What's Next?

I don't have a lot of new information, but I will tell you what I know and what the plan is. The experiments to get the hole in my lung to seal on it's own have not worked, it has been nearly two weeks and it's time to take the next steps. Tomorrow morning about 6AM they will take me into the operating room for exploratory surgery to find the exact location of the hole(s) and try and stitch them up. If they cannot stitch up the hole(s) directly, then removal of a part or all of the left lung will be required. This is called a Lobectomy if only one lobe is removed, or a Pneumonectomy if they remove the entire left lung. In my case if any removal is required they would start with a Lobectomy of the lower left lobe and then do a Pneumonectomy of the left lung as needed. The length of the surgery is dependent on what they determine needs to be done. It could be 20 minutes or a few hours. Based on my conversations with the doctors, and their external observations, it sounds very likely that removal of some part or the whole of my left lung will be required. If any removals are needed then they will likely have to remove another rib from my chest. They have already removed one rib during the initial surgery when they were attempting to clean out the infection in my lung. Once the lung is removed, the empty space is naturally filled with fluids by the body to compensate for the loss. I will have to receive an epidural for pain management, and I will still have a tube in my chest to monitor/mitigate things for a day or two after the surgery. Expected recovery time in the hospital is three to five days after the surgery. Thanks for all the support and prayers. Wish me luck. -Eric