Bobby's back in the room. He has some pretty significant pain, but overall all signs are very positive. Dr Fell said the surgery went really well. The tumor "popped" out with the blood clot as we'd hoped. The five days of waiting was definitely a good thing, as difficult as it was to wait. The next 24 hours are critical as they monitor his cranial pressure and other vital signs. Blood pressure is a little high, so we're watching that. He still has some ephasia, but he's already speaking better and with speech therapy, I have every confidence that it will return to normal.
We had a wonderful group of friends in the waiting room with us, which made the time fly by. We had a blessed time of prayer together, lifting Bobby up, and as importantly, praising God for his many attributes - He's good, powerful, full of love and mercy, all knowing, our hope and our peace, the healer and the provider. It was a powerful reminder that He is trustworthy, and regardless of the outcome we can trust that He is at work in us. I'm thankful for friends, both those there today, and all of you who have been with us in spirit. We appreciate you so much.
Love, Juli
As Routine As Brain Surgery Gets
We had what sounded to me like a good report from Dr Fell this
morning. We ended up having an MRI yesterday instead of a CatScan so it
would give him more precise information. The scan showed that the clot
has contracted, as we'd hoped, and the tumor is clearly visible and
close to the surface. He doesn't foresee any significant complications,
other than the routine risks of surgery. Bobby has been concerned about
how much longer he would be in the hospital, and after getting
estimates from the nurses ranging from weeks to months, we were very
pleased to hear Dr Fell say we should only have to be in the hospital 3
days, one in ICU the rest on a regular floor. We'll continue speech
therapy on an outpatient basis, possibly for 2-3 months. He expects a
full recovery. Sounds great to us.
A little story: This morning we were discussing meals for today, and Bobby told me to go to Cosi's, a little sandwich shop nearby, and showed me what he wanted on their website (Santa Fe Wrap). He's been meeting there every Monday morning with two friends for several years. He told me there's a nice muggle (woman) who lives (works) there and has a little girl (turns out it was a boy), and he wants me to tell her that he "likes her alot," So I obediently drove down to Cosi's and was their first customer. I recognized her and told her my husband comes in every Monday. She said, oh yes, he's had cancer, hasn't he? How's he doing? I told her not great, and briefly shared the situation, then gave her Bobby's message. I told her that her friendliness and kindness to him every Monday had obviously made an impression, and he wanted her to know. She was so touched, especially since today is going to be her last day at Cosi's, she's going to a new job starting tomorrow. We hugged, and we wished each other well. As Bobby and I enjoyed our wraps and coffee back in the room, I was amazed at how God uses the kindness of strangers to bless us, and allows us to be a blessing to others, even in our weakness.
Surgery is scheduled for 9am tomorrow. We'll report on the other side. Thank you for checking on us and continuing to lift us up, praying that we would be in the center of his perfect will for our lives. He is good and worthy to be praised. May you all be blessed this Christmas with peace and joy and hope.
Love, Juli
Oh, and I forgot to mention, several of the nurses up here have told me that if they had to have brain surgery, they would want Dr Fell. I figure that's a pretty good endorsement!
A little story: This morning we were discussing meals for today, and Bobby told me to go to Cosi's, a little sandwich shop nearby, and showed me what he wanted on their website (Santa Fe Wrap). He's been meeting there every Monday morning with two friends for several years. He told me there's a nice muggle (woman) who lives (works) there and has a little girl (turns out it was a boy), and he wants me to tell her that he "likes her alot," So I obediently drove down to Cosi's and was their first customer. I recognized her and told her my husband comes in every Monday. She said, oh yes, he's had cancer, hasn't he? How's he doing? I told her not great, and briefly shared the situation, then gave her Bobby's message. I told her that her friendliness and kindness to him every Monday had obviously made an impression, and he wanted her to know. She was so touched, especially since today is going to be her last day at Cosi's, she's going to a new job starting tomorrow. We hugged, and we wished each other well. As Bobby and I enjoyed our wraps and coffee back in the room, I was amazed at how God uses the kindness of strangers to bless us, and allows us to be a blessing to others, even in our weakness.
Surgery is scheduled for 9am tomorrow. We'll report on the other side. Thank you for checking on us and continuing to lift us up, praying that we would be in the center of his perfect will for our lives. He is good and worthy to be praised. May you all be blessed this Christmas with peace and joy and hope.
Love, Juli
Oh, and I forgot to mention, several of the nurses up here have told me that if they had to have brain surgery, they would want Dr Fell. I figure that's a pretty good endorsement!
Thank you Mark & Steve
And of course by that I mean Zuckerburg and Jobs. Facebook and the iPhone have been a godsend the past few days. Besides reading text messages, email and facebook posts (which are very encouraging), Bobby's been able to point to names of people I need to call, or business I need to take care of. He even used the Starbucks app to point out the Cafe Americano he wanted, and he paid the AmEx bill online through email. He was trying to tell his dad about an airplane he got to ride in recently, and was able to find a photo of it on his friends facebook. Yes, we are thankful to live in the technology age.
At the same time, I don't mean to minimize how frustrating this has been for him, understandably so. Not being able to communicate is incredibly difficult, and he's getting anxious about how slow things are happening here. The nurse asked if he was a "take charge" kind of guy, and I said, well yeah, you could say that. Unlike me, Bobby is not a procrastinator, he wants to get whatever project done sooner rather than later, whether it's keeping the gas tank at half full or having brain surgery. But we are trusting God for His timing, and trying to be patient in the meantime.
Dr Fell should be around soon, and we should have a cat scan this morning. Praying for a good report.
If you'd like to leave Bobby a message, his phone number is 918.853.1152 (texts are better than calls), and his email address is melonf16@aol.com.
Love, Juli
At the same time, I don't mean to minimize how frustrating this has been for him, understandably so. Not being able to communicate is incredibly difficult, and he's getting anxious about how slow things are happening here. The nurse asked if he was a "take charge" kind of guy, and I said, well yeah, you could say that. Unlike me, Bobby is not a procrastinator, he wants to get whatever project done sooner rather than later, whether it's keeping the gas tank at half full or having brain surgery. But we are trusting God for His timing, and trying to be patient in the meantime.
Dr Fell should be around soon, and we should have a cat scan this morning. Praying for a good report.
If you'd like to leave Bobby a message, his phone number is 918.853.1152 (texts are better than calls), and his email address is melonf16@aol.com.
Love, Juli
Not a Bad Day
All things considered, it was a pretty good day. Things are stable, which is the best we can expect at this point. He still has some head pain, so we're trying to stay on top of it with small doses of morphine. That helps make him sleepy, and rest is good medicine right now. Bobby's dad & sister drove over from Memphis, and Frank, a lifelong friend made the drive from Memphis to buy us a much appreciated dinner. Long way to come for a barbeque sandwich, but we love him for it!
Bobby's spirits are remarkably good, and I think I'm beginning to learn to speak Bobelese. It helps that we've been married long enough that we were already finishing each others sentences!
Thanks for all the kind words, and faithful prayers. We are encouraged.
Love, Juli
Bobby's spirits are remarkably good, and I think I'm beginning to learn to speak Bobelese. It helps that we've been married long enough that we were already finishing each others sentences!
Thanks for all the kind words, and faithful prayers. We are encouraged.
Love, Juli
Unexpected Changes
What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday we met with Dr Laber,
the head of a new OU Cancer Research Center here in Tulsa. He also
happens to specialize in Renal Cell Cancer. We learned about him
through Bobby's biking partner Lloyd. Dr Laber sat down with us for an
hour, looking at what we've been doing the past 5 years and what our
options were going forward. While we completely trust Dr Keller and have
the highest regard for him, we thought it wouldn't hurt to get a second
opinion. Dr Laber agreed with Dr Keller that his cancer was very slow
growing, and expected him to "be around for years." He supported our
plans to pursue the clinical trial at the National Cancer Institute in
Bethesda. We were feeling pretty good about things.
Last Wednesday, he had a the Brain MRI & CT Scan that NCI requested for the trial. This past Monday we got the sucker punch news that there's a 4mm tumor in his left temporal lobe. The worst possible, and most feared news was all the sudden reality. But at least the other spots on lungs and adrenal continued to be stable, and it seemed possible this new lesion could be removed surgically. We got connected with a neurosurgeon, and scheduled an appointment with him for Thursday, Dec 22.
Our first priority was to talk to Trip and Michael, but with finals and holiday travel plans, we wouldn't have an opportunity to tell them face to face until the weekend. We decided to keep the news to ourselves until then. But instead, late Thursday afternoon Bobby started slurring his speech, words were coming out wrong, virtually incoherent, and he had a severe headache on his left side. I called 911, and we've been in the Neuro ICU at St Francis since then. A brain scan revealed the tumor had started bleeding, and it's putting pressure on the part of the brain that controls speech. We had no idea this could happen.
As of now, Friday, the bleeding has stabilized, settling into a 4cm clot. The plan is to allow the clot to coagulate, firm up, gel for several days, and have surgery to remove tumor and clot on Wednesday. It's good to have a plan, but 5 days seems like such a long time.
Communication is a challenge, he understands exactly what's going on, what we are saying, but when he speaks it sounds like a foreign language. He gets fixated on a certain thought, like making sure I call the guy who was planning to come pick up an old couch for charity or reschedule some body work for fender bender from last week. Not exactly out of character for Bobby, who's very conscientious, but a little weird. We're told after surgery his speech should return, but may take a few months. Overall his spirits are very positive. I'm hopeful, but terrified.
Please pray.
Last Wednesday, he had a the Brain MRI & CT Scan that NCI requested for the trial. This past Monday we got the sucker punch news that there's a 4mm tumor in his left temporal lobe. The worst possible, and most feared news was all the sudden reality. But at least the other spots on lungs and adrenal continued to be stable, and it seemed possible this new lesion could be removed surgically. We got connected with a neurosurgeon, and scheduled an appointment with him for Thursday, Dec 22.
Our first priority was to talk to Trip and Michael, but with finals and holiday travel plans, we wouldn't have an opportunity to tell them face to face until the weekend. We decided to keep the news to ourselves until then. But instead, late Thursday afternoon Bobby started slurring his speech, words were coming out wrong, virtually incoherent, and he had a severe headache on his left side. I called 911, and we've been in the Neuro ICU at St Francis since then. A brain scan revealed the tumor had started bleeding, and it's putting pressure on the part of the brain that controls speech. We had no idea this could happen.
As of now, Friday, the bleeding has stabilized, settling into a 4cm clot. The plan is to allow the clot to coagulate, firm up, gel for several days, and have surgery to remove tumor and clot on Wednesday. It's good to have a plan, but 5 days seems like such a long time.
Communication is a challenge, he understands exactly what's going on, what we are saying, but when he speaks it sounds like a foreign language. He gets fixated on a certain thought, like making sure I call the guy who was planning to come pick up an old couch for charity or reschedule some body work for fender bender from last week. Not exactly out of character for Bobby, who's very conscientious, but a little weird. We're told after surgery his speech should return, but may take a few months. Overall his spirits are very positive. I'm hopeful, but terrified.
Please pray.
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