Nothing New

Went for my appointment, and this is the Dr'.s surgery day. His nurse pulled out the stitches and set me up for an appt. with him next week. I don't plan to add anything to this blog till after that.

THE SCAR

You wanted to see what the scar looks like here is: It raises a few questions. The question mark seems to be they were not sure what they found, or wondered if there was any thing in there. Or maybe they can't figure out what they took out.

He says it was a glioma brain tumor so I guess there is some more to learn.

Any way I am home, surgery on Wednesday and home on Friday, not bad! My life reesumes pretty normally today.

Wednesday I see the dr. and he pulls out the stitches. He says I can travel but here will be some follow up.

Dad released and home

Dad's been released from the hospital and is now home. He's doing great. He's got a followup visit for Wednesday to get his stitches removed. Looks like everything went well.

-- Bob

Wish he could have seen it

I took Mom to see Wicked last night. It was quite a show. Dad had tickets for it but timing just didn't work out for him. We stopped by before the show so Mom could visit with him for a while.

Dad's in a regular room now and he's doing great. We fished out a book from the things he packed so he could try reading at some point that evening. There's only so much TV you can deal with. I think Mom was happy to see Dad is still his old self. She recently ordered and just received a book How God Changes Your Brain. I'm not sure this is exactly what the author had in mind, but we'll keep an eye out for differences.

Dad's had several visitors and I think he's enjoyed the company. He's got a followup MRI scheduled for today. He called me just now and said if all goes well, they might release him today. Dad said lying down in the MRI machine is a good place to practice meditation. It certainly does a good job of drowning out the rest of the world with its repetitive and L-O-U-D noise.

I'll post another update when I get more info.

-- Bob

Ed's doing good

I stopped in this AM to see Dad. He was still in the ICU room but they've put away all the IVs and monitoring gadgets and he will be moved to a regular room on the same floor as soon as they get an open space. They changed his bandage while I was there and gave him a very sterile looking stretchy stocking cap to hold the new dressing in place. He has a bunch of sutures over his right ear that look almost like he got beaned with a baseball that left an impression of the baseball stitches.

It looks like getting decent food will continue to be a challenge. His two egg omelette was reportedly small enough to make one wonder about the size of the chicken laying the eggs. We'll see how that goes.

Dad's in good spirits. He hasn't been out of bed yet but they'll probably give him a chance to walk from his current room to the regular room. I'll stop in to see him this evening. Mom and Dad had tickets to Wicked (a musical prequel to the Wizard of Oz) for tonight, so I'll be taking Mom to see that. We're still aiming to bring him home Saturday.

-- Bob

Ed gets his own room

Dad is out of the recovery room and up the 6th floor neurological ICU for the night. They're keeping a close eye on him tonight to make sure there are no complications from the surgery. They can monitor his heart, blood pressure, and breathing moment to moment. He's alert and talkative if a bit groggy. Mom and I beat him up to the floor and waited for about 15 minutes while they transferred him and got him situated. They wheeled his bed down the hallway past our little waiting room and he was chatting up a storm. The let us in to see him shortly afterward.

For the moment he's on a clear liquid diet and maybe will get some jello. He's doing fine and he's all there. He's got a deal with one of the nurses to help ensure his breakfast menu gets filled out in enough detail that he gets some salt and pepper. Apparently if you don't specifically order every detail you want from the menu, you don't get it.

His nurse for the night (7pm to 7am) is Dave from Claremore. Dad was a bit horse in the throat, but I don't think that's a surprise after surgery when they intubate you to let the anesthetist control your breathing. Dad said he didn't have any significant pain and the ICU nurse is keeping track of how he's doing.

He was a bit tired so we left him around 8:00 to rest.

-- Bob

Surgery is done

Mom, Cindy and I were in the waiting room when Dr. Fell, Dad's neurosurgeon, came out to tell us the surgery went well. He removed everything he saw on the MRIs and the quick sample of the tumor they looked at during the surgery didn't look malignant. Dad's in the recover room now and will be moved up to neurological ICU in an hour or so as he comes off the anesthetic and then we can go see him.

Dr. Fell said they'll know more definitively about the tumor when they get a pathology report, which will probably be Friday. He said the tumor started in the brain (that's better than something that came from somewhere else) and it is a glioma. He said Dad might get to go home as early as Saturday.

-- Bob

Ed's Surgery

Dad was taken in to surgery at 1:40. We were at the hospital since 9:30 this morning and they had him prepped hours before. They say that the surgery schedules are guesses at best and it's better to keep patients lined up and ready to go rather than waste a lot of money having the surgery teams twiddle their thumbs waiting.

While we waited we had visits from a couple friends of Dad, his pastor, and Cindy and Emily. We even got to visit with the surgeon between his first and second surgery that day (Dad was his third) and he quintuple checked he was looking at the correct patient (every nurse asks the same name and birthdate question) and got out his pen and drew a lovely arrow on the surgery side of Dad's head. You just can't be too careful, I guess.

After they took Dad in to the operating room, I went to grab Mom and take her to lunch. I'm headed back to the hospital now to spend some quality reading time in their waiting room. Cindy will join us there.

The surgery is supposed to take around 3 hours. I'll post more when I find out and get a spare moment.

-- Bob

This is the last from me for a awhile. I am to be admitted tomorrow at St. Francis hospital in tulsa about 11 AM. Surgery is scheduled shortly after noon. Dr. says the opening will be about 2", two inches!. Oh well, just another hole in my head. Afterwards I go to neurology ICU and if I behave I can get out in a few days. His concern that during the surgery he doesn't do something to paralyze my left side.

He really doesn't know what is there, so there will be no definitive information till Thursday morning.

Bob will keep this blog up to date daily.

I have some new info.

The surgery will be about noon on Wednesday and they have it scheduled for three hours. I have to be there two hours ahead of time. I had another MRI this morning and apparently this connect to what the nurse called a brain machine that uses 3D images and guides the Dr. to the proper place on the brain. The preop at the hospital was mostly paper work, blood tests, an Ekg and watching the screen saver on the hospital's computer that reminds the operator to smile.

I am told I will go to neurological ICU after the surgery. The title of the surgery is called parietal crainiotomy with tumor removal. I have been told to expect to be in the hospital for about 4 - 5 days. In the mean time I am just going to take it easy.

Bob drove me all around today which finding the Drs office was the most difficult.

Nothing really new. I am not supposed to drive so i am learning how to be dependent on other people. I am not finding that easy.

We are supposed to be going to the Nute place on San Juan island the second week in august. I hope dearly we will be able to make it.

To bring you up to date I thought for the last month or so I was having Tias. After a Cat scan and a MRI, it has been determined that I am having seizures from a spot on my brain. Monday the 20th I get another MRI and then on the 22nd the neurosurgeon will go in a determine what it is and remove it. I guess that means another hole in my head. I will find out more after that.

I gave up and now have a blog. I thought with so much happening in my life lately this is a better way to keep people informed.