Could use a few well wishes here...
11-19-2002 | 01:31 AM
#40
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Well, after having a fiasco getting to the hospital this morning; my truck would not fit in the first garage that I was originally told had a 7FT clearance, and when I pulled up to the second garage with an 8 FT clearance, the damn ticket machine was out of tickets, and we were blocked in by traffic, so I could not park or back away; we finally got in after waiting 10 minutes for an attendant to show up... we received good news today, and iffy/bad news.
The good news is the main body of the tumor was taken out with no problems whatsoever. The surgery took pretty much the full 8 hours predicted. The tumor was actually a little bigger than 3CM across in the main body. Lisa had to have the bottom third of her hair shaved, so that is pretty devastating as well. Top that off with her God awful fear of needles; she was pretty shook up. She came out of the surgery, and we were able to see her in AICU for a couple hours this evening. She was awakening, and wishy-washy, the entire time. They have her on 30 minute doses of pain killers, so as to not knock her out. She has the worst migraine you can imagine.
The iffy/bad news is the tumor is malignant, and it has/had some 'fingers' coming off of it that has invaded/entered/entangled the brain stem. The main body of the tumor that was displacing her brain stem to the side, has been removed, and her brain stem recovered as Dr. Tamargo watched while still in surgery. The displacement had been causing her pain/nausea, loss of balance, facial numbness, and a few other problems. This should now be over. The 'fingers' are not surgically removable from the brain stem. Many tests are being done on the removed tumor to determine what type of tumor/cancer this is, and how aggressive it will be to regenerate a main body, if at all, and how dangerous the 'fingers' within the brain stem are going to be. Further actions may include, no treatment, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy.
If all goes well in her transfer from AICU tonight, to ICU for tomorrow, she could even be in a regular room tomorrow night. The main thing to do is get her physical wounds healing as quickly and healthily as possible, so as to make her strong for whatever the next steps are going to be. Unfortunately, as we have crested this enormous hill, someone flipped the terrain on us like the tire commercial, and we now have another long curvy windy uphill road ahead of us, again.
Thank you so much everyone for your thoughts and prayers. This really could have been much worse with complications from surgery. We all realize this, but we have to take everything in stride.
Brian
The good news is the main body of the tumor was taken out with no problems whatsoever. The surgery took pretty much the full 8 hours predicted. The tumor was actually a little bigger than 3CM across in the main body. Lisa had to have the bottom third of her hair shaved, so that is pretty devastating as well. Top that off with her God awful fear of needles; she was pretty shook up. She came out of the surgery, and we were able to see her in AICU for a couple hours this evening. She was awakening, and wishy-washy, the entire time. They have her on 30 minute doses of pain killers, so as to not knock her out. She has the worst migraine you can imagine.
The iffy/bad news is the tumor is malignant, and it has/had some 'fingers' coming off of it that has invaded/entered/entangled the brain stem. The main body of the tumor that was displacing her brain stem to the side, has been removed, and her brain stem recovered as Dr. Tamargo watched while still in surgery. The displacement had been causing her pain/nausea, loss of balance, facial numbness, and a few other problems. This should now be over. The 'fingers' are not surgically removable from the brain stem. Many tests are being done on the removed tumor to determine what type of tumor/cancer this is, and how aggressive it will be to regenerate a main body, if at all, and how dangerous the 'fingers' within the brain stem are going to be. Further actions may include, no treatment, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy.
If all goes well in her transfer from AICU tonight, to ICU for tomorrow, she could even be in a regular room tomorrow night. The main thing to do is get her physical wounds healing as quickly and healthily as possible, so as to make her strong for whatever the next steps are going to be. Unfortunately, as we have crested this enormous hill, someone flipped the terrain on us like the tire commercial, and we now have another long curvy windy uphill road ahead of us, again.
Thank you so much everyone for your thoughts and prayers. This really could have been much worse with complications from surgery. We all realize this, but we have to take everything in stride.
Brian
