Dr. visit....and a few blows to the gut.....

So today was our 2nd post op visit for the 2nd operation......we were hoping for a boot and not a cast.....well the result!?!??! Neither!! After they removed it....they discovered it is far to swollen for either.....Ray did like the fact that the half cast was off...He got about 1/2 hour without anything.....they took some X-rays....and removed the staples from the knee....the ones on the shin will have to stay in place at least for another week. The wound in comparison from the first surgery is horrible! The first one really looked good...not much discoloration (just the little red spot of the minor infection) but his the whole leg was VERY discolored and swollen and the cut now has sutures with the staples. His poor foot was the most swollen.....it LOOKED painful! So that was our first blow.....back into the half cast for at least another week. 2nd blow was from the X-rays.....it was weird seeing all the hardware and I was under the impression that this was a pretty solid fix......the upper part (near the knee) looks great it only has one pin through the rod....but near the ankle/metatarsals it is FULL of hardware....plates, pins and the rod. And we knew from the surgery that they had to go WAY close to the ankle/foot-leg connection but until we saw the X-rays we had no idea how TRULY close it was! So this is our most vital part.......its the thing we must pray heals and fuses together. If it doesn't (and would be called a non-union) that would be trouble!!! No use of the foot and in extreme case amputation ::shudder:: So this area is the top priority right now. He compared it to a paper clip and if you keep bending it back and forth it eventually breaks....that's what we want to avoid and pray it heals! 3rd blow came in the topic of margins....this we were familiar with due to Ray's two abdominal surgeries...in a nut shell when they remove something they hope to remove it far enough to have CLEAN margins....the top looks great....CLEAN margins....but at that darn ankle/foot area there was cancer cells present.....Not the best news....this means on top of the radiation we already planned on chemo will be most likely (so hard on his weak body) but all this will be a mute point if we can't get it to heal....so either chemo/radiation is out for probably another month or so....4th blow.......healing time could be in excess of 3-6 MONTHS! ARGH! We were still in our frame of mind of 6-8 weeks!!! It was a horrible afternoon for me.....and a surreal one for Ray (thanks in part to heavy pain meds) So we left with some wind knocked out of our sail.....and some new prescriptions.....more pain pills for Ray and some Ambien....to help Ray sleep...his sleep is getting less and less despite the pain meds.....We follow up in a week to see how things have progressed. Well there you have it.....And I don't want to sound demanding or anything but we could sure use and extra prayer or two to build up our faith to endure to the end! Oh also.....as we were waiting for Dr. Scott (a long time too which is unusual) and then when he finally came in he apologized and then went on to explain he was with a family and a patient FOURTEEN years old is all that has the same thing as Ray.....a tumor in her bone but this one is in the femur. Ray and I shared some tears for this girl......I don't know her name or anything but please pray for her as well!! We love you all!