich]

We’ve been in Chattanooga TN since Sunday for my wife to have a serious surgery. It was to repair problems to a previous surgery caused by a car accident she was in three years ago. The previous surgery, in Oct 2000, a breakthrough surgery then, was performed by Drs. Harry Reich and C. Y. Liu, both pioneers in laparoscopic surgery. The car accident pulled some of those things apart and damaged others, so a fix was in order.

Two top doctors in Washington DC and one at Johns Hopkins said that what needed to be done could not possibly be done laparoscopically. One said it would be a “miracle surgery” if it was.

Well, her miracle surgery was done yesterday. She is fine, swollen, bruised and sore, but fine. Usually she only has two holes in addition to the big one in the navel. This time she has five. It was deemed a terrific success.

The other “miracle” is that Dr. Liu came out of semi-retirement to perform this surgery. It is said to be his last. How fortunate for my wife. Because it was using breakthrough technologies and techniques, my wife said she met a bunch doctors from all over the country who came to Chattanooga to watch it being done. We’re told that some of them are familiar with my wife from medical textbooks and JAMA articles she has appeared in. When you sign that piece of paper allowing that, you don’t know what might come of you!

My wife says Dr. Liu brings in his special equipment to do all this and that the operating room looks very sci-fi and futuristic. Much of what he uses is of his design and invention. Even the operating table is different.

He truly is the best in the world.  We are grateful and thankful for his service to us.

The team and staff at Parkridge East Hospital in Chattanooga are terrific. They are competent, helpful and friendly at the same time. All in all, this is a very friendly town – I have been called “Hon,” “Darlin’”and “Sweetie” more in the last few days than in all of my life previous! I bet if I asked for a pina colada (virgin) and a foot massage, they would somehow accommodate me.

And this hospital is so proud to have Dr. Liu operate there they can hardly stand it. He puts them on the map. When he walks down the hall it is with Rock Star status! He has invited many Fellows here to study with him. One of the Fellows who participated in this procedure remembers reading about my wife in med school. That is both interesting and weird at the same time!

If you Google the Women’s Surgery Center in Chattanooga, virtually everything on the left-hand navigation was redone or repaired. Pelvic floor reconstruction is a complex surgery by any measure, especially when it is coupled by so many other procedures.

After it was done, Dr. Liu gave me my DVD of the operation, a little over 4 hours. He always gives me one. I have many others, from many other surgeries! It’s quite a collection. You might say I am one of the few spouses who can really say that he knows his wife inside and out. He won’t allow me anywhere near the surgery because he says I am “too jocular.” Can you believe that? So he makes me DVDs. Well, better than nothing I guess… I know, having a DVD of an operation sounds like a big yuck, but it is really interesting to see.

Dr. Liu is a very matter-of-fact person. He is not one to joke around. But I got a smile out of him when I thanked him for putting her in room 207 because of the good feng shui. He smiled and shot his hand upward at an angle, demonstrating that he understood. It is good feng shui to have numbers that go up and not down… don’tcha know.

Now it’s careful recovery and a hopeful return home on Monday. That will be difficult as well. That’s when the real fun begins. Wish us luck!
 

[David Macy]

God bless you wife and I hope she has a healthy and not to painful recovery.

What is your wife's name?

Best wishes for you and your family.

Dom

Can the guys here at Hip including myself send some flowers or something!!

[Dominic Maricic]

Hey Jay,

Glad to hear that everything went so well! Definitely let me know the address where she'll be recovering and we'll send her some flowers from the HIPPIES

[Ian Niquette]

Best wishes to your wife Jay. Miracles really do happen everyday, hope everything works out.

[John Adrian Sopher]

Hope your wife has a quick recovery! 

[Jay Markanich]

Thank you all, especially Dave for your thoughtfulness.  She would be surprised to receive flowers from strangers.  Which is wonderful.

Her name is Wanda.

The address is    12315 Sherborne Street    Bristow VA 20136

We expect, but are not sure, to be home Monday night.

We came here with much, much trepidation.  Not that we did not have confidence in Dr. Liu, but in the difficulty of what needed to be done.  She is up over 30 surgeries at this point, which takes it out of a person in every way imaginable.  But, she is doing so much better today.  It truly is amazing.  Just this morning she was groggy, slurring and drugged.  This afternoon is a different story.

Here's how I can tell she's back:

The doctor wants her to walk.  The first one was very difficult, understandably, late this morning.  She did a half lap around the floor, cutting through the nurse's station in the middle.  As she was coming through, with a nurse on each side, she asked me to help her instead.  She did not notice but the nurses shooed me away.  So I stood there.  That inaction got me "the look."  You know what I mean.

Then she said how poorly she feels and probably looks and doesn't think she should walk so far.  I said she looked great and was doing fine.  She said, "Why are you being so argumentative?!"  Argumentative??  I thought I was being complimentary!

So I said, "The doctor thinks you should walk another 3 or 4 times today and a little further each time.  I agree."  That got me a second, more strident LOOK.  Even I did not know until then that that is facially possible.

She's baaaack......

This place is wonderful.  I went to the cafeteria for lunch and got a salad to take back to the room to eat.

I made my way through the line to the cash register.  The lady behind the counter addressed me.  Here is the conversation:

"Weryew fruuum?"

"The Washington DC area."

"Ah nohwed yewernt frmeer cuzyer acsaynt aint raut."

"Yes ma’am. I wasn’t aware that I have an accent."

"Oooohyays yewduuu!" (Toothless grin…)

"Yes ma’am."

Then, typical of the people I have met here so far, she says -- "Wyntcha go ngitcha sumpin moor? Ah wohn tayl nohwn."

The people here have been an absolute delight!

I think they will release her to come back to the hotel tomorrow and we are scheduled to fly home Monday afternoon.  That's if the doctor says she can.  I hope so.  This has been an ordeal for us both!  But so far, so way good...

[Russ McKee]

Jay, tell your wife Wanda, we wish the best for her and your family, hang in there Jaybird!

-Russ

[Jay Markanich]

Wanda had a bit of a setback today.  One lung collapsed and filled with fluid, causing a high fever.  Now they are worried about pneumonia.  They were going to release her today to recover further in the hotel.  Now that is on hold.  I'll keep you informed.

[Dominic Maricic]

Ouch. Were they able to drain the fluid from the lungs? Keep us updated on her progress and we'll keep her in our prayers.

[Jay Markanich]

Hi all - unfortunately I do not have great news regarding Wanda's recovery.  Two days ago she developed a serious fever.  Her urine tested fine so it was not related to the surgery.  Then yesterday morning a lung collapsed and began filling with fluid.  Not good.  She had been up walking and doing her respiratory exercises (blowing into and raising a ball in a tubular thing - sparometer (sp?)) - and feeling ok.  The fever worsened and they did a CAT* scan  and chest x-rays.  They determined it was related to the previously undetected collapsed lung.  So she has been battling that.

Then today (Saturday) she developed a serious urinal tract infection and her fever remains over 101.5F, despite Tylenol and antibiotics.  She was unable to urinate because her bladder is apparently numb, and she distended quite a bit.  That was not good either based on where most of the surgery took place.  So they quickly put another catheter in to drain her.  That is probably the source of the UTI.

Her right leg is numb as well, hurts when she walks around the hallway, and her coccyx hurts when she sits on the toilet.  When she was in college she fell down stairs and slipped a disk low down in her back.  This feels like that pain, she remembers well.  During surgery they do bend and shape the legs in different positions and perhaps it slipped again, they don't know at this point.  So that may be a long-term result of all of this.

So, instead of being released from the hospital Thursday or Friday at the latest, to recover further in the hotel, she is being kept in the hospital until at least Monday.  It appears we will not be returning Monday night, at this point.

Keep us in mind, thanks.

Jay

*  Personally I am a DOG guy, but if that's what they want to do I will go along with it...

[John Adrian Sopher]

I will keep you guys in my prayers and put in a prayer request for you guys tomorrow at church.

[David Macy]

Jay

I also have Wanda in my prayers.

Recently are Priest spoke about the crosses we bare on Earth.  He could not explain why some people suffer so much and others dont.

He basically said that the crosses we face on Earth will prepare us for a eternal life with God.

I am sadden by the news but I am hopeful Wanda will recover. 

I am also a Dog person. 

[Michael Merino]

Jay does she have bilateral pneumothorax? Did she have a chest x-ray prior to surgery? Did they place chest tubes? If so. are they to negative pressure?

The laprascopic equipment pictured is a robotic assisted laprascope.

[Dominic Maricic]

Hey Jay,

Thanks for the update. Are you saying her other lung collapsed today or the same one collapsed again? She'll be in our prayers again tonight.

[Jay Markanich]

Hi all -

During the night Wanda experienced a miraculous recovery!  Her fever is gone, her infections subsided, her O2 gases are 99%, which means her lung is working (actually both are fine now) and her blood pressure went from 80/50 to 129/88.  All great news.  Even the doctors were surprised.

They released her to come to the hotel with me this afternoon.  She has already had a life-saving shower!  It seems we will be flying out tomorrow as planned.  This is great news too.  I am already booked for the week beginning Wednesday and needed to get home!  No work = no money!

She has her instructions regarding exercise and lung therapy, and prescriptions, and we will be underway!  I can't tell you what a burden this has been.  Your comments and thoughts and prayers have been duly noted and appreciated.  Thank you so much, to all of you...

P.s.  The doctors were concerned that the stress and lack of sleep had affected  me and took my blood pressure.  It was 131/77.  Not bad for an old guy...     (;>)

[Jay Markanich]

Dave - thank you for your concern, even to ask your spiritual adviser! 

I have had questions like that before and reading a chapter in a book really helped clear it up for me.  The book is "Faith Precedes the Miracle," by Spencer W. Kimball.  The chapter is entitled, "Tragedy or Destiny?"  Basically it treats the question of why there is so much suffering.

Here is a little food for thought.  A couple of lines:

"Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment or even death, and if these were not there would also be an absence ofjoy, success, resurrection, eternal life..."

and

"Every act of God is purposeful. He sees the end from the beginning. He knows what builds us, or tears us down, what will thwart the program and what will give us eventual triumph.

The Lord does not always heal the sick, nor save those in hazardous zones. He does not always relieve suffering and distress, for even these seemingly undesirable conditions may be part of a purposeful plan.

Being human we would expel form our lives, sorrow, distress, physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we closed the doors upon such, we might be evicting our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long suffering and self mastery. The sufferings of our Savior was part of his education."

and

"The Lord takes many away in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man and the sorrows and evils of the present world. They were to pure. too lovely, to live on this earth. Therefore I mightily considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil and we shall have them again. The only difference between the old and young dying, is one lives longer in heaven and eternal light and glory than the other, and is freed a little sooner from this miserable world.”

I believe that faith in fact does precede miracles.  Last night was a miracle for us.  I can tell you that this was not the first miracle we have experienced. 

Thanks for your thoughts and for thinking of us.

[Jay Markanich]

Mike - your questions -

1.  I don't know!  She has two lungs, which is bi lateral...
2.  Yes.  She had the works.  This was considered "serious" surgery.
3.  They took her away when the lung collapsed and brought her back.  No tubing after the treatment.  I don't know all that they did.  She does not remember.
4.  Her blood pressure was very low.  It is up to normal now.

That pictured machine is one of Dr. Liu's babies.  I could have posted this picture too - see below!

[Michael Merino]

I am glad she is better. Bilateral would mean both lungs.

[John Adrian Sopher]

See what happens when so many people pray for one thing!!! 

[Dominic Maricic]

That's awesome news Jay! Have a safe flight home, let us know when you get there.