Pre-Op

This morning Ronny and I met with Ronny's surgeon up at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The resident came in first (we know the drill with teaching hospitals!) She was great and so funny. She told us they typically schedule surgery for those with urine calcium levels over 400, Ronny's was over 1000! So surgery is definitely in our future! After she was done Dr. Hunt came in and did everything again and then told us that 90% of these tumors are just on one of the 4 glands but with Ronny's blood and urine levels and history of symptoms he told Ronny that his odds of primary parathyroid hyperplasia (all 4 glands affected) are about 50%. Once they remove the affected gland they will run more blood work while he is under anesthesia (the PTH half life is only 5-8 minutes), if the PTH levels drop a good deal then they know only the one gland is affected, if the levels don't drop then they will know that the other glands have problems as well. If that is the case they will take out 3 of his glands and leave the least problematic one in. The tricky part to taking out 3 of the 4 is that they have to find all 4 which means exploratory surgery and possibly an overnight stay as opposed to coming home a few hours after the surgery and a slightly larger incision.

We asked Dr. Hunt when he would be available to do the surgery as we are right in the middle of a job change and insurance change. Turns out someone canceled their surgery on Thursday so we got the open spot, hooray! Otherwise we would have had to wait until Ronny gets back from his upcoming trip to Europe. I know it sounds kind of strange that we are cheering for surgery this week as opposed to later, but that is just how we play this crazy game of life in the wacky world of strange medical anomalies.