Pat continues to improve, 6 days after surgery

For those that do not know, or have missed some of the details, here is the recent timeline. The names of friends , some physicians, and some physician friends that have helped during this process, have been omitted to preserve their anonymity. Other details have also been omitted.

Friday, May 4th 2012: This is when it all started. I observed Pat behaving strangely while we were out to dinner. I took her to the Depaul Medical Center emergency room where she was diagnosed with brain tumor after a CT scan. The ER  physician mentioned something about it possibly being a meningioma.  We were informed that we should arrange an appointment with a neurosurgeon ASAP. We left with prescription for dexamethasone.

Tuesday, May 8th: Pat and I met with our PCP (Primary Care Physician), to get a prescription for dexamethasone as the prescription provided in the ER was only for a few days, and it had helped greatly. However, he was unable to provide one at that time, wanting to wait to see how she did off it, as well as wanting feedback from a neuro oncologist.

Wednesday, May 9th: Pat was able to get an MRI that would be used for further diagnostic efforts.

Thursday, May 10th: Pat had now been off the dexamethasone for 2 days and was exhibiting the symptoms again, that had started the process (headaches, memory loss, slight confusion). A prescription for dexamethasone was obtained, which brought her closer to normal again.

Tuesday, May 15th: We met with Dr. Waters, a neurosurgeon. He reviewed the MRI and CT scans with us. We were then informed that this was a very serious tumor, possibly a glioma. He then brought up the possibility of getting Pat in at Duke for treatment with Dr. Allan Friedman, a renown neurosurgeon.

In this intervening period, Pat sent all the relevant information to Duke, and we waited for word of an appointment. It should be noted that we had a lot of help in securing the appointment. We received word that she had been scheduled to go into surgery on June 4th.

Saturday, June 2nd 2012: We drove to Durham, NC. , Meeting with my parents who had arrived the day before, and staying at a Homewood suites hotel about 5 miles from the Hospital (I recommend the hotel, 2 rooms, breakfast and dinner). My parents planned on staying for the duration of our stay, and have been a great help.

Sunday, June 3rd, 11:00 AM : Pat met briefly with Dr. Friedman and was admitted to Duke University Hospital. She was placed in a private room. She also had another MRI scan performed that would be used in surgery.

Monday, June 4th, AM: Pat was moved to the pre-op area for surgery where I remained with her for about 45 minutes, she was then taken into surgery.

Monday, June 4th, PM: Pat’s actual surgery took about 2.5 hrs , an hour or two for post- op recovery. I met briefly with Dr. Friedman, who stated that she had done fine, and that he had removed what was visible on the MRI. This information allowed me to have a small sigh of relief as she had come through surgery. I then met her in the ICU. As expected she was groggy and confused coming out of surgery. They then wheeled her out for the post op MRI, and I met her back in ICU afterwards were I spent time with her.

Tuesday, June 5th:   I arrived at the hospital, to a slightly brighter Pat :). I was also informed that she would be moved out of the ICU that day. I spent most of the day with Pat except for the ICU quiet times. Unfortunately, it was during one of the quiet times that I missed visits from Dr.Friedman and an neuro oncologist (Pat was not able to provide very much information concerning the visits), however copies of the pre and post surgery MRI scans were dropped off. Apparently there was also a shortage of beds in the ward, and she was not moved from ICU this day.

Wednesday, June 6th: On the drive in to the hospital, I received a call from Pat’s ICU nurse informing me that she was to be released imminently. I was a bit surprised and also excited, but also worried as I had not received much information on what to do next or expect. In the ICU we were provided with release documents containing prescription information and advice on creating follow up appointments. Still not enough information. Finally got through with the patient resources, and someone from neuro oncology arrived to discuss the next steps.

Basically we were waiting for the pathology report, which would take 3 to 5 business days post surgery, however we could schedule an appointment with neuro oncology at Duke for the next steps. We took the earliest appointment we could get, which would be for the following Thursday (June 14th) at 8:45 AM. This put a little wrinkle in our plans as we had been planning to return to Norfolk on Tuesday, June 12th. (As a note, for out of town patients, surgery requested that we stay in town for ~ 5 days after release in case something should happen). We decided we should stay in Durham through Thursday, for a number of different reasons (Not subjecting Pat to 2 extra vehicle trips, proximity to Duke, etc).

I enlisted my Dad’s help to get her down to my truck and back to the hotel.

It should also be noted that there has been a lot of help behind the scenes, physician contacts in Norfolk were arranged, and they would be cc’d in on information for Pat’s follow up visits.

Thursday June 7th Through Sunday June 10th:

Pat continues to improve daily. She did have a slight temperature spike to 99.5 F on Saturday that went away after a while. Her mood is improving, as well her ability to perform some routine tasks (Some text messages on her phone, etc). However, this will still take much more time. She is able to go on short walks with supervision, and conversation lengths are growing.

I continue to monitor her, and using an excel spread sheet, I make sure we follow all the precription schedules. She will begin her taper off of dexamethasone on Monday, meaning I won’t have to wake her up overnight.

And obviously I also continue to baby her 🙂

I want to thank everyone for their continued support, especially my parents.

Scott