Day 7 (not such a lucky number after all)

I woke up today in a daze, exhausted and not really sure how i even drove to work, but i ended up in my usual parking space at 6 in the morning. Work was so crazy busy and i did not get over to see Heather early as I had hoped to. I was so worried about her all night and just new something was wrong. I called Scott and he told me she was sleeping non stop and not really talking at all. She had been having headaches and they were giving her morphine and a bunch of meds for her nausea. I had been up all night thinking about how i thought maybe heather was still having some sub-clinical seizures and that is why she is so exhausted. I wanted to investigate that today when i saw her. Then I spoke with my dad in the afternoon and new something was off when he told me he went to see Heather and her right arm was turned in clenched like a person after a stroke. I was able to get off work around 3 and go over to see her. A friend and Scott's father were there with her. Heather would open her eyes a little bit and say one word answers with her eyes closed and go back to sleep. At least on wednesday we got s few sentences before this happened.

So the investigation begins what is causing this? Here were my top three diagnosis': 1) Over medicated/sedated
2) Seizures that we can't really see and so her brain is not functioning properly
3) Increase in size of tumors or swelling in brain.
Easily could be over medicated, but would not be causing her right arm to curve like that. Luckily the pain specialist came by and she agreed Heather appeared over sedated. She explained they had started 3 new meds the night before. I still was not satisfied as she was groggy yesterday. I asked her to tell me everything heather has had. She looked it up and we were both surprised to see that Heather had only received one dose of morphine that morning. None of the other meds had been given as she was comfortable and sleeping all day. That rules out the over medicated. Then i realized my worse fears were true it was something wrong in her brain. I would have demanded they do a cat scan, but lucky for me they were already on there way to come get her for one. probably should have been done yesterday but at least it got done. I had asked earlier if the CT was because they were concerned about acute changes or if it was pre op preparetion. They said preop prep, but I knew better as she was to have an MRI for that tomorrow. I figured someone else was suspicious too. Glad they were cause it was almost too late.

The scan showed lots of increased swelling in her brain. The radiation she has been getting has caused her brain to swell but it has no where to expand cause the tumor is in the way. SHe had been slowly dying but now it would be quick. The doctor felt that there was not time to wait til the 1:00 surgery tomorrow and said she would not live through the night. He said it is now emergent surgery and he would not beable to do the MRI to guide him during surgery and Heather would now need a drain coming out of her brain to let out fluid. Also he would be taking out more of her skull to let her brain expand for future radiation. So not best case scenario but it was done. Perhaps later i can talk of the sweet and selflessness i was able to witness as my brother in law told his wife that if she wanted to go home to her father in heaven or if that was God's will it was ok for her to go. He said his goodbyes in case she did not make it. So SAD but sweet to watch. Heather was so at peace. Eyes closed but that big smile on her face. She was less and less responsive as we waited about one hour for her to get to surgery. But that is acutally pretty quick.

Long story short, Heather had the surgery and it went well. when they cut in the tumor was already trying to come out the hole they made cause there was so much pressure. They were able to remove it and i believe the second one as well, and place a drain to drain the fluid. She was already able to wiggle both feet and blink appropriately. She will be in ICU and on a ventilator overnight. Hope to get her off that tomorrow. Right now she needs to rest and let her brain recover. So we are asking for people not to visit right now. If you come by please just spend a few minutes. She will not have radiation for a whole week. The surgeon was very optomistic of heather regaining some of her function. Thanks for everyones prayers.