honk honk, hughlo?

You know that person at the green light who is just sitting there with their mouth hanging open staring into la la land? Well, that's ME!!! What in the world just happened?!! Still feeling like that everyday. Sometimes I will annoy Brody while he is completely glued to the tube while Office is on, tap tap..."babe?!" . He pauses the tv and looks at me, "yessss?". "Mimber when I had a brain tumor and then they took it out like 2 months ago? huh weird.". So don't give the person at the green light a hard honk, just a tippity tappity one. They might be trying to  stare into the Heavens thinking about their miracle. (I struggle with road rage sometimes, but I am just sayin..)

So, I had my first follow up MRI on Monday. They gave me the disc with brain pictures right after, but my appointment with Dr. Cattorini isn't till October 31st. So I thought no way was I going to look at them without a professional standing behind me telling me not to worry, "that's just part of your brain". BUT, I looked late that night. HAHA. It looks really good. I looked at my same two  frames as the famous toomy pictures and it's just brain from what I can tell, but I will wait till he gives me the clear at the end of the month. I just couldn't help it.

Pain has lessened A LOT. I will have really bad days and call the Doctor and the Nurse will say, "have you taken your pain medicine?" Then I feel like an idiot because of course I haven't. I guess I am in denial that you still feel pain 7 weeks after brain surgery, it's just I have completely normal days. The only thing I can complain about is tiredness. I could sleep 24 hours a day if you let me, but that is probably just my brain slowly repairing. So cool.

Well, there I go blabbing while blogging. Next blog is going to be all about Bryce. He is way more fun talk!!

Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts. Honestly, what a neat experience.

Love!

100% Benign!!!

Soooo....today was the day I was scheduled to get my stitches out and results are in.....100% BENIGN!!! There was some other fancy information on the pathology report that I didn't understand, but the important part...NOT GROWING BACK!!! Thank you JESUS! Dear God, I pray I lean on you every single day in the future the way I have leaned on you in the last 6 weeks.

Thank you everyone for your love, thoughts, and prayers. What a whirlwind 6 weeks that you made so much more comfy with your LOVE. I have to be honest..these drugs and the surgery have made me pretty darn lazy and I feel guilty that I wasn't responding to text, emails, and facebook so much. I am feeling really good these days. I usually am exhausted after getting Bryce ready for school and take a morning nap, but I am pretty much good to go for the rest of the day. The most painful part of this surgery has been the actual incision because with every turn of the neck, it feels as though I am opening it back up. Otherwise, recovery has really been great. I feel like the luckiest girl in the WORLD.

A special thanks to Stephanie Pesano who shot our last minute family portaits. Please look at her website and check out her  talent. Thank you Stephanie!
http://blog.amewsme.com/?p=717

Also, a friend, Christie "blinged my blog" in hopes to cheer me up. She turns plain and boring blogs into total cuteness!!
http://bushelpeckdesigns.blogspot.com/

Thank you again. I am so very blessed and humbled.

Love.

Gretchen is Going Home

Gretchen is such a good patient that she is getting out earlier than expected. Continue to pray for her and her head. She is still in a bunch of pain and nauseous.

On the bright side she is coming come without her unwanted visitor Toomy.

The "W" Medical Medical Center

It's Shay again. Gretchen is doing pretty good considering. She is a bunch of pain and is sensitive to light, smell, and sound. She had a CT scan earlier and it came out great.

She is in her suite now and it is amazing. It's very similar to a to a suite at The W hotel ,but bigger.

She is in too much pain still to have visitors. We will let know when she is feeling up to having guests.

Toomy Is No Longer With Us

Gretchen is in recovery and doing well. She woke up and said "So I made it through my surgery?"
The doctor came to visit us and he did remove all of Toomy. He was hard like a golf ball and had to be peeled apart. It was attached to the transverse sinus vein and he had to pluck it from that. They are sending it to pathology because 1. they do that 2. because it was unusually hard for her age. The results will be back in 5 business days. She has a few titanium plates and he said her skull is thin. So no contact sports for her anymore!

Gretchen and Brody will let everyone know when her doctor says she is ready for visitors.

Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. God is good!

Update on Toomy

Part of Toomy has been removed and he is being tested in pathology. Things are going well.

Bye bye Toomy

Gretchen is now back in surgery and it should be for the next 4 hours. Her surgeon is confident that he will be able to get all of Toomy today. Her attitude was great although she was not happy to be left alone in pre op. I'm sure as soon as she had her "cocktail" she was just fine. She is at Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas and this place is incredible. It's like a 5 star hotel. Thanks for your continuing prayers. We sure can feel them.

One More Sleep..

WOW...in about 11 hours I will be sleeping and Dr. Cattorini will be gettin' rid of the Toomsters...Toomy... Toomersons

The last month (from finding out August 1st till today) has flown by, but at the same time has been the longest month ever because of how many thoughts have made their way through my head. Since my last blog post, I had a rush of fear. I had been staying up really late and trying to get as much QT with my two loves, which in return has made me sleepy. When sleepy, those negative thoughts tried to sneak their way in. Well today I feel prayers and it is AMAZING. The DAY before surgery has been the most peaceful day yet. I am more than ready and I am NOT scared. Every part of me knows that this is completely in His hands. God is about to use my surgeon's hands to make a serious WWF Smack-down on that tumor.

I can't even come up with the words to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. I have never felt so blessed. I am sorry to those I have not responded to through email, etc...I appreciated every word so much.  I love checking FB, but the last couple weeks, the minute my little nugget climbs in my lap (which is usually about one minute later) I log off.

I am kind of half asleep and emotionally pooped, so I should probably stop blabbing, but THANK YOU. Thank you so much. I will see you on the toomy-less side!!!!

Shay will be updating my blog during and after surgery.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

Third Eye Benign

I never wanted to create a blog for a negative reason, but this seems like the best way to communicate through this hump in the road. I am sorry that I am not contacting you all directly, I've seemed to be allergic to the phone the last couple weeks.

The next couple sentences will sound really bad, but know that it could be so much worse. On Friday, July 29th I had an MRI ordered by my Neurologist because of my frequent headaches and migraines. On Monday, August 1st (the day before Brody and I would go on our first vacation together) I was told I have a brain tumor. My tumor is called a Meningioma and is supposedly the kind you want if you get to have one. In most cases Meningiomas are benign, so PRAISE GOD for that. Typically they grow very slow and if you are older in age, they don't have to do anything because they calcify. Mine ate it's Wheaties or something because it's nice and big. As my surgeon said today, "this isn't your average Joe". They are guessing I have had it for 5 or more years, but no way to know. Being that mine is big and "smooshing" transverse sinus (important vein), they are removing it via surgery at Forest Park Medical Center next Friday (Sept. 2nd). The location of my tumor isn't directly related to migraines, but the fact that it is putting pressure (think kink in a hose) on a vein that is in control of blood flow from my brain, this could be the reason for the migraines and headaches. So next Friday after surgery I will be in ICU for 48 hours and then I get to move to a really "beautiful" Suite in the hospital for 3-7 days. They said there is even room for Bryce to stay the night if we want.

I am doing pretty good. Of course I have my teary days, but overall I think I am handling it better than my anxious self. In fact, my daily anxiety has left the building. I guess when something this big comes into you life, you don't sweat the small and weird stuff?! I strongly believe everything happens for a reason and God's plan is in action. Some proof (in my mind): Brody and I have been trying to get pregnant for the last couple months and we have been unsuccessful. I wondered why, but guess what....God knew why. If I would have gotten pregnant, "Toomy" would have a chance to grow to who knows how much larger. Meningiomas feed on Estrogen and can sometimes grow during pregnancy. Also, they want this tumor out and I wouldn't have been able to have surgery with a baby in the belly and would risk my own life growing it.

Some people don't deal with things through humor, but it works for me BIG TIME. Brody named it "Third Eye Benign" because it looks the size of my eyeball sockets in pictures. He can joke about it sometimes, but for the most part it's not funny to him. So I refer to him as "Toomy" and I like to blame things like laundry and durrrrr moments on him. First night we knew about it, we were out for Kane's bday and I knocked the table and knocked everyone's drinks over. "Sorry, it was the tumor". I then realized that's how I was going to deal.

Anyways, my main point in this blog other than updates is a request for your prayers. Maybe a prayer for peace for my family for the building up of surgery, a prayer for surgery, and a prayer that it's 100% benign. Small (very small) chance that mine could be malignant because if it's size. Also, a little prayer for my sweet little man, his Mommy is going to be out of commission for a couple weeks.

Thank you for listening and thank you for your prayers. I am no writer, so bare with me!!! Shay and Brody will be updating this blog after surgery and the next couple weeks.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

Oh, I will post a picture of the tumor and a Meningioma link. Here is "toomy"......

http://www.braintumor.org/patients-family-friends/about-brain-tumors/tumor-types/Meningioma.html