Could use a few well wishes here...
 

I am heading to Baltimore tonight with someone very close to me, Lisa, to take her to Johns Hopkins University Hospital. She has a very large, but operable brain tumor beside her brain stem and spinal cord. The surgery starts at 7:45AM tomorrow, and will last an estimated 8 hours. The tumor is over 3cm across, and has actually displaced her spinal cord by a small margin; which in turn, is causing a lot of problems. All is going to go well, and she will be in ICU for 2 days after surgery; and approximately 1 week more in the hospital. She is expected to return to work in two months. The surgery has a 95% chance of success. We would like the odds higher, but this this all we have to go on.

Some of you have met Lisa, in Annapolis, Richmond, and Solomon's Island. Please, keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Brian

Wish you all well and succesfull results tripps

Our thoughts and prayers will be with you and Lisa.
Tom

will be thinking of both of you tomorrow.

We'll be thinking of you and you'll be in our prayers.

Wes And Denise.

Best of luck to her and hear is to a quick recovery :D

Jon

OUR PRAYERS are with you guys.
David and Sonya

Thoughts and prayers for a successful procedure and recovery.

BEST OF LUCK!!!

Wow, that made me think. I hope all goes well tomorrow.

Tommy

Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

Best wishes for a successful surgery and speedy recovery!

Makes you think how frail and precious life is.. Monday at this time the operation will all be an upleasant memory that you and your friend Lisa can take forward and learn from. 95% are very good odds. Be strong for her Sydwayz.

Dave

Hang in there Brian, Johns Hopkins is the best and the people there are of the highest quality. Lisa will be in our thoughts and prayers.

Good Luck

Brian,
We will keep you and Lisa in our prayers.
Dan & Vicki

Best of luck to her.

Lisa ,
Our prayers are with you;)

You are in my thoughts and prayers. Just got out of the hospital myself. Family and friends can mean the difference between a succesful recovery and a remarkable one. Johns Hopkins is one of the best, if not the best, hospitals for neurosurgery. Believe me, they took a look at my case w/o charge and made recommendations. If I had lived closer I would have been there.

Lisa, Good luck! And i will be praying for you.

Brian, Lisa and you are deffinently in our thoughts and prayers. I'm glad you posted this. I was going to give you a call tomorrow. I knew it was comeing soon.

God Bless
Mark and Linda

All the best. A friend's wife was in a very bad way with cancer last year, and the folks at Johns Hopkins turned it all around, so they're really good. Glad to hear the odds favor a successful outcome. Thinking positive thoughts.

You both are in our thoughts and prayers. Hang in there, Bud. We're here if you need us.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

95% seems excellent. Good luck, things will be just fine. In a few short weeks things will be back to normal. Allan

Brian, hope all goes well, keep us posted. Is Lisa who was with you at the Richmond radar run? 95% are really good odds, but when you're messing with brain stem area everything is critical.
Tell her the extended OSO family is pulling for her.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you both.

Dude, hope all goes well. She's definitely in good hands at Hopkins. Let me know if I can help out in any way. I live right around the corner in Vienna.

Call if you need anything. I mean it. Mobile number is 571-216-6125.

Bill

Brian the best of luck to you and Lisa

My thoughts and prayers are with you both...

Thank you SO MUCH everyone. I just showed these to Lisa before she turned in. She is pretty shook up as you can imagine. Lisa is INCREDIBLY appreciative! I will print these out for her to read as she hits the road to recovery in the next couple days.

Wish her all the best and a speedy recovery!

GOD BLESS, BEST WISHES.

Brian, any news on hoe Lisa is doing?

Brian,

My prayers and wishes go out to Lisa and you.

WILL Murray:)

My best thoughts and prayers for Lisa.....

My thoughts and prayers for Lisa and a very speedy recovery.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you Lisa
Dave&Michele

God Bless for a speedy recovery..

marc

Get well soon !!;)

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