Hi all - Barbara had a successful surgery. Apparently she talked through the whole procedure. The surgical staff all had smiles on their faces after the procedure. They got as much of the tumor out as possible - it seemed encapsulated - but of course, not all of it - scraping out more could lead to permanent damage to her speech (which is apparently and thankfully intact).
This journey is just beginning. Next - it
will take about a week to get back the pathology results which will
reveal whether the tumor is malignant or not. Since it is something
that originated in the brain and given its location and shape it has
more odds of being malignant than not. The pathology results will also
reveal its nature, that is whether it is type one (slow growing) up to
type four (most aggressive). That will then determine the specific
course of radiation and chemo required over 5-6 weeks. The neurologists
will examine her tomorrow to determine risks of seizures, which may
become an issue (in about 10% of cases). The good news is that Barb was a
solid trooper through the procedure and pulled through this first major
ordeal of the adventure thanks in many ways to the support, good
wishes, and prayers of her friends and the work of the "soldiers"
(surgical team) here at Toronto West Hospital. I am waiting to see her
as I write this in her room. Hopefully she can come home in a couple of
days.
6 comments:
How is she doing now?
I cant get anything really concrete...not awesome...there is some memory loss and behavioral stuff going on...no idea if it is all permanent...or if it will go away...they did say she will be in the hosp for months and I do not know why that is either...its frustrating and makes me nervous that the lack of details are due to the fact the news is not great...know what I mean...?
My mother had brain aneurism surgery (that’s how they found her kidney cancer with is a long story.) She was a total wackjob for quite a while after surgery. Saw things that weren’t there…heard things that weren’t there…thought things around her were happening that never did. At the time it was really scary but now it is a great source of humor for my sisters and me. It left us with some great funny stories about my mom and she would be laughing too if she were still here.
It took her months to recover. But I think that when they go in and touch your brain, even if the surgery is not that severe, there are some short term ramifications. I know that mom was seeing bugs on the walls and that was just a visual impairment from the surgery that translated to “bugs” in her brain. Those issues eventually healed. Hopefully that is all that Barb is going through. I kind of hope that her husband is forceful enough to get the answers he needs because those surgeons are kind of assholes. You have to almost nail them to the wall to get clear answers about what is happening. It’s a shame because that stuff can be very scary when you are going through it and you don’t know what is happening.
thats really reassuring...I got a garbled text from her today...so I answered and got a weird one back so I just told her she could call me any time today or to text and I could call her...she called right away and it was really...sad and scary...she still cannot find words to say what she wants to say so she describes things...she was trying to say Christmas and said: that thing ppl celebrate on the 25th - etc. The weirdest part was she sounded lucid in her manner of speaking but it was gibberish a lot of the time...I am not even sure she knew who she was talking to - she asked how my son was and where he moved...I honestly did not understand 99% of what she was saying...I asked her abt her family and how they were and she said she cant remember their names but she has 3 kids and a husband...gawd I hope that improves...! Talking to her is kind of like a fucked up game of charades...lol
It makes sense what u said abt any brain surgery s going to mess shit up in there so I would imagine this is normal and she just needs time...
Honestly...kind of sounds like my mother. In the beginning she really had a hard time understanding where she was and they had to tie her down because she would try and leap out of bed and would fall. My sisters and I would spend a lot of time saying to each other, "Did you get that...what the hell is she trying to say?" SOme of it we could only piece together after a lot of discussion...and some of it was really funny when we figured it out. Mom became kind of racist with a head injury...but only against Polish people. Oh god...it was so funny.
hahahah the polish ppl...how strange hey!? the brain is so wild...
yeah it does sound kind of the same...very comforting to know this sounds par for the course...
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