Andy had his brain surgery on November 16th to remove the bleeding vessels in his brain stem. We were told by the doctor that it was the most dangerous part of the brain to operate on and if she went in and the vessels didn't manifest themselves then she would just have to close him back up because it would be too dangerous to dig. When we got there that morning the neurosurgeon told me to expect 4-6 hours in surgery. Dr. Shulman asked us one more time if we were sure we wanted to do this. She had already explained the complications and had put in orders for him to stay at a rehab facility after the surgery because she just knew that if she pulled anything out that he would have some function loss and would have to relearn things or it would just take time for some of those things to come back. She was just hoping it wouldn't be anything too big like breathing or walking. We had prayed and gone to the temple many times about what we should do and the answer was loud and clear to go ahead with the surgery. So we did.
Dr. Shulman came out 3 1/2 hours after they went in and I immediately thought,"oh no that wasn't long enough that means they couldn't find the vessels" then I took a closer look at her face and she was smiling very excitedly. She told me that when she opened him up the vessels were right there and what she pulled out was rather large. Hopefully that means that the vessels that were bleeding this time and all the old bleeds were connected and she could get them all but we won't know that for a couple more months. At this point he wasn't awake yet and she said as soon as he woke up she would test his functions and come back out to talk to me. She did warn me that his brain function did go down a little during surgery but was back to normal at the end which she said,"made her hopeful that he would be able to make a full recovery from any damage that was done going into the brain stem".
About an hour later Dr. Shulman came back out and was on cloud nine. She said he was awake and all functions seemed to still be intact. The only thing he was having problems with was a little numbness on the right side of his tongue. She couldn't believe it and actually called it a miracle. And I said,"Well that is what we have been praying for!"
Andy was so drugged that the nurse got in his face and shouted at him to open his eyes and look at me. So he did and gave my hand a little squeeze. I was so relieved. Since he had to stay in ICU and I knew he would be watched over every second I went home and slept better than I had in several months. Dr. Shulman told me they would call me if there were any problems or if there was any swelling. Now that he was awake and all functions, except part of the tongue, were normal she said the only complication now would be swelling.
The next day before I could even make it in to see Andy he called me on the phone!! I was shocked. He said that Dr. Shulman had already been in and still could not believe how well he was doing. She tested his functions again and they were all normal even the numbness on the tongue was gone!! She couldn't believe it. She said she thought it would take at least a couple of weeks or maybe a month for the numbness to go away and it was gone over night!! The Dr. was even bringing in colleagues to see her "miracle" patient. When she would bring them in she would test all his functions so they could see how amazing it was.
So almost two weeks went by and Andy was doing great. The surgery was on a Tuesday and he came home that Sunday, completely skipping any rehab. When he got home is when it got hard for me. He had a whole pharmacy of medication that I needed to remember to give him and he was needing around the clock ice pack changes. Not only that but some of the medications upset his stomach so he would need something to eat in the middle of the night when he took his pills. So here I am running up and down the stairs all day and night being 7 months pregnant.
I was exhausted. Then came my birthday. Monday, November 29th, it was one day short of being two weeks out from surgery. That night my wonderful friends brought me dinner and my fabulous mother made me eclairs. Amy and her kids came over and with my kids sang happy birthday. It was a fun night and I was able to relax after my kids got in bed around 8:00. Andy went immediately upstairs because his head hurt. I thought maybe he just overdid it. Then he called downstairs and said,"I need a blessing right now". I was surprised so I called my brother and went and got my dad up. When I got upstairs Andy was in more pain then I had ever seen him in before.
Brent came right over and gave Andy a blessing with my dad. The blessing told us that we needed to do what the doctor told us. So after I sent my mom and dad to the store to get some Tylenol for Andy to take in between the narcotics he was taking, Andy said,"Call the doctor". So I called the nurse hot line and she said that it was really weird that he was almost two weeks out from surgery and then all of a sudden is now in extreme pain. I agreed and she said she would call the neurosurgeon who was on call. In the mean time Andy had gotten out of bed and told me to take him to the emergency room because the pain was getting worse.
I didn't know where to take him and remembered the blessing telling us we needed to do what the doctor said. So I asked Andy where he wanted to go. He said just take me to SouthWest which is only about 20 minutes away. For some reason this made me feel uneasy and I told Andy that we should wait for the nurse to call back. He said he wanted to go right away. So I slowly got ready and just as we were ready to walk out the door the nurse called back.
She said the neurosurgeon said to come by ambulance to Sunnyside Hospital and DO NOT go to SouthWest. He said that there could be bleeding from the surgery and we needed to come there because all of the neurosurgeons knew him and what they were dealing with. (The on-call neurosurgeon was actually the person that did the gamma knife surgery for the other bleeding vessels five years ago). The nurse also said she was going to call the emergency line and get an ambulance for us. She put me on hold and came back on just seconds later. She told me that the emergency line wasn't picking up and that I needed to hang up and call 911 immediately.
Needless to say it was a VERY long night. When we got to the hospital they had a whole bunch of tests ordered for him. He was in so much pain that they started giving him morphine right away and lots of it. After all of the tests they were able to put him in a progressive care room (this is in between ICU and regular floor) about 5 o'clock in the morning. At this point I left because I knew he was going to be watched 24 hours and there was really nothing I could do.
The next morning Dr. Shulman came in immediately and started shouting orders to the nurse. I tried to call to see how he was a couple hours later and the nurse was too busy being bossed around by the Dr. to talk to me. Which was probably a good thing. The Dr. was able to get his pain under control and put him on a high dose of steroids.
When the kids got up to go to school my mom told them that the ambulance had come last night and had taken their dad back to the hospital. They all said,"The ambulance came to the house and you didn't wake us up?" They were very upset not because dad was in the hospital but because they didn't get to see the ambulance. Then they were even more upset when they found out the fire department came too because they are the first responders in the area. They made me swear that if it ever happened again I would wake them up. I told them I would but that I never, EVER, wanted to have to call 911 again!
Dr. Shulman said that Andy had a-septic meningitis(swelling around the surgery sight) and that the spinal tap showed a staph infection. He saw an infectious disease doctor that same day and he put him on an antibiotic drip. He dramatically improved and after being admitted into the hospital Monday night was able to come home Thursday evening. But this time he would be coming home with steroids and a picc line for the antibiotics.
The doctor thinks Andy must have been down playing his pain the first time he came home (which would have pointed to swelling) and I agree because this time when he came home he hasn't had to have any ice packs and hardly ever takes the narcotics. He also felt good enough to baptize our second oldest son, Matthew.
This is a picture after the stitches were removed during his second stay at the hospital.
We went to see the infectious disease doctor and he said that he thought the infection was staph orifice meningitis. I don't think we will ever really know for sure but Andy was able to get his picc line removed yesterday and is antibiotic free. Andy will also take his last round of steroids in a couple of days. Even though he still has his bad days, this past week Andy said he has hit a new level of wellness. Before when Andy would do something it would wipe him out for the entire day. Now when he does something he rests and then he can usually get up and do something else. I know this frustrates him because he wants to be able to get up and go non stop but even with the little set back I'm feeling extremely blessed with everything that has happened.
We are so thankful to our wonderful family, and friends for the prayers and fasting in our family's behalf this last month, I know that is what helped get us through this trial. The Lord has been with us and guided us through this whole process. We have truly seen miracles happen all around us this last month and have been blessed beyond measure!!
