Basboy’s Weblog

As most of you know, my father entered Sunnybrook Hospital this Friday for a tongue cancer operation. He had been complaining of a sore on the left side of his tongue for months prior, and it was finally diagnosed as tongue cancer that had metastasized to the salivary glands. He came over as soon as was possible from Qatar to Toronto, fully prepared to then go to New York with my Mom to do the necessary operation. Asma’s brother-in-law, regardless of this, set up an appointment with a doctor in Sunnybrook, and Saeed’s wife with one in Princess Margaret. My dad decided to stay here afterall so that he is close to us, and to go with the doctor in Sunnybrook because of the closer operation time. He then got busy doing all the tests and radiation mask fittings necessary. An MRI revealed that the tumor is 5cm long.

He got in  to the hospital this Friday at around 6 am to go in at 8, accompanied by Mom and 3ammo 3isam, who had arrived not 7 hours prior. There, in pre-admission, they apparently were “blessed” with one of the truly unpleasant nurses who was very dry with my father on this most sensitive of days, and told him that surgery would be delayed indefinitely  because there are no recovery rooms available at the time. Only after actually bothering to check did she know that all arrangements had been made, but not before truly depressing Baba, who had been looking forward to this day for 2 weeks to end the pain. I promised 3ammo to report her ass tomorrow!

I came in to the waiting room to join my family at around 3:15pm, but it wasn’t before 6:30 that the surgeon came in to talk to us to tell us that the operation was essentially over, that he is very happy with it, but that he would have to biopsy the lymph nodes because he fears that the cancer was more aggressive in the neck- this after cutting the lower jaw from lower lip to the neck and at the neck from side to side in order to open the jaw and have access to the tongue salivary gland and lymph nodes and removing more than 7cm of tongue from front to back (as the tumor had grown), the left salivary glands and involved nodes. I must say that I could not help but cry at that, even though I knew that the doctor has to be overly cautious and frank about his thoughts… Anyway, he told us that while speech would be altered and slow to return, the problem that he is most concerned about is swallowing.

My dad arrived at the Step-down ICU at around 10pm, and I was the first to be able to go in because Hani Soliman decided that I would be the best suited to provide a medical history. Suffice it say, Dad decided he wanted to give his own history and asked by hand gestures for a pen and paper and proceded to write the answers to the doctor’s questions, who had been worried because of  a small troponin protein bump made him think of a potential heart problem. Everything was sorted out, and it seems this was just an artifact of the anesthesia and surgery.

The next day, we arrived noonish to see that my 3ammo was already there and smiling widely. It seems that he got his confirmation that his brother is doing well because Baba was smiling and had told 3ammo “balash baradeh” in writing after 3ammo was, well, being himself with the nurses. This made 3ammo’s day, to be essentially told to stop being silly by his older brother, and I don’t know if I would share his delight if Saeed had done so to me, but I suppose I understand. I was only able to see Dad a few cumulative minutes over 3 or 4 visits, as the nurse was kind of strict about her ability to “do her job“, and with my cold scaring Dad and with Mom and Pop Soliman, Omar and Hani, as well as some colleagues of Dad in town who had heard of his situation all sharing our 2-at-a-time visiting situation- well, it wasn’t easy to have Dad to myself. All things considered, he was in good spirits and his surgeon confirmed our impression that he is healing and moving his tongue above what was expected. He had them almost remove all his tracheostomy tubing, and only had an O2 mask over it.

We went to break our fast at Zaffron Restaurant, as per Dad’s request if 3ammo is to be believed, and felt comfortable with the situation and happy with the wonderful Persian kabab meal.

Today, the doctor was even more ecstatic about Dad’s progress, saying that he is ready to go to an open floor right away (which was a moot point, because the were no open beds till tomorrow, as was planned). He was breathing via the trach by himself, and his surgery wounds were dry and all staples were removed yesterday. His swelling had gone down. All in all, Dad was actually in very good spirits and laughing and requesting of me to rub his inactive legs, which made me feel very much needed, so much so that I wanted to keep on rubbing them. Also today, my friend Wael and his family and friends came by to see Baba, which made him feel good.

All our family and Dad’s friends called a million times, which, while a chore to us made us and our father and brother feel quite loved. I want to thank all for your concern, and I hope that you will continue to pray for him.

Until next time, my Salams to everyone.