The left side of my face 6 days after surgery (drain had been taken out and swelling got really bad at this point)
I didn't see what my head looked like until the dressing came off at home
This was the day after surgery, with drain still inWell, LOTS has happened with our family since I last blogged. I know all of you know that, but I'm hoping to keep this blog up to date and doing a horrible job! I want this written record of our major life events, fun things we do, happenings with our babies, etc on here as well. I have Christmas, New Year's, tons of pics of the boys, etc to post!
The biggest thing that has happened and kind of overshadowed most of that for our family was my second brain surgery. We dreaded it every day from the time we were told it was needed (early November). I am so very thankful to say it is over and I am ok! Ha. My fears were the major things such as memory and vision staying in tact which is what can be affected by this type of surgery. There are also complications such as seizures and meningitis and other serious things that were very possible that I was scared of. The amount of people praying astonished me! I received notes from friends of friends or friends of family from work or some other place telling us that we had people praying for us. I got cards from people in the mail who I have never met or even heard their name. Then, we have our amazing friends and family who have visited, cooked, prayed, brought treats, and cried with us during all of this. The amount of support has been humbling. My family was all at the hospital between 5-6am the morning of surgery and my mom ended up staying the whole day and spent the night, meaning she was at the hospital for over 30 hours (not counting driving home) and still helped with our babies and cooking meals for Jeremy. My Gran and Aunt Lissa have kept Jakey for a week and a half. By far the longest I've ever been away from him. He had so much fun and without them it would've been so much harder. They offered to come stay with the boys during surgery and the next day take Jake off our hands for a few days. It ended up being around 10 days and they claimed they still would never be ready to give him up. Recovery has been so much easier for the four of us because he was being super spoiled with park trips, the zoo, eating out, watching movies, playing and shopping, and getting their undivided attention. I am so, so thankful for the sacrifices of all of my family taking perfect care of the boys, taking off from work, and being there for us when we needed them most!
Anyway, I wanna sum up my surgery experience this time:
5:30am: arrive at hospital
7:30am: After kissing Jeremy, my mom, my dad, Court, Haley, Matt, My Uncle Jon (and Jakey, Seth and Gran and Lissa the night before) I was taken back for prep and surgery. I was still awake and remember talking to the drs and nurses and looking around that (not pleasant) room before surgery.
9:00am: Surgery (cutting) began after shaving part of my head, marking my face/head with markers and installing a halo using 4 pins into my head that stabilized it during surgery. They also placed drops in my eyes to protect them from scratching with surgical tools and placed IV's in my left (artery) wrist, left hand, right hand and even my right ankle. A catheter was also put in and stayed in for that day and the following three days until I left the hospital.
11:30: Dr. Kim came out to update my family that they'd gotten to the tumor and that surgery was going as expected
1:00: Dr Kim let my family know the surgery was successful, the tumor was all gone, and that they were sewing me up and I would be in recovery for the next two hours
6:00: After being in recovery for 5 HOURS I was given a room in the NeuroICU. This is wayy too long to be in recovery. I heard people moaning and screaming in pain and a man next to me had pulled out his IV's. You DON'T wanna be awake in there. :)
In the ICU I had the usual monitors (pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, etc), blood sugar taken every 4 hours, dilaudid pain reliever in my IV every two hours, blood work every 6 hours to check my pituitary hormones, medicines in my IV's to supplement brain hormones every 6 hours, and after a couple of days they began shots in my stomach to thin the blood. Upon waking up I had a drain in my head getting rid of the fluid build up from surgery. They took that out on the third morning and it took a couple of days after that for the side of my head to swell up really big.
Honestly, typing all of this out sounds like torture, and it was not fun, but it was much more comfortable that the first brain surgery that went through my gums, nose, and sinuses to get through to the tumor which made my entire face swollen, nose packed, stitches in my gums, and left a hole in my sinuses.
I am so, so thankful for my amazing family, friends and everyone who has taken the time to pray, encourage, support, visit, send cards, bring food, keep our boys, and just plain be there for us and suffer with us thru one of the hardest things we have ever been through.
It may not be a good memory, but it is our memory whether we like it or not. The fact that we have a God that loves us and is waiting for us in heaven where there is no pain and the best family and friends on earth made it all bearable and we are now on the "easier" side of surgery.
Currently I am feeling much better! I am still on lots of meds and am not released to drive, lift or carry my babies or anything else, or bend over. I also have a strong radiation "surgery" in a few weeks where I will have to be awake as the destroy the remnants of the tumor with radiation. I am a little nervous about that and still not totally myself after surgery, but it has gone as good as can be expected so far! I am getting my stitches out on Tuesday and hopefully after that will be weaned off of some of my meds and released to start getting back to normal before the radiation procedure.
*Take this post as my not trying to be uptight about what I look like or what people think of it. I can't believe I just posted these pics for anyone to see! :)
