West home after liver surgery
Spokane Mayor Jim West returned to his home in Spokane on Tuesday, a week after undergoing follow-up cancer surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
The mayor said he expects to be back in his City Hall office within the next few days, and will gradually increase his workload as his strength returns.
“I’ll just go to work as I can,” he said.
Doctors removed a section of liver that was treated with radio waves in April, he said. The healthy left side of his liver had generated enough new liver tissue so that doctors could safely remove a residual lesion on the right lobe.
No new cancer was found, the mayor said, and his prognosis for recovery is good.
West said he was thankful for the number of cards and e-mails he received from well-wishers in Spokane since his surgery.
“Good wishes and prayers work,” said the mayor in an interview over a cellular telephone during his ride back to Spokane.
His father, Jack West, stayed with the mayor during his surgery and post-operative care at the UW and then drove him back to Spokane on Tuesday.
Dr. Mika Sinanan, a specialist in surgery on the liver, performed the operation. Sinanan is a professor at the highly regarded UW Medical Center.
“This time they are quite certain they got it all,” West said. “They basically took out the entire right lobe of the liver.”
The mayor has now undergone four surgeries and two rounds of chemotherapy in his 17-month fight against a cancer that started in his colon and spread to his liver. By definition, West has stage-4 cancer, which is the highest of the five diagnostic stages of cancer. Stage 4 means the cancer has spread from its original site to another part of the body, a point at which cancer becomes more difficult to stop.
Previously, West said he was told that only half of all patients with stage-4 cancer survive after one year, and he considered it something of a miracle that he was doing so well.
He said doctors found no new signs of cancer elsewhere in his body during Tuesday’s procedure.
His doctors have been continuously monitoring his health, and about six weeks ago became concerned when they detected the cancer was becoming active again in the liver.
They initially proposed surgery for late August, but West said he wanted to keep plans for a trade visit to Ireland in early September. West also was a guest conductor for the Spokane Symphony at its traditional Labor Day concert at Comstock Park. His surgeon had another opening in his schedule last Tuesday, so West took it.
“I’ve been through this before,” he said. “I feel real good, just tired.”
Doctors removed 18 to 20 inches of his colon and 18 lymph nodes in May 2003. Cancer was detected in three of the lymph nodes.
Following his election as strong mayor last November, West underwent a second surgery to remove cancer found on his liver. Two suspicious areas in the liver were left behind in hopes that chemotherapy would stop any malignant growth. In a short time, West was back at work on his transition into City Hall from his former job as state Senate majority leader.
The mayor bounced back quickly enough that he played golf during the winter holidays. He also attended the Washington State University football game at the Holiday Bowl in December.
He said he anticipates a similar recovery from his latest surgery.
Marlene Feist, the city’s public affairs officer, said West initially was expected to remain hospitalized for 10 days to two weeks, but was released earlier than anticipated.
His staff said he was only two days into his recovery last week when they started receiving e-mails from him giving them new tasks to work on.
West said he wants to regain enough strength to campaign in favor of a $117 million bond issue to repair Spokane’s broken streets. His administration is also struggling to come up with budget cuts to meet sluggish revenues and higher employee costs.
“I’m just not one to sit around feeling sorry for myself,” West said.