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!