Brain surgery is not for wimps...

What do you do the night before brain surgery?

Go to the Outback and eat what ever you want.

This is just before... he's looking at the screen,

I wanted one last picture of his head.

After five painful, grueling hours

 we came here.....

This what it looks like the day after

 you get a tumor removed...

his head was soooo swollen I was scared...

however it was almost gone

 2 days later (Thank goodness).

Spent alot of time with the barf bucket.

He had huge problems with

balance, disorientation, nausea. 

Blake thought Chad was having fun....

so he decided to get Intussusception.

Don't know what that is?

Look it up...

 Poor kid, Intusseption is very painful.

He spent one night in the hospital but came

home to a strict diet.

                              
                               Back to Chad...
                               This is what his head/scar looks like...


  still in the hospital                                  10 days later
  2 days after surgery.                               Stitches come out.
                                                                                                                             

This is 7 weeks post surgery,

the day of CI surgery.

Here's the same smiley kid (with mom & dad)

 Here is that kid the same day....

 7 weeks after brain surgery he got

Cochlear implant surgery.

I walked into the recovery room and saw

a suit case on the floor. I said "Did some one

leave this behind?" They said "No it's yours".

It was $150K worth of

Cochlear Implant processor and

accessories, etc. (YIKES!)

This is what it looks like 1 day

after Cochlear implant surgery.

They used the same incision site.

 Where is the implant? you can't really

 see it in this picture.

So more to come as things progress.

Thanks for your prayers and well wishes!

He's on the mend, this will be a

much eaiser recovery.



Our time at the hospital

Chad has been home from the hospital for a week.

It has been a really rough week.

I have some intense pictures I could show

but I am not sure how Chad would feel so I

guess you have to come visit if you want to see them.

We have had some setbacks this week which are a

huge bummer. More later on that.

Chad resting...

This is the Med students. He was interviewed by one

of them and then presented to the others.

The start of our 3 hr drive home. We didn't make

him wear his seatbelt.

I also suffered a pulled muscle from sleeping on

the "lounge chair" at the hospital.

This resulted in my own visit to the ER in the middle of the night. 

The pain has been incredible.

So I am taking some strong medication to help,

this had made an even more difficult week for Eric.

Sorry Babe :(



What a difficult couple of days...

Each day as the surgery drew closer my emotions were on the surface.

It was difficult to talk about the upcoming surgery to anyone
 because the tears would start.

Monday night on our way to Seattle it was all I could do
 to not let Chad see me cry.

We let him listen to what ever he wanted to on the radio,

we changed the channel if he didn't like the song,
 even if we had just changed it.

Driving to the hospital in the morning was just as hard.

We checked in and they took him back to prep. Then he started to get nervous.

Dr. Backous came and talked to us after about 5 hours,
then Dr. Mayberg. They said the surgery went great.
The nerve that the tumor had grown into should look like a rope.

Thick and round, it was flat like cellophane.

The nerve that indicated weather or not he could have a cochlear implant looked great,

It however didn't respond well to the stimulation. Dr. Backous said
 he would not be able to hear out of that ear.

We had lost our 20% chance of keeping his hearing. And

It looked like the nerve would not respond well to the cochlear implant.

It was devastating, no matter how much we tried to prepare

 ourselves there was no preparation good enough.

Eric and I both burst into tears.

I couldn't stop crying.

We got to see Chad about 3:30 pm. They finally got him into intensive care

 and we could go see him. When we got up to the ICU

the nurse said he wanted to see us, and to please touch him

when we got there.

 It was good to see him, he was in good spirits and wanted to know
 "when he could go home."

He also didn't like the catheter.
He says he can hear fuzzy out of that ear.

 Is this a good sign?

We shall see...

The past week has been full....

Chad went to Provo to hang out with these two guys

Shawn & Leemur. (and a few others!)

We hooked up the Honda and off we were headed home.

Then... we had a minor accident... The wind was strong and we were

going around a corner and the Honda moved over and

crunch... went the light.

Tonight was week 8 of Sign language class.

The last one of this series.



It's hard to post...

I sat here yesterday wondering what to say...

I sit here again wondering what to say....

I realize why I can't think of what to say,

because it's depressing.

Who wants to tell depressing news?

I want to tell you good news. I want to give hope.

I want hope for my son.

I want him to hear after his surgery in two weeks.

Here is my hope for this week:

 He's in Utah, with his friends.

He loved his time there for the short 3 months he lived there.

 He loves his friends. I hope he has a great week!

We had a friend come visit yesterday:

Jessica is the daughter of my friend from my youth.

She came to visit for the day and we went to Marymere falls and Lake Cresent.



Counting down....

 When Chad was on his mission in Michigan and getting

ready to come home, he said

 "Mom don't count down the days, it's too hard for me".

I said I am not a counter! I can't stand waiting!

 I like to be busy times goes by faster.

Well.... I am trying NOT to count how many days till Chad has brain

surgery. It's too hard to think about what comes after the surgery.

Chad is doing ok, he has moments that he can't hear anything at all.

Those are hard for him, they happen at least once a week.

Daily he says we need to speak up because he can't hear

what we are saying. He has ringing in his ear with the small tumor

daily. Sometimes it keeps him awake at night.

The idea that post surgery he could be deaf is something that

he is realizing is a possibility.

I am so grateful for our sign language teacher. She is strict, funny and

pushes us hard. She said as much at class tonight.

She said we were doing great, that we had a great family and

that she was pushing us hard.

I am so grateful to my other children, friends family,

and my husbands staff all for being so supportive.

We couldn't get through this without them.

 I am also so grateful that winter qtr is over! 



ALL CLEAR! YIPPEE!!!

Yesterday while being wheeled out of the hospital

I got the final phone call that our last child's MRI was normal.

Child #1 got the all clear a few days before that.

We are relieved to say the least.

So I guess Chad is a genetic mutant.

He is an X man.

I am home and recovering.

 :)

Since I was in the hospital I missed sign language class #4, which

came with about 120 new words which is about twice as many

as the past 3 weeks.

We are getting better thank goodness. I feel like this skill

will be very important. I am so glad we started right away.

We are very grateful to those who are helping us by bringing in meals,

and my mother who has cleaned my house and picked up child #4 from school every day.

We watched "The Hammer" movie last night. I bought it at Walmart.

It was very inspirational and thought provoking.

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