Sorry for the lack of posts, but we've been spending the last few weeks helping Denita's mom get ready for her surgery.
Just before we found out that Denita was pregnant, her mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor. One brain tumor became four over the next few years... On behind her right eye, one in her right frontal lobe, one in her brain stem and one just above her right ear. March 30th was the scheduled day for her surgery.
Two weeks before her surgery, I took her to San Antonio for her per-surgery lab work. The lab work came back with her potassium levels flat-lined and the chest x-rays showed something very unusual with her heart. This Monday she went back to have more tests to see if her heart could handle the surgery. Thankfully, they were able to stabilize her potassium levels and the anomalies with her heart were able to handle all of the stress tests she was put through.
Thursday and Friday were the longest days we have ever had to deal with. We spent Thursday in San Antonio with the family and were waiting on pins and needles today at home, awaiting news. Denita's mom checked into the Methodist Hospital in San Antonio a little after 10am this morning and went into surgery at 1:30pm this afternoon.
Thankfully, we got the word that Denita's mom was out of surgery at 4:30pm and the doctor was very impressed with her vitals and responses during the surgery.
They were just going after the tumors behind her eye and in her frontal lobe (these were the most troublesome ones to her). When the doctor started looking around the eye, he could not find anything. After searching for quite some time, he concluded that the MRI scans were false for the one behind her eye (probably normal brain matter pushed into an odd position due to the pressure from the tumor in the frontal lobe). The frontal lobe tumor was removed without complications, and the biopsy showed it as benign. The doctors did not want to go after the other tumors at this time due to the sheer amount of skull they would have to remove to get to all of them at one go. The frontal lobe tumor was the one that was causing most of the problems for Denita's mom.
Denita got an update from her father around 8pm this evening that her mom woke up and was able to recognize Denita's father's voice and the voice of a friend of ours who works in the hospital (she still has her eye wrapped up and cannot see anything right now). As we were checking out of Wal-Mart at around 8:30pm, Denita's cell phone rang. When she answered it, she almost collapsed to the floor.
It was her mom!
She had about a five minute conversation with Denita and Zane, before the pain medication made it necessary for her to go back to sleep again.
We are all giddy with relief right now. While we know that Denita's mom is not out of the woods yet, we do know that the most dangerous part is over.
Denita's mom is expected to stay in the hospital for 5-7 days recovering, and I'll keep everyone updated as to how things are going.
Just before we found out that Denita was pregnant, her mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor. One brain tumor became four over the next few years... On behind her right eye, one in her right frontal lobe, one in her brain stem and one just above her right ear. March 30th was the scheduled day for her surgery.
Two weeks before her surgery, I took her to San Antonio for her per-surgery lab work. The lab work came back with her potassium levels flat-lined and the chest x-rays showed something very unusual with her heart. This Monday she went back to have more tests to see if her heart could handle the surgery. Thankfully, they were able to stabilize her potassium levels and the anomalies with her heart were able to handle all of the stress tests she was put through.
Thursday and Friday were the longest days we have ever had to deal with. We spent Thursday in San Antonio with the family and were waiting on pins and needles today at home, awaiting news. Denita's mom checked into the Methodist Hospital in San Antonio a little after 10am this morning and went into surgery at 1:30pm this afternoon.
Thankfully, we got the word that Denita's mom was out of surgery at 4:30pm and the doctor was very impressed with her vitals and responses during the surgery.
They were just going after the tumors behind her eye and in her frontal lobe (these were the most troublesome ones to her). When the doctor started looking around the eye, he could not find anything. After searching for quite some time, he concluded that the MRI scans were false for the one behind her eye (probably normal brain matter pushed into an odd position due to the pressure from the tumor in the frontal lobe). The frontal lobe tumor was removed without complications, and the biopsy showed it as benign. The doctors did not want to go after the other tumors at this time due to the sheer amount of skull they would have to remove to get to all of them at one go. The frontal lobe tumor was the one that was causing most of the problems for Denita's mom.
Denita got an update from her father around 8pm this evening that her mom woke up and was able to recognize Denita's father's voice and the voice of a friend of ours who works in the hospital (she still has her eye wrapped up and cannot see anything right now). As we were checking out of Wal-Mart at around 8:30pm, Denita's cell phone rang. When she answered it, she almost collapsed to the floor.
It was her mom!
She had about a five minute conversation with Denita and Zane, before the pain medication made it necessary for her to go back to sleep again.
We are all giddy with relief right now. While we know that Denita's mom is not out of the woods yet, we do know that the most dangerous part is over.
Denita's mom is expected to stay in the hospital for 5-7 days recovering, and I'll keep everyone updated as to how things are going.
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