Greg developed another pneumocephalus. The patch between the brain and ethmoid sinus is not holding. His condition became critical yesterday afternoon, but he is stable now. CT showed this pocket getting larger. He will have another craniotomy in the morning to repair the patch. The surgeon is still optimistic. And that is where we are at right now. He is not even really aware of what is happening. Hopefully, my next post will be good news.
Category: quilting
Words…
…that have become part of our life over recent days. Meningioma, craniotomy, pneumocephalus (air pocket on brain), deep vein thrombosis ( blood clots – both legs), pulmonary embolisms (both lungs), compacted bowel, and the latest, hydrocephalus (excess fluid on the brain).
Today, Greg is having permanent shunts put in to keep the excess fluid drained. Yesterday, a new central line was put in to begin administration of IV nutrition due to inability to eat because of bowel issue. Tuesday, a filter was inserted in his vena cava to prevent anymore blood clots that might break loose out of his legs from reaching his lungs. Thankfully, none of the ones that already had were fatal.
Words I am longing to hear: Mr. Allen, you are doing great and you can go home today.
Please Dear Father in Heaven, let it be soon.
Well, it’s been awhile
The surgery went smoothly. The recovery not so much. He was just moved from surgical ICU to a regular room on the neuro floor today. I am much too exhausted to go into much detail, but he has a pneumocephalus (air pocket) in his head. It is getting smaller, but it is day after day of pain. Moments of relief scattered in from morphine and other drugs. He was actually doing quite well until Wednesday. They think he had some spinal fluid drain from his nose and unclamped the lumbar drain to drain his csf again. That is when the horrible pain began and the air pocket was found by ct scan the next morning. These have been difficult days indeed. O a bright note, my mom is feeling great!
Goodbye Meningioma
Finally, the tumor has been eradicated. Surgery went as surgeon expected. Just took a little longer. He is in ICU and very miserable. But, I’m so incredibly grateful he is here! Now, we have to make it through all the possible post op complications. One is that he not develop a spinal fluid leak, and he must remember not to blow his nose for eight weeks. These things could lead to meningitis. Thanks again for all the prayers and encouragement!
Good News (sort of)
Well, we got the go ahead on surgery tomorrow. So, the tumor will be dealt with, once and for all. However, the white blood cell count did not come down much, leading surgeon to believe it has nothing to do with infection, but possibly a bone marrow disorder of some type, such as leukemia. So, surgery will proceed, and more testing will be done while in the hospital to determine what is going on with the blood count. I’m hoping he is just having an extreme reaction to the decadron (steroid) they have had him taking. He has had bad side effects from day one. It will raise your counts, but not usually to the level of Greg’s. That’s where we are now. One thing at time. And right now, it is goodbye brain tumor time!
Some Good News!
For those that have been keeping up with my Mom’s progress in her fight against lymphoma, I have good news to report! Her followup PET scan was all clear…YAY! The doctor says she is doing great. She may not feel like she is all the time, but he says she is, and I’m hanging on to that! She will go next week for more Rituxim, (but no chemo) which she will have to have every three months for the next two years. The next Monday, two weeks from today, she gets to have her port-a-cath removed. Yay!! Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow morning Greg will have his lab work redone, and we meet with the surgeon at 11:00 to go over the results. We are praying for the white counts to be more normal, so surgery can proceed as (re)scheduled on Wednesday morning at 8:00. I’m hoping Mom’s news is just the start of more good news to come.
Thank you all for your comments. I usually answer each one via email, but here lately, I hope you all understand that I’m not getting that done. I read them all, and they all mean a lot to me, and have encouraged me, and lifted my spirits.
Talk to you soon!
Change of Plans
We got as far as pre-op today. They even got Greg hooked up to an IV. Then we got some upsetting news from the physician’s assistant. His white blood count is way too high. Then the surgeon came and told us no surgery today. That was hard to hear. Antibiotics now. New labs on Tuesday morning. If the counts come down then surgery will be Wednesday morning. Right now they are way too high. 28000. If they don’t come down, he will be admitted so they can pinpont the cause. The word leukemia was mentioned. I am praying for normal white counts on Tuesday ! Thank you to my readers and friends that are praying with us!
Almost there!
We are almost to Greg’s surgery day. We have to be at the hospital at 6:00 am, tomorrow morning. I cannot express my appreciation enough to everyone that has been lifting us up in prayer. We have literally felt them giving us strength. I have been calmer and more peaceful these past two days, than I would have ever thought possible for me. Truly, that is not the norm for me in a situation like this. There is no other explanation for it than the prayers that are carrying me through. For my guild members reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you for Greg’s prayer quilt. It is going to the hospital with us! He was so deeply touched by it. I will get proper thank you’s out after we get all settled back down. I will try to update as soon as I can. Love to all!
A Flimsy!
I managed to get my jelly roll quilt top finished this weekend. It is now officially a flimsy! I would love to be able to manage to get the backing made, get it loaded and quilted, and binding made and attached, before Greg’s surgery. That way, I could have some hand stitching to work on. That’s probably being too optimistic, but maybe….
The pattern is All Boxed In by Heather Mulder Peterson. It’s from her book Let the Good Times Roll.
The jelly roll was from the Glace fabric line, by Three Sisters for Moda. They are Christmas themed, and I will quilt it with an allover Christmas panto. Yay! I will finally have a Christmas quilt. Surely I will have it finished by Christmas time this year.
If you are in need of a good laugh, (which I have been) and another online site to waste time, check out When Parents Text. Be sure and click on the tabs at the top of the page, “archives”, “favorites”, etc. There are lots to go through. I end up laughing so hard I cry at some of them. Enjoy!
Inside My Husband’s Head
Literally. Now we have a visual of this unwelcome intruder inside Greg’s head. The surgeon let me snap some quick photos of the MRI with my phone. It is the blob between his eyes, and infiltrating the sinus cavity below. We have our surgery date. On January 28th, this thing is going to get eradicated! The surgeon feels very confident that he is going to be able to get him all fixed up! He may lose his sense of smell, and that’s sad…but, the least of what it could be. We can live with that.
So, if you wish to see….
In this next set, I have drawn circles around the whole thing. The darker area in the bottom area of the tumor, in each photo, is the sinus cavity, that the tumor has infiltrated. It has grown through the bone to invade that area. The part that is mushrooming up is putting the pressure on the frontal lobes, and causing most of him symptoms. It is causing swelling, especially on that right side where it has grown up farther.
The surgeon said he has treated one that had actually grown down the patient’s nostril. At least Greg’s hasn’t gone that far yet! Looking at these photos, I can’t even imagine that. I think I’m feeling a little more peace about it, and Greg seems somewhat relieved this evening, as well. At least we have a plan and a date! Again, thank you all so much for the prayers and well wishes! I can’t express enough how appreciated they are and have been.
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 