Now that I have had some sleep, thank you to both sets of grandparents, brother and our good friends for putting in a long day waiting for surgery to end. I don’t know how we wouldhave done it without all of you. You all must have been very tired. I must say, it was the longest/hardest day of our lives. Thanks again for being with us in our time of need.
Archive for April, 2009
Saturday 4-11-09
Categories: Andrea | April 11th, 2009 | by diane | no comments
Two short walks so far today (5:00 pm), one to the acticivity room and a walk to a sunny window. Both were not far, but she needed a long nap afterwords. She can see out her left eye alittle now, but does not really feel like doing much. Her pain is up to a five, but the meds they are trying make her sleep. Dr. visited this morning and said he is happy with her progress and tonite at 11:30 will be her 3rd day – so she should not get any worse and we hope to begin impprovemnt. There is still concern with no sight in the right eye, but if that is the only side affect she ends up with – she is very lucky. She is a trooper and never complains, rest is hard to get in a childrens hospital – but we feel very safe and taken care of here. Tonight we will take another walk. Sunday BUNNY DAY, grammy and grampa will come back , grammy will stay and grampa will take todd home – as he must get back to work. They are not telling what day we will come home now, her walking needs to improve (no shuffle) and her pain must be controlled. She misses her horse (thank you to M for doing chores) and she misses her puppy (thank you to grampa for taking her to his place for training). Thank you to everyone for all your caring and support – that is the only way we could have gotten through this and it keeps Andrea trying hard to get better.
4-10
Categories: Andrea | April 10th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
The Artery line and one of the IV lines were removed this morning. The swelling has increased and this has caused more pain. The Dr. says that this should be the worst and the swelling will go down from this point.
Andrea has been moved to a normal room this afternoon. If you would like to give her a short call starting on Saturday. The phone number is 734-763-9446 room # 6692 bed 2. She is reading her emails now so fee free to drop her a line.
Andrea has been up and took a few short walks. She will have to do more walking tonight and tomorrow.
The rest of the mailing information to send a card is
Room # 6692 Bed #2
Unit # 6M
The staff has been wonderful to us. They have it going on and do thier jobs very well. The Ronald McDonald house is very nice. Grandma, Grandpa, and Andrew left late today and we will miss them. They will be back on Sunday. They have been very helpfull and we hope that they catch up on thier rest. We thank them for all thier help.
4-9-09 Doc Visit
Categories: Andrea | April 9th, 2009 | by diane | no comments
Dr. just visited (3:30), her exam went well – he said the MRI shows some small parts of left over tumor, we will discuss radiation options – but it will be in future. Her right eye is still too swelled to determine anything and may be 1 week before exam of eye by neuro optho. She complains of head pain (from surgery) and jaw pain (from muscle being cut and pulled back) Overall she is doing VERY WELL. She is a trooper, she has eaten and went to the rest room – she is on too many meds to list. Because she is progressing so quickly she may be released sunday??? They send them home a.s.a.p. for better recovery, scary to me. I suggest anyone that was planning to send something to the hospital that you may want to send it to the home instead – not knowing how long she may actually be here and she is still in PICU 2 with no room number. Recovery at home will be long and involve many trips back to Ann Arbor. The traveling bedside music just came to her room and played/sang two songs that Andrea actually moved her lips to the words and smiled best she could – the only other smile we have seen is when grammy and grampa came into the room today. We now need to search for a apple fritter craving, will update if anything changes. Thanks for your inquiry.
Post Op Day 1 – Morning
Categories: Andrea | April 9th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
It was a pretty decent night. We arrived at the ICU about Midnight. Andrea sleep about 2-3 hours. She looks good considering the long surgery.
The doc was in and looked her over this am. At this time her right eye is swollen and not functioning properly. She cannot open it but the doctor opened it and it would not dialate.
Jaw movement is inhibited at this time because of nerves. They are trying to determine from which nerve the tumor started from.
Her temp is almost normal now. Catheder will be removed soon. She will be moved to PIC2 because they need the room in PIC1.
She may be moved to the normal floor (out of ICU) late today. We will put room number and unit as soon as we know.
The following is an address for those who have asked for it. It must be addressed exactly. It must have the word patient in the lower left corner.
Andrea Ring
C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital
Room # _________ Unit # __________
1500 East Medical Center Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
We were accepted into Ronald McDonald house last night. So we have a place to stay for the duration of the time that we are here.
The Doctor will be making rounds this after noon so we will update after we speak with him.
We want to thank everyone for thier thoughts and prayers yesterday.
Update 10:10
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
Andrea is out of surgery. Every thing went well. A few surprisees in the OR.
The tumer was actually a schwannoma. this is still a benign type of tumer. this type grows out of the nerve fibers. I was inside the cavernous sinous not on the outside as originally thought.
It came out well but took a lot longer than first estimated. The Dr. is happy with the result. There may be some residual problems with the right eye as it started from the optic nerve. The optic motor nerve was well preserved. The carotit artery is well preserved.
There is a chance that it can regrow so we will be looking at some radation therapy to make sure that it is dead. This type responds very well to radiation.
The sample has been sent to the lab for analysis. we will have the results in about 2 weeks.
She is getting the MRI now and we will see her shortly.
That is all for tonight. I will make some updates tomorrow after we see her.
Update 7:50
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
Now they are starting to close. 1 to 1.5 hours to close. and all the rest.
The desk here in the waiting room is now closed for the evening so we will not have another update until they come to get us to go to recovery.
Update 7:30
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
The word is that they are starting to close. This will take about an hour. Then the MRI, then recovery. We should get to see her hopefully by 11:00.
I will post again when they are closed.
Update 6:30
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
They are getting close to closing up. Then on to the MRI. About an hour there and then the recovery for about an hour and then we will be able to see her.
So it looks like we will get to see her about 10 pm.
we will update when she is out os surgery.
Update 5:30
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
The surgery has now been extended to 7:00 pm. After that she will get an MRI that will last an hour.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Update 4:30
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
We have now been told that the finish time is now 6:pm. They did not say there were any complications just extended the time to 6:00.
Update 3:30
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
The report for the OR is that all is proceding well at this time.
They are still on schedule for 5 pm finish.
Update
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
The update at 12:15 is that all is going well.
Surgery Starts
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
Surgery began about 9:30. They will update us in about 1.5 hours. The estimated completion time is 5 pm tonight.
Surgery Day 6:30 Check in
Categories: Andrea | April 8th, 2009 | by todd | no comments
We have arrived. We checked in and Andrea was taken to prep about 7:15. We stayed with her until 8:00 and then she was taken to the surgery prep.
We are expecting a call any time that the surgery is about to begin. I will update this at every call from surgery as the day goes on.
Todd