Successful Surgery

Today the doctors at MD Anderson successfully completed Shawn Jr’s surgery with no complications.  They (1) removed the original melanoma spot from his scalp and (2) removed a tumor and several lymph nodes on the left side of his neck.  The surgery was somewhat complicated and long.   He went into surgery at 7:00 am and we were allowed to go back and see him at around 1:30.  

They removed the tumor and lymph nodes in his neck  for two purposes.  First, to eliminate the cancer tumor in that spot.  Second, this surgery is part of a clinical trial where they will be taking the tissue from the lymph nodes and attempting to harvest and grow t-cells for potential later use.  They will take the tissue, grow more t-cells and then freeze the entire specimen.  If needed, these t-cells can later be activated, grown into billions of cells and injected back into Shawn Jr’s body to help fight the cancer.   This is part of the backup plan if immunotherapy does not work the first time.  

Shawn will be sore and will need physical therapy.  The spot on his head has been repaired with a skin graph from his leg.  The spot on his leg and his scalp will certainly be sore.  The tumor in his neck was completely removed.  Because of the location of the tumor, they had to move and stretch a key nerve that controls the upward motion of his left arm.  Because of this, his arm will have some limited range of motion and he will need physical therapy to restore that range of motion.  Shawn also has a drain installed in his neck that should be able to be removed before he goes home.  The poor guy has wounds, cuts or tubes in his leg, chest, shoulder, neck, and scalp.  For those Grey’s Anatomy fans, I told him he is going to need the “Plastics Posse” after all of this.  

We expect he will be in the hospital for a few days.   We will then go home for a few days before we head back to MD Anderson next week for his first cancer treatment.  

All in all, today was really good results thanks to the skilled surgeons and healthcare professionals at MD Anderson. 

Below is a picture of Shawn Jr in recovery.  (I will save you the scary pictures of his surgery locations.) 




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