Two cardio-thoracic surgeons, Dr. Reardon and Dr. Durham, came to see us this evening.  They both do not feel surgery is warranted at this time.  There is no guaranteed benefit, and any benefit does not outweigh the risks.  They said the badly diseased upper part of his right lung did not collapse with the rest of his lung because it is pretty much all scar tissue.  In the CT done at Regency on 3/19 when it was collapsed, the upper part of the right lung looks just like the one done here on Monday, 3/23.  They said once they do remove the chest tube (after they try capping it off and checking the lung for a few hours) there will be scar tissue from the tube, adhering the bottom part of the lung to the chest wall.  If one of the air cysts would burst, the lung would probably not be able to collapse due to all of the scar tissue.  He will probably not have any use of the top right lung no matter what.  Surgery right now would be very risky while the lung is in such bad shape.  The swollen tissue would make the layers indistinguishable, and they could accidentally cut a vein. 
 
Anyway, the bottom line is they do not want to do surgery now.
 
Ron is exhausted tonight from coughing all day.  He coughed so hard, he threw up twice... had swallowed a lot of phlegm.  But that is good to get that stuff out of his lung.  He has a slight headache, but that's his only issue...  That's a great day in Ron Stout land lately.  I'll take it!  :)
 
Thanks, everyone, for the cheery messages, prayers, cards, help, and good wishes!
 
Love,
EJ 
 
 

Ron's stomach and back pain were resolved last night and this morning. He has had only a headache today, and that's from all the coughing he's been doing.  He has gotten LOTS of phlegm out of his lungs today.  They did come do an abdominal x-ray this afternoon.
 
I talked to Dr. Jamal and Dr. Tita today.  They are both critical care medical doctors and pulmonologists.  They conferred and compared notes, and both want to get the opinion of a cardio-thoracic surgeon.  They are concerned about the very poor condition of his right lung.  It has air cysts called pneumatocoeles that are in danger of bursting.  They think one of them did burst to cause the lung collapse last week, and he has many more of them.  The top part of his right lung may need to be removed to get rid of that risk.  I haven't seen the surgeon, so I don't know if he will be here still today to evaluate Ron, or if it might be tomorrow.  They said there are a lot of scar tissue and infiltrates showing in the scans and x-rays.  The CT done Monday, 3/23 is not any different than the one done Saturday, 3/7.
 
The cardiologist, Dr. Maaieh, said Ron's heart is doing fine, and he has switched the Lopressor from IV to stomach form.  He said Ron my need to be put on Coumadin blood thinner.
 
I will write more when I have talked to the surgeon.
 
Love,
EJ