Surgery scheduled for March 5

We met with the thoracic surgeon this afternoon who will be removing Shawn's thymus on March 5.  He said that even in the absence of any symptoms, the size of the thymus would warrant watching it, but given the symptoms he's had it should just be removed.  

The surgery will involve splitting open the breastbone and removing the thymus which lies just underneath.  He'll probably be in the hospital 3-4 days.   Then a followup appointment that next week after which, if everything goes well he'll be able to return to Indiana.  But actually, it turns out that will be right at the beginning of spring break, so he'll stay home an extra week anyway; returning to Indiana after spring break.  

This all assumes that the current nuclear scan is negative - the last part of that is tomorrow morning.  Those results should be available in a few days.  

So for now, Shawn will return to IU tomorrow night.  He has a pre-op appointment with the surgeon and anesthesiologist on Feb 27.   

We're all hopeful that this surgery will help resolve all Shawn's symptoms and he can finally concentrate on being a normal college kid!