Monday, May 11, 2026-With Continued Improvement Comes Some Uncertainty
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Jamieson Family Health Journey
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Jamieson Family Health Journey
Larry here. It was two weeks ago today that Lisa had surgery to remove a neuroendocrine tumor on her pancreas. In that surgery, they had to take out almost half of her pancreas and also had to remove her spleen. She was in the hospital for 6 nights and returned home last Sunday. Now, after a week of rest and recuperation at home, there is much that we are celebrating and a few things that we continue to lift in prayer before the Lord:
- The final pathology results are in and they show ALL good news—the tumor was 3.5 centimeters in size but was limited to the pancreas, there were good margins all around the tumor when it was removed and, although there were 5 "reactive” lymph nodes removed around the pancreas and spleen, there was no evidence of malignancy.
- Lisa is generally recovering well—the surgeon said that anytime you are removing part of the pancreas, it is considered MAJOR surgery and that many patients would still be in the hospital recovering after two weeks.
- She is experiencing good progress with increasing appetite and post-meal pain, although there is still recovery that needs to happen.
- Carly has been coping well as far as we can tell, both when having Mom gone for so long and with being “gentle” with Mom now that she has returned.
- We have received some AMAZING meals for our family in the first week of having Lisa home—we are so thankful and amazed at the gift this has been and how delicious the food has been…thank you so much!
- On the prayer request front, we are asking the Lord to calm all allergic reactions as something has caused hives and intense itching around all of the incision sites and a couple of other areas.
- That Lisa’s digestive healing would continue, especially as it relates to her body’s ability to absorb nutrients now that she has so much less of her pancreas to provide digestive enzymes.
- That Lisa would experience increased ease and comfort in snuggling with Carly.
- That the surgical trauma would continue to heal and that Lisa would experience additional healing of the chronic internal inflammation she was experiencing prior to surgery as well as potential autoimmune issues post-surgery.
Finally, we’re praying that the Lord would provide a way for Lisa’s drain to be removed ASAP! Not only is having something like this sticking through your abdominal wall painful, it’s also an annoying thing to maintain. The drain is there to allow for any drainage from the pancreas to be evacuated and not build up in the abdomen. The way the doctors monitor the need for the drain is by testing the levels of amylase in the expelled fluid. The first day after surgery, her amylase level was 21,445. On May 1, it was down to 523 and it was looking more likely that Lisa could have the drain removed at her first post-op appointment with the surgeon on 5/12. But after a “surprise” visit to her surgeon last Friday (5/8) and a subsequent fluid test, her amylase is back up to 3,112. We think that means that she is unlikely to have her drain removed on 5/12. More importantly, it could mean that there are some complications to the surgery that will need to be addressed…I won’t go into all of the details, but I WILL ask you to pray for healing for Lisa and wisdom and discernment for the surgeon.
That’s enough for now…I’ll try to get another update out after Lisa’s appointment on Tuesday (5/12).
Thanks for being here with us!
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Sue Stanek about 2 months ago