September 20, 2007

• Update on my Mom!

  Whew! What a physically and emotionally exhausting day… I’m sorry I was unable to update you all sooner. Because of the dynamics of ICU it’s hard to be in touch with the rest of the world!

  My Mom came through the surgery with flying colors!!! It was amazing!! God definitely heard your prayers! First they told us her surgery would be between 2-4 hours with a possibility of up to 8 hours being worse possible case. The surgery was about only 45 minutes!!!! I don’t have an exact time yet as that is our guess from the time the doctor informed our family while in the waiting room that surgery had started to when it was time for someone to see her in the recovery room. Regardless it was no where near the 2-4 hours!!

  The Neurosurgeon told us that when he removed the piece of skull for entry the tumor literally fell out along with it. The tumor was fairly round with nice even edges. This is good news! First, the fact that it was not irregular in shape means that it wasn’t attaching itself yet to the brain and was quickly removed. Second, because of the perfectly round shape it is assumed at this point that it is completely benign. We will know for sure when pathology comes back on Tuesday. There was no need for the neurosurgeon to directly touch the brain at all because of the way the tumor released itself!! Praise the Lord!!! This one fact made her surgery less invasive and less chances of permanent consequences like paralysis or affecting the functions of her left side. When I was with her she could not stop wiggling her toes and saying, “I’m so happy! God gave me a miracle!” Mom’s smile and giddy voice was so healing for my heart!

  Mom is in ICU tonight and will remain there until they feel she is stable enough to be moved to a regular room. The way things look right now she may be moved tomorrow. Her blood pressure was high when she went into surgery but seemed fine the rest of the day. That is one aspect that must stay stable before she is released from ICU.  I prayed while in the waiting area that God would take control of her blood pressure. So far so good!

  Here are the current prayer requests…

  1) She is having severe swelling from the top of her head all the way down to  about where her ear lobe ends on the side of the tumor. It was much worse from when I left her to get some dinner and then came back. This is normal and to be expected after putting the skull through such trauma. However, it is causing Mom a considerable amount of pain tonight.

  2) If you are still up please pray Mom will get some sleep tonight. She has been unable to sleep since they woke her up from surgery. The reason being is that they are giving her a constant, strong dose of a specific medication (forgot the name of  it with my foggy head right now) to  keep the actual brain from swelling. This particular medication has a side effect of extreme euphoria. Well, let me tell you she has had that side effect in full force all day!!! If one can find humor in such a hard time this was it for our family. She was hilarious in the things she spoke. She had even the nurses laughing.

  3) Pray that the Lord will keep sending her peace and that nurses will take good care of her. While in ICU no one is allowed to sleep with her in her room. This is hard on her to not have someone she recognizes.  It was hard for me to leave her tonight. As I was in the room I prayed the Lord would bring sleep to her and as I left tonight she was finally closing her eyes.

  Clearly God has had His hand in this journey with my Mom! Thank you to all of you who took the time to pray. One thing she repeated to me often was that she felt the prayers of all the people praying for her.

  I will try to update again tomorrow once we hear again from the surgeon and I see her. I will bring my laptop along as we can get wireless in the waiting room.

  • 11:58 pm
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