Stability

Surgery went well. The doctors called me (Kyl) at 6 hours in and said they got all of the tumor out and were able to preserve the hearing nerve and facial nerve. At that point the neurosurgeon and ENT doc were done with their portion, and left it to their team to get her buttoned back up and off to recovery – that took another 2 hours.

The hearing is still completely gone in the right ear (which isn’t a whole lot different than it was before surgery) but by keeping that nerve in tact leaves open the possibility for a cochlear implant down the road if Amy and her doctors decide to take that route.

Keeping the facial nerve in tact was probably the thing of most concern for Amy coming into this. When the doctor called he said the facial nerve was in tact and firing well so they weren’t concerned about long term facial paralysis, but it would remain to be seen about short term issues.

I got to see her in recovery after 90 minutes but she was still highly drugged and in-and-out. From there we went to the neuro ICU where she got set up in a room with a nurse while I sat in the waiting area for the next hour. I was able to get back in at 6pm to see her. She was still pretty out of it, as she would be, for quite a few more hours but she did recognize me and her nurse.

She was in a lot of pain and extremely nauseous at this point and that would continue throughout the night. She had thrown up 1 or 2 times before I got into the room and then 5 – 6 more times after I got into the room. She wasn’t comfortable on her back but when she rolled to her side to get comfortable she would throw up after a few minutes. She eventually agreed that she needed to stick it out on her back. By the time we got to the next morning much of the pain and nausea had thankfully dissipated.

She normally has fairly low blood pressure but the night of recovery it was quite high, her pulse was high, her breathing was shallow and labored, she shivered constantly until she was too hot, so it was hard to see her like that. As we came into Saturday morning she leveled off and had an MRI at about 4:30am to confirm that tumor was completely gone and everything looked the way they wanted it. After that they were able to remove some of the tubes and catheters which also helped increase the comfort factor.

The right side of her face has a significant droop which was not a happy thing for her to discover. It’s hard for her to talk, eat, drink, and sip on the right side, but her tongue does have full mobility which really helps the eating portion. The doctor says this is all related to the pressure on the nerve and as her swelling goes down she will regain those functions in a matter of weeks.

Her right eye is also weak and is probably the most bothersome thing to her right now besides tiredness and boredom. It’s hard for her to move the eyelid much but she can close it for sleep, and she has double-vision out of her right eye also presumably due to swelling. Because of this she’s not really up for writing, texting, or communicating in general. I was hoping she could make this update and get back to some of you that have reached out to her, but since that’s not happening here I am. Sorry if I’m droning on too much – I like details therefore I give details…

She got upgraded from intensive care to floor level Saturday late morning and was able to get rid of the rest of the monitors. We were able to get down into a different room about 3pm on Saturday where we had a much better evening. For fun we are enjoying saying “what” to each other repeatedly – she’s most comfortable on her left side which leaves her bad ear up so she can’t hear what I say, and then conversely he speech is a little mumbly so I can’t understand her either. We also enjoy setting off the alarms on her bed and chair sensors when she wants to move back-and-forth or go to the bathroom. The nurses don’t love that and come running really quickly. She’s labeled as a “fall risk” so there are sensor pads on the bed and chair that alert them if pressure is relieved – so they have to assume that if it goes off that she’s fallen off her bed or chair.

Right now we’re hoping to see some PT and OT people to weigh in on checking out of here. We’re on the list but not sure if that will happen today or not. It’s looking more likely that discharge is on Monday. I guess there’s not much of a rush either way right now. I think that’s about it for now. Sorry for not posting something sooner and I’m equally sorry if my writing isn’t as fun or concise as Amy.

Take care all, Kyl.