Grandpa Lynn

Alex's Grandpa Lynn had a big day today. He had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor at the bottom of his esophagus and top of his stomach.

In the week's leading up to Alex's birth, he had trouble swallowing food. They visited the doctor and just days after Alex's birth on August 17, he learned that he had the tumor. He started a chemotherapy regimen in late September. He handled the chemo quite well and though he sometimes would get fatigued, he never really got all that sick.

He went to Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park today to have the tumor removed. The results were mixed. The surgeon feels that he got all of the tumor out. They removed a portion of his stomach and esophagus. The tumor was about eight centimeters across. They also found more of it further up the esophagus than they had anticipated and were forced to remove more of the esophagus than they originally thought they would.

We haven't seen the oncologist yet, and she will tell us more about what the immediate and longer term future holds. But he is stable and in good spirits. He should be in the hospital for about ten days and then come home in time for Christmas. Alex loves her grandpa very much as you can see from this video at Thanksgiving. We all love him very much.