He's Home!!!

Well as you can tell from the title, Tracy is home. We actually brought him home Friday night.Things have been so busy since he arrived home I have not had a second to update the blog.

He is still in a lot of pain and the welt on his side has been causing serious pain as well. His voice is no more than a whisper right now. The doctor had some concern about this on Friday. This is only because he was talking fine on Wednesday after his removal from the ICU unit and placement in the NAC unit. Then on Thursday his voice was gone. The doctor said his throat may be having the delayed effects of the tube that was in there during surgery and all of the vomiting. His throat may be a bit sore from that but the doc asked that we contact him if his voice is still having issues after a week.

T is still pretty wobbly and dizzy. He has been having a hard time getting into a comfortable position to sleep well. He has already tried to push himself more than he should have and became nauseous. He is still taking the steroid for the muscles they had to move to get to the tumor and is also taking Lortab 7.5. So it is helping the pain but not as comfortably as it was at the hospital.

The doctor has told him not to do ANYTHING for 2 weeks. He does, however, have to get up and walk around at least 30 minutes a day. This will help with circulation and prevent blood clots.

He is doing rather good otherwise but we were told it will take up to 2 months before the headaches, dizziness, and focus will be back to par.

I have attached a few pictures of the incision. He has a total of 24 staples. He has 17 for the incision and 7 above his right ear. I am not sure why he has an incision above his right ear. We did not notice them at first because his hair was not shaved and was hiding them. When I asked the nurse why he had an incision there, she had said that sometimes they have to insert a tube or something like that during surgery that is not expected until they are in the operating room. I had asked Tracy to ask the doctor why they had to cut there, if he could remember to, but he forgot to ask.

His staples are supposed to be removed in 14 days and I suppose we will ask at that time. He will also have a follow up appointment with Dr. Schmidt in 4 weeks and I will update then. I am sure I will have the occasional post in between that time.


One last thanks to everyone for all that they have done for us during this time. Everyone has been wonderful and it is good to know we know so many people that care!

Heading to the Hospital

Well I am off in a minute to go to the Hospital.

I had to go home last night because my sitter had to leave. I did call and check on him last night and they were able to get him up to walk again. He is finally eating a bit more...yet still nauseous. He has managed to keep his meals down now though.

He is still in a lot of pain and always really tired. He also has a lot of dizziness when they get him up to walk but the doctor said it will be at least 2 months before he fully recovers from the balance and dizziness problem.

Everything is pretty steady right now. I will let everyone know when he is able to go home.

Thanks

Chillin at the Hospital

Hi everyone!
I am just going to do a quick update as I am posting this from my phone. Tracy is still vomiting at certain points in the day. His head still hurts pretty bad but he still has that push button.

They have started to give him Lortabs orally today. They said the pca (patient controlled analgesic) is great because it is instant relief but it does not stay in the system long. The lortabs will remain in the system longer and hopefully help bontrol the pain as good. They may take away his button today.

The doctor has been in a few times to check on him and said everything looks good. He has asked physical therapy to come in and get him on his feet. They may possibly get him in the shower today. Good thing too!
: )

One last thing...Dr. Schmidt said they had cut a square section from his skull to get in there to the tumor and after the surgery was done they had placed a plastic plate over the hole for safe covering.

The church has been bringing my mother and the kids dinner as I have been at the hospital every night and I wanted to say thanks to them for feeding my family. I appreciate it so much.

Okay...I'm off now to take care of my hubby!

Oh...I have attached another photo or two!













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It's Finally Over

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't post last night. It got a little crazy once I got to the ICU room.

Well everything went great. After the surgery, his doctor came to talk to me in the waiting room. He had said that he was able to get the whole tumor out. Of course with these things and the way they grow, there may be a very very small piece somewhere in there that over time may grow again. That should be about 20-30 years from now...we hope. The consistency was more like feta cheese and he mostly scooped out the middle of it and had to pick at the membrane surrounding the center. He said there were some tough areas but he managed to remove it from the stem and nerves safely. This guy is AWESOME! After they closed him up, he ended up being in surgery a total of 9 hours.

When I arrived to the ICU room Tracy was not doing well at all. He was vomiting from the anesthesia and apparently had a reaction to the morphine. Because he had not had anything to eat since midnight the night before, he was vomiting bile. It was pretty nasty. Also the pain was incredible. It was much much worse when he vomited because of the pressure it put on his head.

Once they got the right pain med, that his stomach could tolerate, they gave him a pca. A pca is the handy trigger which will feed the pain med to you with the push of a button. things started to calm down a bit after that. At about 1 o'clock he was able to have some ice chips and small sips of water. He was getting pretty good at pushing that little button! He was in and out of sleep for the next few hours.

They came in periodically to check his vitals, give him shots of stuff, and check his functions. They would ask him questions or have him squeeze their hands or wiggle his toes. Everything seems to be working great.

This morning they said he may even be able to be moved from ICU to the NeuroAcute Center. They are going to do a cat scan today and if all looks well he will probably be moved. The NeuroAcute area is basically one step down from ICU. They will still monitor him pretty well. They think they may even be able to get him up and walking tomorrow. Of course this is what the nurse was telling us. I will know more from the doctor later.

I will be sure to post everything I find out. I apologize again for posting this so late. I know there are a lot of you that are very concerned and were awaiting the update.

I have attached a few pics of T after surgery. There is a picture showing a huge red welt/rash on his side. The welt was caused by lying on a rubber roundish long cushiony thing to position him for surgery. I guess after laying on it for 9 hours with his full body weight on it caused some skin irritation and possible bruising of the ribs. He says it hurts pretty bad. It is really swollen.

Thanks again to everyone. I think your prayers helped him to have such a great recovery!

It's out!!

We just got our last update. The tumor has been removed. I'm not sure yet if they got it all. I will not know that until the doctor comes out to talk to me.

He has been in surgery for 7 1/2 hours now. They are closing him up which will be another hour and 30 minutes.

I will post again when I am sitting with him in recovery/ICU.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers! I know they helped!!



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Newest update

Okay..the latest update they tell me they are working on removing the cyst right now. His stats are still tip top and they assured me nothing unexpected has happened.

Everything seems to be going smoothly. His time in surgery has been almost 6 hours now.

Hopefully the next post will be news that it is over and he is in recovery.

Will post again soon!

Surgery update

They have gotten through the skull and are now cutting through the muscle and tissues surrounding the area that they need to get into to reach the tumor. They said his stats are looking very well.

As of now, he has been in surgery a total of 4 hours.

I am just keeping this short and sweet. I will be back soon.

Finally in the OR

Okay...we arrived at the hospital at 8. We were immediately taken to pre-op. I was beginning to feel hopeful they were going to get him into the OR soon this time. We waited only about 15 minutes before the nurse came in to get his stats and soon after the anesthesiologist came in to hook up the I.V. Hooray! He is finally going to get into surgery and get this thing out.

They went over the procedure with us and then they were ready to take him away from me. My nerves are definitely going crazy. I am even breaking out in hives with the stress. Now all I can do is just wait. I am just sitting here with Tracy's parents.

They just called with the first update. It looks like they have finally gotten underway with the surgery. He was hauled to the OR at 9:50. They said they had trouble positioning him and ended up having to hook a couple more I.V.'s to him. Now they are going to start chipping the skull away to get to the tumor.

They said they will have another update for me in 2 hours. As soon as I get the update, I will post it on the blog.

Thanks to everyone for their support!

Let's try this again!

Just about to head out to the hospital in this lovely snowy weather to see if they will have time to crack my head open today. Wish me luck

-Tracy


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No dice!

Bad news. Tracy's surgeon was bombarded by emergency traumas today and while he was still willing to forge ahead, we decided to wait until next week when the entire neuro team will be available and fresh. I'm sure the team of on call docs that would have handled it tonight would have been capable, but we feel better waiting for the "A-Team" on Monday.


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Still waiting....

Well...we are still sitting in the pre-op room. Apparently the doc had two surgeries before Tracy's and I guess things are not running on schedule. Dr. Schmidt still intends to do the surgery. However if this surgery he is in runs a lot longer than expected, we may end up having to come back on Monday.

We are crossing our fingers he gets in today. Please cross yours also!

Waiting...

I know everyone is probably anxious to know what is going on. We are at the hospital and I came prepared with the laptop so I can post regularly so everyone will know the dealio!

Right now we are in the prep room. His surgery is scheduled for 2 but we were just told Dr. Schmidt has 2 other surgeries before Tracy's. Soooo...he may not make it into the "OR" until after 2.

Tracy is laying on the bed in the lovely hospital gown. His Mom and Dad just arrived so we are all just chatting right now waiting for them to come back with an update. I promise that when we know...you will know.

I also wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone at my work who contibuted for the Walmart gift card. I know that will come in handy! The company I work for has been great and really flexible with the situation.

The same goes for Tracy's company! Everybody there has been wonderful!!

I'll post soon!

Surgery tomorrow

Tomorrow is the "Big Day". It's kind of freaky to know that by this time tomorrow I will have a huge hole in the side of my head and some guy scraping at my brain with a knife! It was supposed to be an early morning surgery, but there was a problem with the "OR" scheduling, so I got bumped to 2:00PM. They wanted me to wait until next week, but I said I'd rather not. I am confident it will go just fine and I can get back to annoying you fine people ASAP!

-Tracy

Eureka!

Alrighty...here is the best news we have heard! Tracy has a date for surgery!

Let me give you the background. As I said in my last post, we went to see the new Neurosurgeon, Dr. Richard Schmidt today. He was great! We thought we were in good hands with the Neurologist we had originally seen and who was going to do the surgery but I must admit that I am even more confident with this new Neurosurgeon. He was very informative and seems to be somewhat of an expert on cysts. He has written publications on the rupture of cysts and has operated on several in the past.

He stated that cysts like Tracy's are not common. They receive 2-3 cases like his a year. He has seen only a few that are as large or larger than his. He told us about one woman whose cyst had even grown up into the brain and behind the eyes. This thing had grown through just about everything. They were able to remove the cysts and she had no loss of function.

We have absolute faith in this doctor. He will also have his chief resident present in the operating room. As I had stated before, the hardest part will be trying to remove it by the brain stem and cranial nerves. If the density of the cyst is too thick and more difficult to pick at and piece out safely, he may need to leave the portion that is connected to the brain stem. If he ends up leaving that, the brain stem will never fully realign but he said it will not impair the functionality of the brain stem because the pressure on it will have been relieved. He does feel confident he can remove the majority of the cyst.


We were at the hospital from 10:30 to 3:45. After meeting with the doctor, we had to do all the pre-op paperwork and labs and because we did not have an appointment for pre-op we had to wait about an hour and a half.

With that being said, the date for surgery is this Friday, December 11. He will be in the ICU for 2 days and the hospital up to 6 days. Pray that he does not have any complications and everything goes smoothly! Dr. Schmidt said that he will be in quite a bit of pain but they will give him many doses of pain meds to control that. He was prescribed steroids to take the next couple of days to get his muscles and everything prepared. The doctor said there will be a lot of pressure and he will be moving things around a bit in there so the steroids will strengthen his muscles to better cope with all of that. Good news is he should be home for Christmas if all goes well.

They will be cutting a square shape out of his skull in the lower part of the brain and be working through that to remove the cysts. So he will have a pretty big scar but he will be alive and eventually feeling tip top again!

The same risks still apply as well as possibility of pneumonia from being under anesthesia that long. So we could still use your prayers!

I also wanted to thank the people at my work who donated some of their vacation time in my behalf. It is great how people will reach out for someone in their time of need.

I will post again after the surgery and let everyone know when it will be okay to visit Tracy; if they would like to.

We posted some pics of the tumor so everyone can see what we are dealing with. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Update coming later

Hi everyone! I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon at the U of U Neuro Sciences Center in a couple hours. Hopefully I will get a definite surgery date..... and soon! IM sure Becky will post a full update later.

Thanks to all for your support!

Tracy

The latest

Alright…Here is the latest and greatest.

The Doctor reviewed the newest MRI film. There IS some good news from it. The 5th and 8th nerves (responsible for controlling facial expression and hearing/balance) look to be pushed out of the way by the tumor, and not enveloped by it. Nerves 11 and 12 (responsible for shoulder shrugging and some tongue movements affecting speech), may be a bit of a problem since they look like they go through the tumor and will need to be worked around.

We have absolute confidence in our doctor. Unfortunatley here is the bad news. The original Neurosurgeon (Dr. Pingree) that was going to do the surgery had to push it back to the 30th of December because he was going to be out of the country for the holidays. He didn't feel comfortable performing the operation and only being around for a week of Tracy’s recovery (Up to 4 days in ICU and up to 2 weeks in the Hospital after moving from ICU). He said that were too many things that could go wrong, and he didn't want to be out of reach. I think he was just being overly cautious, but at least he had Tracy's best interests in mind.

Dr. Pingree had said that if we are anxious for the surgery and would like to get in sooner he has a Neurosurgeon at the “U” that he would completely trust to do the surgery and could possibly get him in sooner.

We struggled with what to do because we had come to know Dr. Pingree and really liked and trusted him. Not to mention, he had impressive credentials and accreditations. After going over the pros and cons, we decided to move forward with the surgeon at the “U” and see what his schedule was. Dr. Pingree said he would get in contact with him and let us know if he could get us in. Eureka!! He was able to get us in for a meet and greet and review of the films and all that on Tuesday, December 8. Dr. Pingree said that Dr. Schmidt may even be able to operate the end of that week or the following week. The reason he will be able to get us in the operating room so soon is because all of the legwork has already been done by Dr. Pringree.

The new doc is Dr. Richard Schmidt. After a bit of research, we are VERY comfortable with this recommendation. He also had VERY impressive credentials and accreditations. What's even better is that he works at the University of Utah Hospital's Neuro Services Center. This is good news because it is a "state of the art" facility that would be ready to handle any kind of complication Tracy might have during (or after) surgery. Dr. Schmidt also seems to be an expert on Epidermoid Cysts located on the cerebellum! Looks like this may have worked out for the best.

Our main concern now is when the surgery will be and the length of time the surgery will take. As mentioned before it will be a 8-12 hour surgery. Of course, there are the risks and the recovery process. Even if the surgery is a complete success, there will be a high percentage of short-term functionality loss because the cerebellum will need to expand to its normal size filling the HUGE void that the removed tumor once occupied. The brain-stem will also need to realign. This could be the worst part as the brain stem controls life sustaining functions such as heartbeat and breathing.

I feel that everything happens for a reason and we are both trying to stay very positive through this. Of course, there is no avoiding the fears involved with such a risky procedure. I am very glad he will be able to get in soon for surgery as his symptoms are getting worse .The other day he fell in the garage and cut his head on the garage door. So the sooner the better I say!
Oh..on a side note…I would like to let you all know that the HR department at my husbands work has approved the donated vacation time from all of his coworkers and we will be able to use this to help us get through this month! Thanks again to everyone for their kindness and compassion.

I am going to sign out now but I will post another update after our appointment with the new Neurosurgeon.

Closer to the Goal

Tracy received a call from the Radiologist on Saturday asking that he come in for an additional MRI Monday morning (Nov. 30) at 7 a.m. We were a bit nervous not knowing why.

The Radiologist told Tracy that Dr. Pingree (his neurosurgeon) wanted this done to get a closer view of the cranial nerves in order to map them out. The Radiologist said we should hear from Dr. Pingree later that day. Our nerves were going crazy in expectation of his call.

It was about 6 p.m. when we finally received that call. He informed us that he needed the additional MRI to see whether he was going to have to cut just 1 trap door in Tracy’s skull or if he would have to cut an additional one in order to maneuver more easily through the nerves. He had not looked at the MRI film at that time but was going to review it with the Radiologist.

He also stated he was not able to reach his colleague at the “U” to review the MRI with him as he is head of Neurology there and travels a lot giving lectures. He is still hoping to get in contact with him for a second look and second opinion.

As it stands, he wants to operate next week. He has told us he will get in contact with us later this week to come back to his office to go over all the details and get a date set for surgery.

I am anxious and glad to have this beasty thing out of his head. I feel his symptoms seem to be getting worse but he thinks now that he knows what it is it could just be all in his head. No pun intended there!

I also wanted to give a shout out to all of his coworkers. We were informed that several of you have donated your vacation hours on his behalf. Unfortunately, The HR department is telling him they do not want to use it right now and to save it for later. Therefore, they are requiring he get on short term disability at 60% of his pay. We are hoping they will give a little and allow him to, at least, use some of those donated hours for this month as Christmas is so close and it would be very helpful!

Cross your fingers!!

I will post again after we have a definite date of surgery!

Thanks again everyone!

Thanks to Everyone

Well the day is almost over and I am looking forward to the time off. We have had a crazy couple of weeks.

Our plans are to hang out at home and have Thanksgiving dinner together. I think we all need family time! We want to get as much of that time in as we can before Tracy heads into surgery. I know that it will be quite an adjustment for everyone but we are willing to do it in order to enable Tracy to have a full recovery.

We definitely have a lot we are thankful for. One of those things being all of our friends and family and the support we have received.

So…. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!


Love,

The Hammonds

Update on the Tumor

Well it is Monday and I said I would post an update after the appointment with the Neurologist. So here it is!

As suspected, the Neurologist said it is an Epidermoid Cyst and therefore the tumor is benign. However, that was about the only good news we received. The Neurologist said that the tumor is quite large. The cyst is larger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball. So you can only imagine the size of this thing. According to the doc, Epidermoid cysts are congenital. This means he has had it since he was in the womb. Throughout time, the cyst has slowly grown so large that it has been affecting his balance, vision, hearing and giving him major headaches every day all day!

The risk with a cyst (tumor) this size is that it is basically encompassing his whole left cerebellum and is putting pressure on the brain stem. The brain stem controls all major functions such as your heart, breathing, etc....The cyst is putting so much pressure on the brain stem when you are looking at the MRI, it shows the brain stem going straight through the spinal column and up the neck but once it reaches the area near the tumor it forms a backward "C" shape so the brainstem is seriously out of alignment. This makes surgery very difficult because the brain stem is in the path of the cyst. So they have to be pretty precise when removing the cyst from that area.

The neurologist is also worried about the cranial nerves. The cyst has grown through and around some of the cranial nerves. The cranial nerves control facial expressions, eye movement, tongue movement, swallowing, taste, hearing (auditory equilibrium), chewing, and so on. Basically these nerves control movement from the shoulders up. If any of these nerves are compromised, he could lose movement on his left side. So this again is something that makes the surgery more complicated.

After going over all of our options, it seems the best resolution would be to remove as much of the tumor as they can without compromising any of the cranial nerves. I think the neurosurgeon would have preferred surgery right away, but admitted this was going to be very complicated and wanted to get a team of specialists together to evaluate his condition and collectively determine the best possible course of action. He has stated the surgery will take a minimum of 8 hours but could take as long as 12 hours with 2 days in the ICU. Once moved from the ICU, he will have an additional 4-5 day stay for observation. Of course this is based on a "near perfect" scenario. If he does have complications, the stay could be up to a month.

There are also risks of the toxins and fluids stored within the cyst leaking into the spinal fluid and filtering into Tracy's bloodstream and causing "chemical meningitis." I know… it sounds bad. We were a bit freaked out too. The word "meningitis" brings a lot of scary things to mind. The doc said that if this happens it can be flushed out with antibiotics and such but it will cause him to be violently ill.

So where it stands now, Tracy has an appointment tomorrow to test his hearing to see if there is already nerve damage. I don’t think his hearing is selective anymore! The neurologist told us he will call on Monday…hopefully with a game plan. Obviously there is a lot more that we had discussed with him. It was information overload! But this gives you the gist of his situation.

Even if the surgery goes well, his brain has to expand into the space that the tumor occupied and the brain stem will have to reposition which can affect some of his functions during this process. If they cannot get the whole tumor out, he will have to have regular MRI's to continually track the growth of the portion that remains.

We have a long road ahead of us but are staying positive!

Thanks again to everyone for your well wishes and prayers. I hope to post often and let everyone know how Tracy is doing.

Tracy's Status

Tracy has been having constant headaches and dizziness for the last couple months. He has been to the doctor several times, each with a different result. He was tested for all kinds of things. The best the doctors could come up with was sleep apnea. After treatment for the sleep apnea (CPAP machine) he still didn't feel much better.

He went back to the doctor and complained about dizziness and a constant headache. His doctor did a few simple tests (like walking one foot in front of the other). He failed miserably. She then sent him for a CAT scan. The CAT scan was supposed to take about 20 min, but it took about an hour and a half. That was his first indication that something may be wrong. The scan tech said his doctor should contact him with the results in a few days. He barely made it to his car before his doctor called him and said he needed to get an MRI as soon as possible.

The next day I took him for his MRI appointment. His doctor made a special request that the on call radiologist immediately read the scan and contact his doctor. The on call radiologist said they found a "very large" tumor on the left cerebellum that was "most likely malignant".

Later that night, his doctor called and said she had just received a call from the radiologist. He had told her that after looking further and in more detail at the MRI film, he feels that there is a possibility the mass is an Epidermoid Cyst. This was good news because epidermoid cysts are not malignant, but the neurosurgeon will have the final say on Monday.

So now we just have to sit and wait until Monday to find out if this is bad, or VERY BAD! I will update on Monday after we see the neurosurgeon and have more info.

Thanks to everyone for all the prayers!