Living My Dream

What A Week It Was

Hi everyone - this is Suzy's husband Tom, with what I hope and expect to be my final posting on Suzy's blog. This has been an amazing crazy week, with plenty of ups and downs but thanks to our faith in God as well as the doctors, I believe Suzy will eventually be as good as she ever was. I would be remiss not to credit the faith, prayers, support and comfort that so many of her friends and loved ones provided; I believe that your good vibes eased Suzy's nerves and strengthened her will throughout this process. For that, I am (we are) very thankful to you all. I don't think I ever explained what was going on with... Read more →

Jun 29, 2012

Today is Friday -- my first day semi-coherent. Thus far I've been grumpy and angry, but today they put a blood patch to fix the leak of CSF fluid from my brain into back....and now I'm a happy non-grumpy woman. With my spinal fluid headache behind me I finally feel like what I thought a brain surgery patient would feel like...and this ain't so bad. Bring it on! Just got up for the first time and ahhh the joys of peeing in a toilet. Hoping it's mine by Sunday. Thank you so much for all your prayers. If my face wasn't working plus I had this ugly scar I might have to hide under a rock for a while but... Read more →

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Happy Thursday. I was hoping that Suzy would be back up and running (and posting on her blog) by now, but she is still in the Intensive Care Unit. Suzy is experiencing some horrific headaches that appear to be migraine related -- and the doctors are keeping her medicated to battle the pain. I keep my fingers crossed that she will be released from the ICU and to her own private room by this afternoon. The good news is that her facial nerve is still performing as we have hoped (the nerve swelling is still going down) and the vertigo/dizziness is not as extreme as we originally were expecting. Hearing is still yet to be determined. All is not miserable... Read more →

Oh My Aching Head!

Quick update on Suzy's progress. She had a pretty restless night of sleep last night and today is probably the worst day of pain she will experience -- this is pretty normal according to the professionals. Despite the pain, Suzy is in good spirits and she still makes me laugh. The doctors are giving her Dilaudid to help with the pain -- come to think of it, the Dilaudid is probably the key to her good spirits. They removed her spinal tap this morning -- this was perhaps part of the reason her head hurt so bad. Our brains float in our skulls -- and when that brain fluid (cerbrospinal fluid) is drained from a tap, the brain tends to... Read more →

Suzy And Her Pesky Acoustic Neuroma

At 2:30pm, Dr.'s Schwartz and Luxford from the House Ear Clinic completed their surgery on my beautiful wife Suzy. It appears as though they were able to remove the entire tumor and they explained that her facial nerve has remained completely intact with what appears to be no facial paralysis. They also conducted initial brain response tests and early indications are that her hearing is at least partially working; this is huge, because we went into this thinking that her right-ear hearing was going to be gone for good. One thing to note is that Suzy is dealing with an immense amount of pain tonight. The ICU is keeping her medicated but with the retro-sigmoid procedure, the process of removing... Read more →

Hi everyone, just a quick update to anyone following my wife's blog. Suzy was taken into surgery this morning at about 6:45am. It's 11:00 now and so far, so good --- I think. At least I'm hoping "no news is good news". She showed both courage and humor this morning as they wheeled her down the hallway towards the operating room, making us all laugh as she was approaching the most serious operation of her life. More to come.... Read more →

Pre-Op day

Hello friends! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and nice messages on my last post. I would like to respond to each one, but I ran out of time. I will try to do so when I get back in a week or so. Today I am at Pre-Op apts all day. Three ear/brain wave tests, meet with both surgeons, have a full physical and meet with the internist. The goal is to make sure I am healthy enough for surgery and to choose the best surgical method: the one that could save my hearing and the one that will destroy it in that ear. There are pros and cons to each so these tests today will... Read more →

Ten Day Countdown...

I have purchased a new bed and new bedding. I bought myself two new robes and nightgowns. I have an apt to have my hair colored. I'm getting my carpets cleaned. I bought some new sketch books and markers and they are all organized next to my new bed. I'm almost ready with ten days to go! So what to do with my extra time? I am working hard on cleaning my house. Every single nook and cranny! It makes NO sense to be doing the things I am doing such as filing that had piled up for the past eight years. I guess you would call this nesting. I should be out walking the dogs and spending time with... Read more →

Suzy Update, AC Projects, and a Class Winner Finally Announced!

UPDATE: SURGERY IS SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 26TH - WOW, THREE WEEKS OUT! Thanks for all your nice comments on this post - sooooo appreciated! I will continue to update my blog on my progress through this! suzy I have a question for all of my loyal blog readers (not sure if I have ANY as I don't have a button to follow my blog, but some of you regularly leave comments, which I greatly appreciate). Anyway, back to the question. Are you interested in hearing about my journey through the next couple months regarding my brain tumor surgery? If so, I will use this as a place to post updates and what I am going through. If not, I may... Read more →