Day - 2 The aftermath of surgery

Nicholas came through the surgery remarkably well.  He was back in his room at around 7pm.  It did take him a while to blow off the anesthesia and for the first couple of hours there was some concern since he wasn't talking or responding.  In some cases like his, there is a condition called cerebellar mutism.  In these cases, speech and motor functions are delayed.  A CT scan was ordered and he appeared to be fine.   At some point he began to scream in pain.  I have to tell you what a strange feeling it is to be relieved when you hear your child scream, but it was one of the sweetest sounds I will ever remember.  He was able to verbalize where it hurt which was great.

The night passed very uneventfully (thankfully) and we were all able to get a few hours of sleep. While Nick was still in quite a bit of pain,  the staff was able to keep on top of it with fentanyl every few hours.

Throughout the day, we began to see noticeable improvements.  His speech was becoming much better and he was much more alert as the day wore on.  One of the problems with brain surgery is that it is pretty invasive and the brain is a very delicate organ.  Because of the trauma to the brain and the swelling from the operation, one of the issues is a transient vision problem.  Eye control is very difficult causing blurred and/or double vision.  Because of this, Nick spent most of the day with his eyes closed, I am sure because it made him nauseous.   Who wouldn't be if they had to look at 2 or 3 or me all day long.  The doctor's said that this is very common and should clear up in a day or 2.

Nick's motor skills all seem to be fine.  He is able to grasp things, lift his arms and legs and he was even able to sit upright for a moment later in the day.  We were thrilled with all of this because with Brain surgery, you never know.

A follow up MRI was done later in the day to compare to the one done on Tuesday.  According to the doctor, everything looked great.

As for the future, tomorrow we will look forward to Nick getting back to eating with some clear liquids and hopefully even get him out of bed and into a chair.  The other big milestone will be to see if they can remove the ventric.  This is a thin tube that has been inserted into Nick's skull to drain the cerebrospinal fluid from the brain until the swelling has gone down.  With the tumor removed and the swelling down, the hope is that the CSF will be able to flow freely between the brain and the spinal cord without pooling in his brain again.

Lastly, we also await the pathology report on the tumor itself.  The type of tumor and staging of the tumor will dictate the future course of treatment for Nick.  We are hoping for Friday, but we are guessing that Monday will be more likely.

I am home tonight with Sam and Peter, while Deb is staying with Nicholas.  The kids have a lot of great questions and Deb and I are doing everything we can to explain the entire process.  As you can imagine, this is a lot of information to process in a short period of time, but they are doing well.

The amount of support and well wishes are truly overwhelming and we all can't say enough how fortunate we are to have so many friends and relatives who are willing to help out.  We know that everyone is shocked and wants to help in some way.  Right now, Deb and I are trying hard to keep the kids lives relatively sane and really feel that now, more so than any other time, we need to be together as a family.  The road to recovery for Nick is sure to be a long one and we both know that there will be ups and downs along the way.  It will be during these times that we know we will be needing help.  As for updates regarding Nick, I felt that this would be the best way to communicate.  For one, it allows me to get my thoughts down on paper which is somewhat therapeutic in and of itself.  Calling everyone daily is just not feasible and emailing everyone daily seems too arduous.  I hope to post daily reports of Nick's progress and hopefully have them become far less frequent (or better yet, just end).

Once again, thank you all for your generosity, well wishes, prayer and support.  We need it all right now.

The C's