Hey there...
A quick update. The last couple days for Mom have been much better as it relates to pain. She's been resting a bit more and is enjoying less intense pain. I get the feeling that it'll be a mix of good days and harder days with things progressively better for the next couple weeks. Thanks to all of you who've sent her cards and called/emailed or even sent over a meal. Mom and David are overwhelmed with all the love and support!
We left Dallas on Saturday at 1pm and flew to Chicago... arriving in Madrid at 8am today (1am in Dallas!). The flights were fine with some interesting turbulence somewhere over the State of Maine. We also have one of our bags that stayed in Chicago. We hope to see it tomorrow or Tuesday. Otherwise, it was all fine and we are v v glad to be back in our Spanish home. We just discovered that our housekeeper ironed our sheets for the bed. We are spoiled...
Thanks for all your love and prayers for us as we settle back into our regular routine. We are tackling the jetlag and hope to be back on this timezone soon. We'll see!
That's all for now. We'll checkin soon.
Spanish Jason/Becca/Katie
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Home... but please continue to pray...
Hello all,
Mom is home and that is GREAT news.
However... she is having significant pain (headaches) and it´s clear the road to recovery will take some time. Please continue to pray for her pain and recovery. Her pain was intense last night.
At mid-day yesterday, Becca, Katie and I left for Dallas. The primary reason is to provide some peace and quiet for the Hastings household. It´s hard to recover from such a tough surgery with us banging around the house and with me making noise on the phone trying to get work done. (no, I´m not going to mention the screechy bird this time... he´s still on the porch!)
So... we are now in Dallas and I´m at the IBM office trying to catchup on some work. We plan to return to Spain on Saturday mid-day. Arriving early morning to Madrid.
Thanks for your continued prayers and care for my Mom. This is all expected (the pain) and we trust that God will protect her and continue to help her heal.
much love,
Jason
(who is off in a team-room so I can actually get some work done!)
Mom is home and that is GREAT news.
However... she is having significant pain (headaches) and it´s clear the road to recovery will take some time. Please continue to pray for her pain and recovery. Her pain was intense last night.
At mid-day yesterday, Becca, Katie and I left for Dallas. The primary reason is to provide some peace and quiet for the Hastings household. It´s hard to recover from such a tough surgery with us banging around the house and with me making noise on the phone trying to get work done. (no, I´m not going to mention the screechy bird this time... he´s still on the porch!)
So... we are now in Dallas and I´m at the IBM office trying to catchup on some work. We plan to return to Spain on Saturday mid-day. Arriving early morning to Madrid.
Thanks for your continued prayers and care for my Mom. This is all expected (the pain) and we trust that God will protect her and continue to help her heal.
much love,
Jason
(who is off in a team-room so I can actually get some work done!)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Home!
Hola,
It´s hard to imagine, but 7 days after all the excitement... Mom is safely home. David too!
The neurosurgeon (his name is Dr. Zerris) met with her this morning, reviewed the MRI´s of his work, and agreed that she´s free to go. Brain surgery and home in 7 days is FAST! The recovery will be a few months for all the internal things to heal... but she´s off to a GREAT start.
She made it here a couple hours ago and is resting and comfortable in a living room chair. The checkout of the hospital and the ride home were, "no biggie". Tonight, we all plan to take it easy and enjoy Becca´s famous BBQ Baked Potato´s. Yum.
Thanks for praying and caring for us all! We´ll update things soon.
Jason
P.S. The dogs were THRILLED to see her and the screechy bird is outside on the porch. He´s currently saying "pretty bird" over and over in an attempt to win his way back into the house. We´ll see. :-)
It´s hard to imagine, but 7 days after all the excitement... Mom is safely home. David too!
The neurosurgeon (his name is Dr. Zerris) met with her this morning, reviewed the MRI´s of his work, and agreed that she´s free to go. Brain surgery and home in 7 days is FAST! The recovery will be a few months for all the internal things to heal... but she´s off to a GREAT start.
She made it here a couple hours ago and is resting and comfortable in a living room chair. The checkout of the hospital and the ride home were, "no biggie". Tonight, we all plan to take it easy and enjoy Becca´s famous BBQ Baked Potato´s. Yum.
Thanks for praying and caring for us all! We´ll update things soon.
Jason
P.S. The dogs were THRILLED to see her and the screechy bird is outside on the porch. He´s currently saying "pretty bird" over and over in an attempt to win his way back into the house. We´ll see. :-)
Coming Home!
Good Morning...
I got a call at 8am this morning from Mom saying she's thinking they will release her today! She saw the Dr. and he's ok with it, apparently. We're a little surprised!
She is still not nearly up to full strength, but we're sure it'll be a boost to be at home and resting with her familiar surroundings. It's exciting that she's coming home!
We are busy here making some preps for her and David to return. Potentially around 1/2pm today? We're not 100% sure exactly when...
Thanks for praying for her and don't stop now! She's going to need to continue gaining strength and taking the proper rest all the while... something that is not easy for any of us to do. :-)
Much love,
Jason
I got a call at 8am this morning from Mom saying she's thinking they will release her today! She saw the Dr. and he's ok with it, apparently. We're a little surprised!
She is still not nearly up to full strength, but we're sure it'll be a boost to be at home and resting with her familiar surroundings. It's exciting that she's coming home!
We are busy here making some preps for her and David to return. Potentially around 1/2pm today? We're not 100% sure exactly when...
Thanks for praying for her and don't stop now! She's going to need to continue gaining strength and taking the proper rest all the while... something that is not easy for any of us to do. :-)
Much love,
Jason
Monday, November 10, 2008
Recovery Day 5
Hello all...
First, thanks a ton for all your comments on the blog. I´ve never put a ¨counter¨ out here to log the number of visitors, but it´s really nice to know that people are seeing it. (We assume it´s well read by the lack of emails and phonecalls from the many, many interested folks who are praying and wondering about Mom.)
David stayed with Mom in her new room last night. She rested well with many fewer interruptions than in the ICU. She had a good day today as well. In fact, she´s trying to kick us all out of her room and back to our regular lives. It´s a good sign! Details below.
I worked from the hotel (mostly deleted email) for a couple hours this morning and when I arrived at her room around 11:30am today, she was finishing lunch and sitting in her chair. She´d taken a shower and had on her own PJ´s instead of the hospital gear. She looks great.
Earlier today, she went for a walk around her hospital floor. While her strength is likely only about 50% of her norm, she felt good and had enough strength to manage it. While she was out, she ran into her neurosurgeon who was coming to pay her a visit. I think he was impressed (and a little surprised) to see her out walking.
In the regular room, there are literally no tubes or things connected to her. Her doc said that at this point, they just want to make sure things are healing well before they send her home. To that point, they did an MRI this afternoon to check and see how things look post-op. This will show them how things are settling back in place. (ok, I made that last part up... but it´s logical right??)
The BEST news of all is that they are thinking of releasing her on Wednesday! It´s not definite, but seems to be a reasonable goal given her progress.
We brought Katie with us today and she enjoyed seeing her ¨Nana¨. She had seen her briefly the day before, but we´re careful to only expose Nana to Katie´s energy in small doses, under the circumstances. They both enjoyed seeing one another. Katie´s eyes BUGGED OUT of her head when she noticed the incision on Mom´s neck/head. We had hoped she wouldn´t notice, but she did! It wasn´t a big deal... we´d told her many times about Nana´s "bump" in her head and that it was being removed. Tonight she told me felt sad that Nana is sick, but was glad to be able to see her today.
Speaking of the incision. It´s a biggie. However, it´s interesting how well the surgeon cut her hair. She has a large spot that was shaved... but he left a large amount of longer hair above the incision that covers all but a couple inches of it. Her hair looks pretty normal (meaning, "good" :-). My sister commented today that if Mom wears a collared shirt, it´d be hard to know that anything happened back there. It´s a nice benefit to not have a crazy haircut coming out of this...
Tonight, we returned to Mom and David´s house. It´s hard for me to work in a hotel room without disturbing Katie and Becca, so being here in the mornings will be good. We also wanted to return here so we could make sure things were in order for her to return. I´ll work some tomorrow morning and then go up to the hospital to see her. It´s about a 50 minute drive each way. David is staying with her again tonight. He´s a real trooper.
Thank you all again for all your prayers and love for Mom and our family. She´s beginning to feel some of the emotions from all this and is sooo thankful for your love for her. Grateful, grateful, grateful. A big, beautiful bouquet of red roses arrived from her office. She loves red roses (hey, who doesn´t?) and is honestly a bit overwhelmed with gratitude to so many of you.
Thanks again for reading what is a bit of a novel tonight. :-)
Jason, Becca and Katie with a bunch of sleeping dogs and one screechy (!!) bird
First, thanks a ton for all your comments on the blog. I´ve never put a ¨counter¨ out here to log the number of visitors, but it´s really nice to know that people are seeing it. (We assume it´s well read by the lack of emails and phonecalls from the many, many interested folks who are praying and wondering about Mom.)
David stayed with Mom in her new room last night. She rested well with many fewer interruptions than in the ICU. She had a good day today as well. In fact, she´s trying to kick us all out of her room and back to our regular lives. It´s a good sign! Details below.
I worked from the hotel (mostly deleted email) for a couple hours this morning and when I arrived at her room around 11:30am today, she was finishing lunch and sitting in her chair. She´d taken a shower and had on her own PJ´s instead of the hospital gear. She looks great.
Earlier today, she went for a walk around her hospital floor. While her strength is likely only about 50% of her norm, she felt good and had enough strength to manage it. While she was out, she ran into her neurosurgeon who was coming to pay her a visit. I think he was impressed (and a little surprised) to see her out walking.
In the regular room, there are literally no tubes or things connected to her. Her doc said that at this point, they just want to make sure things are healing well before they send her home. To that point, they did an MRI this afternoon to check and see how things look post-op. This will show them how things are settling back in place. (ok, I made that last part up... but it´s logical right??)
The BEST news of all is that they are thinking of releasing her on Wednesday! It´s not definite, but seems to be a reasonable goal given her progress.
We brought Katie with us today and she enjoyed seeing her ¨Nana¨. She had seen her briefly the day before, but we´re careful to only expose Nana to Katie´s energy in small doses, under the circumstances. They both enjoyed seeing one another. Katie´s eyes BUGGED OUT of her head when she noticed the incision on Mom´s neck/head. We had hoped she wouldn´t notice, but she did! It wasn´t a big deal... we´d told her many times about Nana´s "bump" in her head and that it was being removed. Tonight she told me felt sad that Nana is sick, but was glad to be able to see her today.
Speaking of the incision. It´s a biggie. However, it´s interesting how well the surgeon cut her hair. She has a large spot that was shaved... but he left a large amount of longer hair above the incision that covers all but a couple inches of it. Her hair looks pretty normal (meaning, "good" :-). My sister commented today that if Mom wears a collared shirt, it´d be hard to know that anything happened back there. It´s a nice benefit to not have a crazy haircut coming out of this...
Tonight, we returned to Mom and David´s house. It´s hard for me to work in a hotel room without disturbing Katie and Becca, so being here in the mornings will be good. We also wanted to return here so we could make sure things were in order for her to return. I´ll work some tomorrow morning and then go up to the hospital to see her. It´s about a 50 minute drive each way. David is staying with her again tonight. He´s a real trooper.
Thank you all again for all your prayers and love for Mom and our family. She´s beginning to feel some of the emotions from all this and is sooo thankful for your love for her. Grateful, grateful, grateful. A big, beautiful bouquet of red roses arrived from her office. She loves red roses (hey, who doesn´t?) and is honestly a bit overwhelmed with gratitude to so many of you.
Thanks again for reading what is a bit of a novel tonight. :-)
Jason, Becca and Katie with a bunch of sleeping dogs and one screechy (!!) bird
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Recovery Day 4
Hola,
GREAT day today. We are in the ICU at 4pm as I write this... but they´ve removed all the special monitoring from Mom and we´re moving to a regular room shortly!! It feels like we´re getting a new car or something to be in a quieter place!
Mom´s progress the last couple days has been remarkable. She is eating, sleeping, refusing the strong pain medicine, telling me to go home... the whole shebang. She´s dangerously close to her old self. :-)
Seriously, we´re in great shape here. The neurosurgeon came in this morning and was very happy with how things looked at the incision site and otherwise. They were watching to make sure that no bleeding or leaking (spinal cord fluid) occurred at the back of her head. It looks great. The scar is a big one. It´s like a large backward question mark on her head and neck. If you´re a guy... this would be one you´d love to show off someday.
Well, as I write this, they are here to move her to room 512. Music to our ears! A change of pace! See you later...
Jason
GREAT day today. We are in the ICU at 4pm as I write this... but they´ve removed all the special monitoring from Mom and we´re moving to a regular room shortly!! It feels like we´re getting a new car or something to be in a quieter place!
Mom´s progress the last couple days has been remarkable. She is eating, sleeping, refusing the strong pain medicine, telling me to go home... the whole shebang. She´s dangerously close to her old self. :-)
Seriously, we´re in great shape here. The neurosurgeon came in this morning and was very happy with how things looked at the incision site and otherwise. They were watching to make sure that no bleeding or leaking (spinal cord fluid) occurred at the back of her head. It looks great. The scar is a big one. It´s like a large backward question mark on her head and neck. If you´re a guy... this would be one you´d love to show off someday.
Well, as I write this, they are here to move her to room 512. Music to our ears! A change of pace! See you later...
Jason
Recovery Day 3
The summary is that Mom is doing well and gaining back her strength. She´s recovering well. Details below.
I spent the night overnight with Mom here in the ICU. We ordered pizza and drank Cokes all night. I wish! I rigged up 2 of the chairs in her room and with 3 blankets and 2 pillows found a comfortable place to “sleep”. If you´d asked me how I slept, I´d say fine… but honestly I feel wiped out today. It was a short night!
However, it was restful and good for Mom. She only had pain medicine a couple times and definitely turned a corner with her strength level. I could give you details of how she´s moving and doing better, but it would be out of context and just wouldn´t mean much to you. Trust me that we´re moving in the right direction on many fronts.
Today has been excellent with continued progress recovering her strength. Jenn and Becca spent the morning/mid-day at the hospital with Mom. Katie and I went swimming in the pool and played some baseball with her Princess bat and ball. (She calls the game “golf” which is quite funny!) Mom´s RN today is very proactive and helped her sit up more than she had been and has her doing other things which are more active and good for her.
David, Paul, Bill and I are here this afternoon. We´re breaking the rule of only 2 people in the room at a time. I´m sitting up on Mom´s bed watching football and we´re all just hanging out. Mom´s feeling good and actually asking to eat some real food. It´s a good sign.
Tonight should be much of the same.
Thanks for all your love and prayers for her. We are thankful for so many of you and your strong support.
Jason
Friday, November 7, 2008
Recovery Day 2
Well, it's been a fairly uneventful day... which is good.
Paula (her sister) spent the night with Mom. It wasn't as fun as a genuine gals sleepover... but it was great for Dave to have a break and a good nights sleep back in Hutto.
Mom slept pretty well last night and had a restful day today. She took pain medicine less often. She's definitely still hurting a lot, but less than yesterday. We had Mom's neurosurgeon visit today along with a couple other interested doctors. (Mom is a complex and interesting "case".) They all had good things to say about her progress and next steps.
We are still in the ICU because of some special monitoring they have setup... but that might end on Sunday or Monday. We'll see.
In other developments today... I'm glad to report that Katie and Grandpa had a great couple days together. They literally "did it all" and I'm guessing Grandpa is worn out by the exhaustion level of our girl. Katie and one of us will be hanging out at our lovely hotel (which has an indoor pool... a big plus for her) while the other pays visits to my Mom. We expect this to only last a few days while we cook up other plans which will be more fun for Katie. For now, it's really nice for the 3 of us to be together. I missed our busy little girl. She's currently jumping from one bed to the other in our room. Yes... it's fun to be together again!
You know... I'm really out of things to say... it's truly been a quiet day. Please keep praying for Mom to heal safely with less pain and to gain back her energy and strength. She's really doing great... but it's going to be a slow and painful recovery.
much love and happy friday to you,
Jason/Becca/Katie
Paula (her sister) spent the night with Mom. It wasn't as fun as a genuine gals sleepover... but it was great for Dave to have a break and a good nights sleep back in Hutto.
Mom slept pretty well last night and had a restful day today. She took pain medicine less often. She's definitely still hurting a lot, but less than yesterday. We had Mom's neurosurgeon visit today along with a couple other interested doctors. (Mom is a complex and interesting "case".) They all had good things to say about her progress and next steps.
We are still in the ICU because of some special monitoring they have setup... but that might end on Sunday or Monday. We'll see.
In other developments today... I'm glad to report that Katie and Grandpa had a great couple days together. They literally "did it all" and I'm guessing Grandpa is worn out by the exhaustion level of our girl. Katie and one of us will be hanging out at our lovely hotel (which has an indoor pool... a big plus for her) while the other pays visits to my Mom. We expect this to only last a few days while we cook up other plans which will be more fun for Katie. For now, it's really nice for the 3 of us to be together. I missed our busy little girl. She's currently jumping from one bed to the other in our room. Yes... it's fun to be together again!
You know... I'm really out of things to say... it's truly been a quiet day. Please keep praying for Mom to heal safely with less pain and to gain back her energy and strength. She's really doing great... but it's going to be a slow and painful recovery.
much love and happy friday to you,
Jason/Becca/Katie
Thursday, November 6, 2008
First Recovery Day
Mom is doing well today. It’s a painful recovery, but she’s doing great and we’re thankful she’s enduring it well. Several have said she’s doing “better than expected” at this stage. We’re encouraged.
She had short night with the need for more pain medicine hourly. I believe she slept mostly solid from 1am to 4am, which is good. David stayed with her here in the hospital and he rested 4-5 hours too.
At 6am David and I were here for a Dr.’s visit and evaluation of her. The doc is a member of the surgeon’s same neuro practice and he did a bunch of neurological tests with her. Things are working well and we’re thankful.
Her spirits are good and she’s thankful that her 8 member entourage (that's us) is all present and accounted for. We’re taking turns spending time in her room helping her in small ways.
However… it’s been a hard day. Lots of pain this morning, but marked improvement in her pain this afternoon. Still... a long day for her.
Her surgeon and the chief neurosurgeon (who assisted yesterday) came in at 3pm to see her. They are both very happy about how things are going and had more great things to say about her prognosis. There should be no longterm challenges.
For now, we pray that her pain is manageable and that she heals well with no complications. So far, so good. :-) I left a few moments ago and she's fast asleep, which is GREAT. Her sister Paula is staying the night with her while David gets some better rest at home tonight.
Thanks for all your prayers and care for her. We love and appreciate you all v v much.
Jason/Becca +
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Praise God with us!!
Everything went well today. No problems. Mom is resting and sleeping under a blanket of sedatives. We are very relieved and thankful she is ok. Rejoice with us!!! (details below)
Throughout the day, we received hourly updates that she was doing well and the surgery progression was (at times slow but) good.
They called us at about 7:30pm to tell us that the surgery was a success and that they would begin the process of closing things up. We didn’t expect to hear this until 10pm, so it was encouraging to hear that the work progressed well and faster than they expected.
Her surgeon met with us at 10pm and was clearly exhausted but very pleased by how things went. Her recovery should be 100%! We are thrilled!! He said, “It was near perfect. Could not have been better.” He was able to get 95% of the tumor and described that it was fully removed from all the important areas. The day matched EXACTLY his best case for Mom. WOW. Post-op, all the tests they did on her were excellent. (wiggling toes on command, thumbs up on the proper hand, etc.)
She has a day of sleep ahead of her and several days of intense pain. In the next few days, we expect her to be hurting and sore… so please keep praying for her to recovery normally with no infections and a minimum of pain, no neurological issues, etc.
As you might imagine, we’re VERY THANKFUL that this risky operation has gone well. God has truly been gracious and shown us… yet again… that He can be trusted. We knew it and we’ve seen it time and time again. (Even when things don’t go according to “our” plan.) We do trust Him and thank you all for praying, encouraging and loving on us through this process.
Your encouraging words and expressions of love and care have helped us greatly.
Thanks and much love to you all,
Jason/Becca, Jenn, Dave, Paula & Bill, Tom and Rich (Dave's brothers)
Quick Update
Hello all,
Mom rested well last night and Becca and I went over to the hospital at 5am this morning. They moved her to the prep area and everything went ok. She felt reasonably well, with some nausea and headaches that kept her from feeling 100%.
We had a great group of visitors (10 in all) and the hospital agreed to build us our own waiting area next time. :-) Seriously, her pastor came up from Georgetown and prayed with us and the surgeon. It was really special. Her nurse (Gloria) is a wonderful lady and she had a hand on Mom as we prayed for her. Really neat.
They took her back at about 8am-ish and were going to run one more test before they began the surgery. She was calm and glad to be going back to get this "show on the road".
We're thankful for all your love and prayers. We can really feel them. It's 10am here and I'm back in the hotel for a few moments (a shower!) and then will head back over to the hospital.
will update when we can...
keep praying...
much love...
Jason
Mom rested well last night and Becca and I went over to the hospital at 5am this morning. They moved her to the prep area and everything went ok. She felt reasonably well, with some nausea and headaches that kept her from feeling 100%.
We had a great group of visitors (10 in all) and the hospital agreed to build us our own waiting area next time. :-) Seriously, her pastor came up from Georgetown and prayed with us and the surgeon. It was really special. Her nurse (Gloria) is a wonderful lady and she had a hand on Mom as we prayed for her. Really neat.
They took her back at about 8am-ish and were going to run one more test before they began the surgery. She was calm and glad to be going back to get this "show on the road".
We're thankful for all your love and prayers. We can really feel them. It's 10am here and I'm back in the hotel for a few moments (a shower!) and then will head back over to the hospital.
will update when we can...
keep praying...
much love...
Jason
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Update on Jason’s Mom
Today has gone well with my Mom. The procedure was a success. Details below.
She had a difficult night last night and didn’t sleep much. Not the start she was hoping for, but we made it here regardless.
We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am and spent a couple hours getting settled and prepped. They took her back at 10:30am and the logistics were perfect. No issues. The people at this hospital are SUPER NICE. Everyone seems glad to see Mom and they are v v kind. It’s wonderful to be around people that are so caring. It’s cold in this place (typical hospital) but otherwise things are good. They even brew Starbucks Verona coffee (my favorite) in the café downstairs. :-)
We spent some time praying together (Mom and her husband David, my sister, Jenn, and Becca). Things were peaceful this morning and we’re all doing ok. We can certainly tell that so many of you are praying for us. I woke up this morning thinking it was likely over 100 people praying today and tomorrow. Thanks for that. We can feel it.
They finished the procedure at 1pm and her surgeon said it went well and as expected. They were able to block several of the arteries feeding the tumor and had no complications. We are encouraged and pleased with how things went. This will reduce the bleeding tomorrow for the big operation and make things clearer and easier for the surgeons to remove the tumor safely.
David paid a visit to her at about 2:30pm while she was in recovery. From recovery, she had an MRI. They completed the test, but it was difficult due to some nausea from the surgery. We are glad they completed it as it will give the surgeons current pictures to work from during the surgery tomorrow.
Mom made it to her room at about 7pm tonight. She was exhausted and had a really good headache. David and I happened to be back in ICU at that time talking with the RN, so we met her at the door and got her all fixed up with pain medicine, blankets and some extra love. :-) Her sister Paula and her husband Bill paid a visit to her room, as did Becca, Jenn & David’s 2 brothers who are here from Nebraska. (Yes, we broke all the rules of ICU tonight!) She’s loved up for sure.
We were hoping today would be a little easier than it was… but the great news is that they completed all the work and now she can get some rest.
We are in a nice hotel across the street and are nearby for the early start tomorrow… or any complications that happen tonight. None are expected. It’s 8pm right now and we’ll go back over in 45 minutes to say goodnight… then return at about 6am tomorrow.
The schedule for tomorrow is that they’ll take her at about 8am. They plan to begin the surgery at 9:30 or 10am. The hope is to complete it before midnight. Thanks for all your prayers for her and us.
Much love and thanks for your prayers. We appreciate you all…
Jason/Becca
with Jenn & David
P.S. We have no internet access at the hospital, so it’ll be hard to make another update until late, late tomorrow. We will try to find a way to make an update in the mid-afternoon if at all possible.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Jason´s Mom - Vicky Hastings
Hello all...
As some of you know, my Mom is ill and having surgery this coming week for a brain tumor that was discovered in late August. We have been on a bit of a roller coaster over the last couple weeks as the doctors work to understand exactly what is going on in her body. Mom had breast cancer in 1998 and a recent blood test has shown that cancer has returned. The specific location and nature of the cancer wasn´t identified by further tests. Initially, it was thought that her brain tumor was cancer, but her latest visit to the neurosurgeon has us [relatively] convinced that the tumor is benign. We can´t be 100% sure until they do a biopsy. So... we´re encouraged that things in the brain are better than originally thought. As for the (new?) cancer, that will be explored further after she clears the hurdle of brain surgery this week.
We are in Austin, TX and will be here for the next 2 weeks.
The schedule is essentially this:
Monday, fun day. Going to a park here in Austin. :-)
Tuesday, admission to the hospital with a minor surgery. They will do a 4 hour procedure on Mom to block the blood flow of the tumor. It´s a pretty straightforward procedure, but does have some risks that it could cause a stroke or some other complications. It´s expected to go fine.
Wednesday, the big surgery. They will do the work from about 9am until (no kidding) midnight. It´s expected to be about a 12/15 hour surgery. It pains me to say that this is the most difficult surgery in the Neuro field. The location of the tumor is problematic and the risks on this surgery are v v high. I could give you the stats, but they are hard to read. It´s a tough one.
Thursday, ICU with Mom kept sedated all day (we think).
Friday, ICU expected... the recovery begins.
Sat/Sun/Mon, we´ll just see how it´s going.
How you can pray:
1) For Tuesday. For peace and confidence. For the details of the day to go smoothly. The coordination of all this by the hospital is complex and gaps seem to exist in their planning. This creates unneeded stress for Mom and us. It´d be so nice if things just went smoothly.
2) Wednesday is really a big day. For all things mentioned above... plus... wisdom for the surgeons doing the work. That they are able to remove most of the tumor without damaging other things. That we would be ok waiting during the surgery. We´ll get 3 or 4 updates throughout the day from the OR.
3) Well... there are lots of other details... but the things above are the most critical. I´m sure we´ll have more details as things unfold.
Thanks for praying for us and her. I hope to be able to make some additional updates as things unfold. I´m not thinking the hospital will have internet access... but we are staying in a hotel across the street and should be able to make updates at least nightly.
Hopeful,
Jason/Becca/Katie
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