well it's a new day and a new set of challenges today. Brian got moved finally out to the main floor last night. Deana and I spent the night in the H. house and slept good. But Brian's having a hard time resting now which is NOT acceptable, d/t his wandering roommate. Brian looks good and his pain is really doing good today. His big issues are, he's exhausted since his roomy either had his TV blarring all night or was wandering over into bri's side of the room. Grrr. Don't worry, Deana and I are all over this!!!!! I've spoken w/ the nurse and she said the charge nurse is working on the problem. Also a wonderful news is the residents rounded on Brian early and told him if he continues to do well they may discharge him as early as tomorrow! Again, Deana and I are all over that. If Brian just needs quiet clean rest and oral pain meds we can soooooo do that at home. Brian's a little frustrated at his dizziness and double vision but that will hopefully improve with time. Also he has some numb taste buds which are also frustrating him but again, hopefully temporary. At least he suffered through the bacon on his tray anyway. :) We'll let you know what happens but pray they get crazy old Joe next to us either tied down or moved and that we'll be able to help Brian get ready to go home so he can sleep! Love you all. Alli

Well here ya go folks, this should make you feel better. Look at that good lookin man!!!! He has done incredible this afternoon. His pain is so much better. He got some steroids on board and some muscle relaxers to help w/ the stiffness in his neck and he's doing a lot better. So far miraculously no nausea still! We've given him some meds a few times to head it off but it's not been yet cause he felt nauseated per say. His big hurdle this evening is his dizziness. He says the room just spins and he has some double vision in his distance vision but other then that he's done great. The little stinker even surprised us an hour ago and got up to a chair and sat for a while. Talk about stubborn, we had our big male nurse, a physical therapist, me and Deana all to help him and he scooted stubbornly w/o any help. Got to love that strong will. He didn't stay long in the chair before the spinning room got old but he did great w/ moving. I was proud as peach of him (shown above). He's out like a light again now but it's ok, we told him he completed his exercise regimen for today so he can pass out for the rest of the night now. We're still waiting on a room in the step down unit. There just aren't any beds available yet. They warned us that he might have to share a room which sucks but we'll deal. We did get a visit by Dr. Hashisaki this morning which I was SOOOO greatful for. He talked to him about the surgery and some options if his hearing is as damaged as we suspect. It was good to see an official face. Then for the most part Brian's slept for most of the day. I know many of you have fussed for me to rest, I'll get there. Maybe tonight, we'll see what kind of nurse and room he gets. If he's in a good situation I may go back to the H. house tonight to get some sleep. But I won't leave him if he gets a groaning granny or a crackpot nurse for the night. There's another prayer request for ya. I've talked to the Bit a couple times today. She's having a blast and doesn't seem to mind the long stay at smith mt lake....big shocker with all that sunshine, candy and Mickey Mouse clubhouse to boot. Thanks to mom and dad for making that part of this week that much easier. It helps to not have to worry about that one anyway. Well, I'm going to curl up in my chair here and catch a snooze for a while. Hope you all feel a little better after hearing some positives. It was a good day. Love you all. Alli

morning

Hello everyone, here we are post op day 1 officially now. Brian is doing great. His pain is much more under control now. He just dozes a lot then wakes up for more medicine. I'm so sorry I haven't been able to call out or take any of your calls. We aren't allowed to have cell phones we can only do text messaging while in ICU. As soon as I speak w/ his surgeon I will step out and make some calls. I just am scared to miss his call if I tie my phone up. The ding dong hasn't spoken to me yet since the surgery which is pretty poor. I've only heard from his 2nd yr resident on a 3 minute phone call. Our nurse today said he's going to take care of it and make sure I get a call soon from him. I'd kinda like to know what he did in my husbands skull for 8 hours!!! So back to the boy, he's doing much better this morning. He did ok through the night. It was a long night for both of us. His blood sugar went up (they say that's normal) and w/ his hourly sugar checks and hourly neuro "who and where are you" checks and his hourly pain administration it was a busy night. We had a precious nurse so THANK you for praying for that one. We have another good one today so we've had great nursing care. We are just waiting on a bed now and they'll move us to a normal neuro unit for the rest of his recovery. They said it might be a while we just have to wait for a bed to come available. Brian's spirits are ok today. He's very alert when his Fentanyl wears off, post dosing he's pretty groggy and gets to sleep. He's disappointed about the loss of hearing I can tell. None of the docs here are addressing it, they are more excited that they saved the facial nerve which is very important but Bri needs to address the hearing at some point. Its a big loss that we need to talk about.
Ok, well half way through this his neuro surgeon called me finally. Good report. He said it all went well on his end. He said the tumor they left behind is so small a lot of times it will go ahead and die on it's own and never need anymore intervention other then annual screenings to monitor it. He said the pain Bri's feeling and where is normal. He said the spinal fluid will leak out some during surgery and air gets around the brain and will cause that frontal pain but it should deminish quickly. So that's good. Ok, I know this post is sketchy and scatter brained but that's where my brain is today. :) I have some calls to make now so thanks again and love you all.

I got my squeeze!!!

Well he's out and in the ICU now. He looks wonderful , like a million dollars to me! A little pale but otherwise really good and much better then we expected. He lost only 50 EBL from surgery which is pretty good. His big issue is pain. The stinkers don't want to give him pain meds cause they don't want him to be sleepy....grrrrr!!!!! They are only allowing 50 of Fentanyl every hour. My L&D buddies know that's weak!!!!!!! His nausea is so far only from the intense pain so I guess that's good. We thought he'd be spinning and pukey from what they did. His wit is intact, he's smiled at me and is even a little sassy. His dressing looks ok, not too bad. I think if they can fix this pain he'll be good. They are going to let me stay overnight and the chair even leans back a little. I'll be peachy. I'm soooo much better now after seeing him. We can't take or make cell phone calls from in here but I can text so some of you may hear from me tonight. They told me not to expect for him or me to sleep. Because they worry about swelling they have to wake him hourly to check if he knows where he is...(that's where he's getting sassy). :) Thanks so much for all of you who carried this with us today. Wow, what a day! God got us through and after a few more days hopefully he'll be well on his way to his old self. I promise to give him some smooches from everyone who's cared and prayed for him today. Love to you all and probably this is it for tonight. Deana and Christine are heading out here in a minute. Keep the prayers coming for this booger to recover quickly, good night and God bless.

scoop from Neurologist #1.....

Ok I just spoke w/ the Otoneurologist, they are close to finishing up. They should start to close here soon which will take an hour. He seems to think he'll be able to be visited by 6 o'clock. Brian's doing well. He was pretty sure they weren't able to save his hearing in the left ear. He said the tumor seemed larger then originally thought, it was nearly an inch in diameter. They were able to remove most of the tumor but will be leaving some behind that is wrapped around his facial nerves. They are pretty certain that the nerve is intact for now d/t the monitoring system they have to check it. He told me the other neurologist will discuss our options of dealing w/ the remaining tumor down the road but probably will treat w/ radiation if it grows. He said Bri may have some temporary weakness on the left side of his face but that should normalize over the next few days. All in all a mostly good report. Brian will be disappointed about the hearing but we'll look at options to help him later. As we hear more reports as surgery comes to a close we'll post more.

update

ok, the latest word is about the same as the last. I just spoke w/ a nurse and she said same thing, still ok, still no where near done but no problems as of now. We're doing fine. I'm a little tired but we're hanging in there. I tried to get her to give me even a guess as to how much longer, all she said was "a while". Thanks for hanging in here w/ us gang. Long day for sure but I'm glad Dee and Christine are here w/ me. I'll get the good update when they start to close. She said that takes an hour just to close and maybe the surgeon will call me before he's closed but still no clue when that'll be. I'll let you know more when I do.

update

Well we got an update it's not much of an update but it's something. He didn't get started until just after 9 this morning and they said things are 'going as planned and on time'. Whatever that means esp since they've said anywhere from 4-10 hour window. They said they'll try to call again sometime around 2 so I'll try to actually talk to the nurse for that call and get more specifics on how much longer. But technically we're only 3 hours in so we could be a while longer. Hopefully not but at least things are "going as planned" so we'll take that for sure!!! I'll write again once we hear more.