Dear Family, friends and colleagues,
I knew that many people cared about me, but had totally underestimated the number and the depth with which people cared. The prayers, well wishes, cards, emails, phone calls, flowers, and gifts from all of you all around the world has been truly overwhelming. On behalf of myself and my family, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your well wishes and prayers have been, and continue to be a constant source of encouragement.
I am well enough to give you a personal update. While I will be mostly spending time in my home for the next couple of weeks, I am ambulatory, able to have limited–albeit very slow–activity. My pain is under control thanks to my dear friend “Percoset”. The 24/7 pampering from Coya, Laura, Saro and Derik has totally spoiled me. I also have the services of a visiting nurse three times a week for monitoring, and so far all is well and “on schedule”.
I am truly grateful to my thoracic surgeon Dr. Mentzer, and looking forward to meeting the oncology team from Dana Farber on July 3rd, at which time my radiation therapy will begin.
Armen
Great news! Armen is home from the hospital and under the able care of nurses Coya, Derik, and Laura.
Check out the picture of Armen just before he was discharged from the hospital.
Another piece of good news is that the doctors have confirmed that the cancer is in its early stages. Armen has an appointment with his oncologist on July 3rd, so there probably won’t be much additional news before then.
Well, if you were feeling sorry for Armen, you can feel a little less sorry now. When we left him last night, he was eating a filet mignon while watching his flat screen television.
He is very stable–most of the tubes and wires have been removed–and he’s resting in his new hospital room, which is very nice.
We don’t really have any updates from his doctors, other than that it will take him a few weeks to recover from the surgery, at which point they’ll figure out how they want to proceed.
Maybe the next update on this site will be from Armen himself.
What a difference a day makes! When we got to the hospital late this morning, Armen was sitting up in a chair by his bed. His nurse had him up and walking around at 5:00am this morning, and he had two other walking sessions during the course of the day. He is very alert and making jokes (of course).
Armen’s doctor talked to him this morning and apart from getting a few more details about the surgery, the story is pretty much the same. He will need to come home from the hospital at the end of this week, fully recover from the surgery, which will take three to four weeks, and then probably start radiation therapy.
Armen is out of surgery, which lasted about 2 hours, and is currently in the recovery room. We saw him for a few minutes and though he is in some pain, he is doing well. The surgeon says that he handled the surgery well and they expect that he will be able to leave the hospital in a few days.
The surgery did not go exactly as planned. The surgeon elected not to remove his left lung, but instead believes that the cancer can be treated with radiation therapy. It sounds like the tumor is connected to an artery that supplies the heart and therefore cannot be surgically removed.
That’s all we know at this point. I will post another update when we know more. Thank you all for being so supportive and I know I speak for my father when I say, “thank you”.
We are heading to the hospital. Armen’s surgery is scheduled for 11:00am this morning.
Armen is spending the day with his family and friends in Watertown. A group of us went out for breakfast this morning at the Town Diner in Watertown, MA. Later on, the kids are treating Armen and Coya to dinner at the Summer Shack. Armen is in good spirits.
Tomorrow morning, we’re heading to the hospital for his surgery.