Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Heeelllooooo!
Its been an eventful/uneventful summer. Mainly pretty reflective.... Spent most of my days puttering around and working on regaining strength and working on the house. Jimmy and I went to Eureka Springs and I got to try out my 'driving -longer -distances' part of my brain, and the ever loving, 'driving -on -mountain -roads -with- switchback' part of my brain, both of which worked fine! (BIG YEA!) It was soooooo nice to escape from Memphis and get out in nature. Need to do it more often. We are thinking of going to Sedona in the fall, and maybe Wyoming at Christmas. I hope so. I just hope my 'flying- in- plane ' part of my brain is up to it!
Apparently that's why they made seats 1A , xanax and Amaretto Di Sarona for....;)
Nick went to Florida to visit with dad for a couple of months, and is back now and ready to get back to college. He will be moving out here soon. I'm so old....and this subject is what caused at least half of my reflectivity this summer. Nick and the following:
Gary had a aneurysm burst while he was by himself at home about a week after my surgery. It was a miracle he survived alone, but that he made it through surgery was just another...His wife Ann has been by his side for 3.5 months. He was making progress after 3-4 weeks at Baptist Hospital here in Memphis, enough so that he could be taken to The Shepard Center in Atlanta for rehab http://www.shepherd.org/. He was doing well, had a couple infections, got over them, had a shunt put in, was doing better, and then for some reason started struggling w/ pressure issues and then pneumonia. He passed away and into Heaven at 11:45PM August 7th. Our hearts have been heavy, as we miss him and hurt for his wife Ann...but we also are thankful he is where he is now and no longer in pain and not knowing the boundaries of the human body. God Bless you Gary-We Love You.
Healing is continuing for me and my noggin. I was able to get my hair colored to its original color in July finally ( I'm one of those people who has been naturally blessed with golden blonde hair-ha ha), and so it was nice to come out of Juv'e ( the place where I go...highly recommend) and still have my scalp intact and not bleeding from all the chemicals (hmmmm, same chemicals I've been putting on my scalp for how many years....) When ALL of my hair follicles start growing out gray then I will stop doing this insanity.
I still get tired late in the day and sometimes feel like I need to shut my eyes,but for the most part I feel a whole lot better than I did before surgery! The steroids and lack of movement prior to and after surgery did cause me to put about 10 pounds on, so I am in the midst of working on getting that taken care of. Recently started mountain biking again. I love riding, but had to put that aside for many months prior to surgery because of dizziness and sight issues, but have started up again and just love it! I also love Wii- Pretty good at the hula hoops....
Well, I have to go run some errands. Hope to hear from you all sooner than later.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
This is my incision line and staples:
Here I am pre-op w/ parayer blanket made by Barbara Watts , and given to me by her and my small group at church- The nurses let me take it in with me.
Here is the inbound and outbound flight arrival times for the patients in surgery:
The evidence of needing a neck lift has never been higher.....uughh
This is apparently what I looked like in recovery, right after surgery.
I found out a while later that the OR nurses, who were so kind and were giving me hugs and praying for me, braided my hair out of the way instead of shaving a space to make the incision so that the doc would have a path to follow and I wouldn't have to be partially 'bald' there for a while. How nice, huh?
I had to wait several hours in recovery before they could take me to NICU as there weren't any empty beds available for me there...not like I knew the difference though!
The first evening was okay except that I was nauseated and I refused to take phenegren or Reglan, so I just got sick a couple of times. I finally kept a popsicle down around 4AM, and then it was smooth sailing. I was more worried about any reaction I may have to all the meds they give to you, but haven't had any! I feel pretty good considering.
The first night in NICU they ask you questions every 30 minutes to look for neuro-deficits, etc. They of course are also checking every bodily function known to man kind as well..What cracked me up the most though was ( and if you are a liberal and reading this, I am sorry, but I just had brain surgery and I don't care if it ticks you off ), was that they ask you the same questions over and over, Full name, What year is it?, Where are you? WHO IS THE PRESIDENT?-Ughhh. I think thats what made me nauseated the most while I was in NICU:)) Are they trying to illicit a response from me???And then I'm thinking....these people are taking care of me...be nice Wendy , and try to say just OBAMA, and not Hussein Obama...
Okay , enough of that. He is one of God's children too....Remember that folks.
Anywho.... The second morning they moved me to room out of NICU that I had to share...yes, share, with someone else. I didn't even know they did that anymore! I haven't seen a room like that since probably the 80's, and I've seen alot of hospital rooms.
I had a neuro exam done the second day after surgery and the doctor said I did the best of anyone she had given the test to...:) They had me dong these frickin' mazes that you couldn't pass over paths you already went on and you had to go to a certain list of places on map, etc and start here and end here. I would have had to think about it for a bit on a good day. I somehow did pretty well on it only missing one. I felt like an idiot, but she said she was impressed. At least someone was!
By that evening, Deirdre , who spent the night w/ me , made them move us to a room w/ nobody else in it. The lady we were with was very restless, moaning, and her phone was ringing, and they kept having to do alot for her. I hadn't slept in two days and was ready to ask Deirdre to just wheel me out into the hallway so I could sleep!
I did sleep better in our new digs. I mean, 2 to 3 hours is better than none!
They released me at a round 1 PM or so that day and we all drove back to Memphis, arriving home around 4-5PM.
I slept pretty good last night in my own bed. Garby cuddled up next to me. Thank GOD we have a temporpedic ( I know that is not spelled correctly...as are probably a full third of the words here....you'll live) hospital adjustable bed! I couldn't imagine having to lay flat or try to get elevated.
I have few things I can't do. You know, fun things like cleaning, cooking( I actually like that) and lifting, so I have help for that. I would really enjoy getting my hair washed as its pretty gnarly right now with all the 5 lbs of antibacterial vaseline crap they put on it. My head feels like the underside of a crank shaft! I do get to wash my hair tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that....maybe not so much the drying though.
Dr. Thompson told me right after surgery and a few other times, that the tumor came out so easily, it wasn't even funny. He said it virtually slid out. This was a meningioma,a type of tumor that grows out of the meneges,the skin lining of your brain. Regardless of what type of tumor anyone has growing in the brain ,just the fact that it is in your brain is going to cause pressure on brain parts, ventricles and nerves, regardless of whether it is growing from the actual brain cells ( like Nick's was-astrocytoma) or like mine , growing from the cells lining the brain pushing in on the brain...its going to cause issues eventually.
Thompson said he was able to get 100 % of it. A pathology report during surgery showed it to be benign, and he is not recommending any radiation or chemo and just to have a MRI in a year every year for awhile! I was worried because it(was) a fast growing meningioma. Typically meningiomas are a type of tumor that grow 1 to 2 mm a year. They watch them via MRI's to monitor their growth, especially if there aren't too many or no issues. I had a MRI in Jan of 2007 whereby there was nothing, and I had one done in February of 2009 and it was over 3 cm, so they considered this to be fast growing and I was told there were the type that are more likely to be malignant. I was worried about having any treatments, and quite honestly would have probably opted away from any. All I can do is THANK GOD for answered prayers and for actually making this a good thing for me...(more on that later).
I'll post later. I'm going to go get some water, watch the Navy kick butt in East Africa and maybe watch something funny on TV, like MSNBC(:) Hell no....
Can you host a tea party after April 15th???? is that 'wrong' or socially unacceptable nowadays?
Love EVERYBODY!!!
Love,
Wendy
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
We're Off To See The Wizard....
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Well...we're off to Nashville on Monday to see Dr. Reid Thompson about this lovely lil' thing growing behind my right eye. It looks like a meningioma, which is the kind of tumor my dad has(d). His was on his parietal lobe & he had it Gamma Knifed in 2005.
For those who need a primer/ refresher in brain parts see the following link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Brainlobes.svg
My son, as those who know my family may know, had a brain tumor removed last January from his frontal lobe at Vanderbilt by the same doc I'm going to see ( hence me going to see him). His tumor was a grade II astrocytoma. It was completely resected and he has had no re-growth...Thank God!
So much for the good health sentiments below, huh?
No, really...everything occurs for a reason. I already know that. Its not up to me to know why, but I always see why in the end:)
I have met so many other people that have brain tumors, or who have HAD them. Its just amazing to me that these are as prevalent as they are!
I imagine that if everyone had a baseline MRI around maybe 2o yrs old, doctors would be able to catch so many more BEFORE they grow and do any damage, but I also believe that the incidence of brain tumors being reported would skyrocket. There is a group out of NY that is trying to get MRI's available to anyone at a very low cost called The Brain Tumor Foundation. Check out and watch their video http://www.braintumorfoundation.org/roadtodetect.php .
I'll check in later next week w/ more....
* Side note: I asked a neurosurgeon here in Memphis a couple weeks ago about the possibility of getting a lift done at the same time, I mean...you're already there, right???? I had a hysterectomy a few years ago and was able to get a tummy-tuck because they were in the 'neighborhood'....He looked at me kinda' weird. ( I wasn't serious, but he thought I was and just because of that it was worth asking...:)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
God Please....Puuhhleeaasse let these next 365 days be a outpouring or growth spurt because of what the last 365 days has molded us into. I hate to say or ask for a 'better year than last'...that sounds so typical, and of course , isn't that what everyone would hope for?
As I was going through some old recipes to organize into a book, I found on the back of one sheet of paper some notes I had taken while watching Charles Stanley several years ago. I think they are always timely and are much needed reminders for everyone, so I put them into Word for safe keeping and thought I'd put them up here as a nice little reminder for folks(and myself) to look at and to be a comfort.
Why Does God Allow Suffering?
To get our attention
So we can develop righteousness and maturity into our lives
To prune our life ( John 15: 1-2)
Teaches us obedience ( Hebrews 12: 5-6)
To make you trust Him
Brings us into constant dependence on His grace and goodness
To manifest Christ's life and character in us
So we can share the holiness of Jesus
Enables us to share in the suffering's of Christ ( Phil 3: 8-10)
To prevent pride in our lives