MERRY CHIRSTMAS bloggers and Happy Birthday Jesus!! I hope you all had a great day. Our day was packed with fun. We hit the floor running this morning and didn't stop. We've had a santa visit, breakfast, presents, lunch, games, snacks, games, games, dinner and more games! The sounds of happy kids, play saws and drills, crying and peeing baby dolls and who knows what other noises are all quiet. I am close to retiring for the evening myself. I think we pulled off everything this Christmas season except cards. Oops, sorry to those expecting them. Anyway, as I mentioned, I am pretty much exhausted and the bed is calling. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!

I made it through the crazy week and even spent the entire day on Saturday at Sea World! What a difference it has made to see the doctor for the 6 month follow up and receive a positive report. I am on my way to complete recovery. I am feeling better every day. I have less than 5 minutes to complete this post as we are in the process of making Christmas cookies. The dough is in the fridge getting ready. I have the kids entertained with Charlie Brown's Christmas. We worked on art projects all morning and cookies this afternoon. We are in the Spirit. Aside from the 70+ degree weather and all the doors and windows open, it seems just like Christmas. I am so excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus this season. He is the reason!!

I celebrated a birthday yesterday! Thanks to everyone who called, e-mailed, sent cards, etc. If you forgot, or didn't know, no worries, even my deadbeat dad didn't remember. Oh well, he didn't make it to surgery either. It was such a welcome day! Praise God.

Love you all!! Oven's beeping and kids are screaming!

Well, this should be a crazy week and we will see how much I can handle. A meeting this afternoon at 2pm at Spencer's school and I will fulfill my promise after school to let the kids make the gingerbread house. Then, a little more Christmas shopping and mailing some gifts in the morning while the three are in school. Brogan has a Christmas party at school on Weds. and Sydney and Spencer both have school parties on Thursday. Of course, I am signed up to bring snacks to the parties. Thursday afternoon, during Spencer's party time, Sydney is suppose to be at gymnastics. Then, Thursday night we have spagetthi with santa at Spencer's school, which I am helping plan. On Friday santa is visiting the school for pictures and a big to do. I am cooking dinner for a friend who had a baby on Friday night. Neighborhood party on Sat. afternoon and WinterFest. Winterfest involves trucked in snow (ice/slug) to climb on and throw snowballs as long as it lasts. May I include it isn't very long in 80 degree weather. There's usually a line of 75-100 kids (at least) waiting to get on the mound for their timed 5 minutes. It is insane but many children have never seen snow and this is so exciting for them. Our kids have seen snow but do not remember. We will be visiting Grandpa and Grandma in Nebraska in January. Hopefully our wish for snow will come true. I am having a great day so far and expect it to be busy and fun!

Is there anybody out there?? I am guessing that everyone has given up on me at this point. I did not follow through with my promises to give you more details. Sorry. I have found that getting back into the swing of things and discovering my new "normal" has taken more time than I anticipated. Anyway, can you believe that yesterday was exactly 6 months post-op? You probably can't believe it, as the ole saying goes "time flies." Well, it seems like forever to me because I have been awaiting the 6 month check-up. I visited my doctor in Gainesville today and had my first post-op CTA scan. The results were perfect with no sign of the aneurysm regrowing or developing elsewhere in the brain. There is less than 1% of patients who have the anuerysm to grow back (around the clip or elsewhere). Thankfully, my annie seems to be following the doctors orders. We did get to see pictures of the clip and the "thing" that is holding my skull in place. It looks like a small wagon wheel in my head. It is CRAZY! I think I have a new nickname with Cortney. Also, the doctor confirmed that all the headaches and weird sensations that I get are common after surgery and may last 6-12 months. I don't feel nearly as crazy tonight as I did when I awoke this morning. I am getting better each day and am less fatiqued, less depressed and more like myself. I can positively say that Holly is coming back. I spoke to a lady in the waiting room today with an annie that can't be clipped due to location. She has 32 coils and the annie keeps growing. The doctor is not sure how many more coils it will take to block it off completely. She has undergone 2 surgeries so far and had a stroke during the last one. She has another planned for January. I thank God for the ease of my surgery and recovery, though at times it has been very difficult. I pray for the sweet lady today and her ultimate healing.

I hope everyone is looking forward to a beautiful Christmas season. By the way, Sydney is asking santa for a singing princess wearing an American flag dress. I think I can pull off the singing doll but not sure about the dress. Spencer says "it's ok, the elves can make anything you request!" HELP

Love ya all,

Holly

I did not anticipate taking so long between blogs. However, it seems there is not enough time in a day. We have 3 kids attending three different schools. That is crazy! I run run run. Cortney has been very busy at work. He missed so much work during my illness that the catch up is seemingly impossible. He now has 9 employees and luckily they are all great workers but a handful. By the time he makes it home at night and we have dinner, I am sooo ready for bed. I am still fighting fatique and if I can make it until 8pm and get the kids down I am straight to bed. I still struggle to get up in the mornings. A big change from the night owl I have always been and the 6am 3 mile walker. Hopefully I will be there again someday. Keep our marriage in your prayers as my fatique and Cortney's long days are very stressful on us both.

I visited my dermatologist last week and he removed two more suspicious moles. I haven't heard back from him yet so I am taking that as a great sign. I am sure I will have a positive doctor's report soon :0)

Well, I hate to make this short but it is time to get Spencer from school. I will try and post more often.

Holly

How interesting life is on earth and how very much there is to learn along the journey. What a fantastic sermon our pastor taught on Sunday in his series "Ordinary Life - Extraordinary God." The message titled "Ordinary Faith" was about facing the giants. Giants being anything that defies our faith, what we believe and why we believe it. He stated that giants have a way of showing up in our lives, accept it! These giants are unexpected, relentless and are definite or life defining. The great news is Victory can be ours, we just have to find it.

The giants of my summer of 2008 definitely fit the bill. When facing the giants in my life, I have realized there are going to be many phases. I must take each phase as it comes and in time I will arrive at the victory. I am learning not to be ashamed of the fear in the early stages. The fear that arises when you suddenly realize the fine line of life and death. The post surgery fears I have of flight, the fear of over doing exercise and disrupting the clip, the fear that one cancer cell jumped ship and is invading, etc. Fear is there for a reason- to realize how precious life is and no human will live forever. For every great up- there has been a down for comparison. I am learning to be very appreciative of every day. I am trying to make the most of every day. As Pastor Greg noted, you must find the reason to fight, the name of God. The resource to fight, the strength of God. The resolve to fight, faith in God.

Hello bloggers. I know it has been a long time since we last spoke. I am sorry it has taken so long. I know many of you now have an addiction to checking out our life :^) Anyway, in all honesty I have been having a pretty rough time lately with some feelings of depression. In research I have discovered this is pretty common after brain surgery. I try and tell myself how blessed that God gave me signs before a rupture. I know the incredible journey of an aneurysm survivor after a rupture and my story pales in comparison. I was again blessed to learn of the melanoma in the early stages. However, even with these incredible blessings I find myself struggling to keep my brain and emotions in check. I know that I have not returned some calls and e-mails and I apologize. I am feeling better but I do realize that my journey has not ended. I have been back to church for the last 2 weeks. Thanks to my WONDERFUL, FAITHFUL husband who had to drag me kicking and screaming the first week. The following week was much easier and I have felt so much better being back with my brothers and sisters in Christ and being loved. It is scary how easily the devil can get a foothold and keep you in seclusion. he knows the buttons to push and uses them to his advantage. Thankfully I have a wonderful, supporting God and family who will not let him push my buttons without a fight.

Well enough about the "depressing" stuff. My brother's wife had a baby on Tuesday. Kolby was born by c-section and weighed 6lb. 3oz. He encountered some problems during birth due to swallowing meconium. He has been in NICU since he was born, but is doing very well. He is off the venillator and only has one IV for the antibiotics. My brother got to hold him for the first time today. He will go home sometime over the weekend. Incredibly, I had a free airline ticket. I checked the expiration date yesterday and guess what?!? It expires Sunday, September 7. Another blessing! Cortney insisted that I use my ticket to visit Nashville.I have now taken on a post surgery fear and it was a success. I was so scared that my head would explode with the altitude and I would lose my clip. Well, I did great and my brain is still intact. So, I can fly!!!!

Well, this has been quite a rambling message. I will try and be better about blogging and will tell little things here and there about the journey.

PRAISE GOD!!!! The margins were clear, no more melanoma was found in the surrounding tissues.

Today the plastic surgeon removed the tissue surrounding where the melanomas were removed. Holly had to stay on the sofa all day and keep ice on both incisions for at least 24 hours. She was to do nothing but sit and keep ice on them. Today was Brogan's second birthday, so I made dinner and bought a cake, a quick change of plans after seeing the doctor this morning and hearing his orders. It was good day for Brogan and Grams and Ahmama were here with us to celebrate. Tomorrow Holly goes back to the plastic surgeon to have the dressings changed and hopefully the pathology report will be back. Please pray that the margins are clear of further melanoma and there are no stray cells floating around somewhere in her body. Please continue this prayer even if the margins come back clear. Thank you Lord for leading Holly to have these melanomas found and removed before they had a chance to grow.

Yesterday was the appointment with the plastic surgeon. He said the skin doctor did a good job detecting the small melanomas before they spread. He will excise the tissue surrounding the moles and leave a 5 mm margin all around where the mole was. Then he will make the incision look like a football or an eye, tapered on the ends. This way the circle excised can be covered by stretching the skin and stitching it internally so there is no real scar. He said that there is one chance with melanomas to get all the cancer cells out, if they miss some then that causes the problems. There percentages are with us, online it has a 99% cure rate for stage 0 or in situ melanomas removed properly with margins. They will send the tissue to a pathologist who only does skin to detect any possible cancer cells. If the tissue is clear then all is well, if there is more cancer in the tissue then they go back and create wider margins. The surgery is scheduled for next Wed at 7AM, it will take 2 hours and Holly will be awake.

The doc says this is a warning that Holly has to change her lifestyle. She has to protect herself from the sun, she should not seek to be tan. Proactive preventative measures include not being in the sun between 11 and 3 when 85% of the radiation is coming down, wear UV protective clothing and wear sun screen. Interesting he said SPF is a 1980's scam, that is only designed to reduce UV-B, it is actually UV-A that causes more cancer. So the old SPF 30 sun screen is not actually blocking the cancer causing UV. He said only titanium and zinc oxides block UV-A, these are those white creams on lifegaurds noses. He said that is equivalent to covering yourself in aluminum foil because all the bad stuff is reflected off the metal in the cream. Interesting. He said he understood you cannot live in FL and never be in the sun, but to be smart about her exposure and keep out of direct mid-day sun as much as possible. She can still go to the beach and the pool but the days of baking to get as tan as possible should not occur any longer. If she goes to the beach, lube up with sun screen, stay in the shade during the peak sun hours, and wear UV protective clothes.

Please pray for Holly and her faith, these events of the past two months have been huge tests of her/our faith. Please pray for all the cancer cells to be already gone and for the margins to be clear. Praise God for leading Holly to Dr. Ottusso to find these when they were very small. Praise God for learning about preventative measures to help keep the cancer from coming back and for us to better informed so we can protect our kids.

Hey its Cortney again. I feel obligated to keeping everyone informed on Hollys progress. As you have read Holly has a new challenge, skin melanoma, although the doctor feels it is already gone following removal of two moles, he wants to get the proper margins away from where the moles were. So she sees a plastic surgeon this Tues to get that done. More surgery...

Back to the brain, wow what progress she has made. I think almost all of the side effects are lessening. Her strength is not 100% but is much better, I would guess it is 80% or so, but she really pushes herself and seems to handle it the next day. In the last week we went to Sea World (only for a few hours) to meet some old friends, I worked everyday all day while she cared for the kids, Holly cooked, drove, and planned and executed a birthday party for Sydney and baked an incredible cake. The party was today and I sat back and watched the old Holly acting as if there had been no annie or brain surgery entertaining the room of children, I took a moment and thanked God, the old Holly is almost back. She has really been doing well. The time period for Holly to feel noticeably better occurred during the eighth week post-op. She still has improvement to come before she will be walking miles and going to the gym and scuba diving etc., but the strain to accomplish the basic daily activities is much less. Her mind appears to be clearing and the memory issues are vanishing. She still gets headaches and nerve shots every so often but they are better. The weird brain overloads have not occurred in crowds and driving, at least that she has told me. Overall the eighth week showed lots of improvement and a return to more normal life. As always, Thank you God!!!

Hello bloggers! I hope everyone is having a great day. It is beautiful in Florida today and we are celebrating Sydney Blayne's 4th birthday! I have taken on the task of making a Princess Castle cake. It takes 5 cakes to make the castle. Trust me, brain surgery makes you do CRAZY things :>) I know I smacked you with a new one yesterday. I just thought for those of you who do not pray on a regular basis or only if you have a specific prayer, that maybe I could keep you visiting with the GREAT LORD!!! I didn't really give alot of info about the melanoma's yesterday. I scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist 6 months ago, well before I knew anything about the aneurysm. The appt. was July 31 and I decided that I have been to enough doctor's for awhile and I was going to cancel the appointment and reschedule in another 6 months (FL skin doctors are busy). Cortney and I had round after round about the decision and thankfully he won, I decided to keep the appointment. The doctor removed three moles for biopsy of which two were positive melanoma's. One is located on my inner right leg, appx. 5 inches above the knee. The other is located on my left buttock, right in the panty line. We do not have a copy of the pathology report yet but the doctor states that they are still situ (stage 0), which means they have only invaded the top layer of skin. I will see a plastic surgeon on August 12 to have them both removed. I have only had a "shave" at this point. I am thankful that yet again the Lord has helped me identify an extreme problem at an early enough time to prevent spread. I will be having skin exams every 3 months for many years.

I can hardly believe that is has been 8 weeks tomorrow since I took that dreaded walk into Shands at 6am. The most confusing walk I ever remember. The calmness and peace given by the Lord yet the worry and anticipation given by my earthly flesh. Where I have been over the last 8 weeks has been such a journey! However, my journey was not meant to end with the aneurysm. I am still struggling with where I am being led but I am positive my faith is being tested. My plan was to begin journaling about my aneurysm experience, not only for you bloggers but for myself. However, instead I find myself reaching out once again for prayers from you faithful warriors. I was told over the weekend I have tested positive for two skin melanomas. The good news is they caught it early, the bad news is I have now joined another club no one wants the invite to, the dreaded cancer club. It was deja vu to the aneurysm call as I was biopsed on Thursday and I received the call from the doctor at 7:21 on Friday night. As a reminder, I was contacted by my doctor about the aneurysm at 6:35 on a Friday night. I spent the weekend trying to awake from a nightmare, as the last 8 weeks have been. So, as I learn even more coping mechanisms I will be in touch via blogs. Hopefully, if nothing else, my blogs will touch someone out there and give me strength!

Well my playful hinting to Holly didnt get a blog from her again, YET. Holly had a good two days, she has driven and been up and about. She has to be careful to not overdo. It is difficult to know how much is too much. This week has shown us that she is getting stronger but it is important to not overdo and be down the next day. Sorry for the short blog. Stay tuned she will blog again soon.

Its Cortney again. Holly over did the past two days, I stayed at home today and she rested and napped. She just didnt have a great day like the last two. Nothing wrong, just fatigue. She feels better this evening.

Hey its Cortney again. I guess I am going to have to smack Holly in the head to get her to blog about being a brain surgery patient. Ha Ha. Come on Holly, get on with it...

No more UTI, she feels much better, she dropped the old ball and chain UTI which was holding her back from running a marathon.

Yesterday I went to work and the professional movers came to move Holly's mom. Holly helped her mom unpacked boxes, she drove the kids to camp, and was active all day. She felt good but I knew she would be tired today. This morning, she said she felt good and told me to go to work. I went in late after thwarting the invasion of millions of ants in our bathroom and chasing a five foot long black racer snake off the front porch (he loves our front porch and visits almost everyday but he still won't let me pet him). She took Spencer and Sydney to camp again and chased Brogan all day, and when I got home she was definitely tired. She went to bed early tonight but overall she has had two very strong days, the strongest two days since before surgery. YEAH, PRAISE GOD !!!

Cortney again... I moved boxes for Grams this morning. Then we all went to one of Spencer's friends b-day party. All the parents and kids came, all ages, the adults conversed and let the kids play on a water slide. We were there for three hours, Holly had to rest most of the time but she was up and out of the house. Then we went to Imagine Schools family picnic, there must have been 500+ people and kids. We ate again and met the 1st grade teachers.

Holly has been experiencing weird side effects from having surgery. She has some memory loss, short term, forgets the train of thought during a conversation. Also she is overwhelmed in a large group situation, also driving a car. It is sort of interesting to think about: we all drive cars and listen to the radio, talk to the passengers, talk on the cell phone, read signs, all while sort of effortlessly driving a straight line and not having a wreck. Holly is amazed what having so many brain thoughts at once does to her, she gets overwhelmed. Think about a large picnic, you carry on a coversation with a group while you eat, all while scoping the crowd, watching the kids, etc. It was overwhelming. It was ok at first but as she tired it became worse. I assume this is one of those have to do it alittle more each day before you can progress things. Like going to the gym, no pain no gain, this is no push it no progress tomorrow. Weird side effects I never thought about before surgery, we understand these are common and usually go away.

Well Holly promised you faithful bloggers that she would give her profound statement, she did a few days ago, it was God is Great!!! Then she promised you she would start to share her experiences with you from her perspective. Trust me it will be worth checking back to read. Hopefully this little blog will jumpstart her fingers to start telling it from the patient view. Wait to hear the rolling into brain surgery wide awake story, wow.

Today I thought about how much God has blessed my life. The list is endless, I quietly started to list the blessings and I realized it was crazy to try to list them all. All I know is having a wife who has had brain surgery and all we have been through has changed me. I always have had faith, it is one of my spiritual gifts, from the beginning of all of this aneurysm worry God has covered us with his love I have know that everything was going to be fine. All these hurdles were nothing for God, he was there to carry us over them. He orchestrated such a perfect plan for everything, he even covered the tiny details. He is so great.

I look back at all the ways people have blessed us through this. I am not sure how to thank everyone. We have had over 50 meals cooked and delivered to our house by people from church, MOPS, and friends. We have had 20+ people step up to care for our children for periods of time. There has been over 6300 visitors to this blog, Holly has been on prayer chains and lists in countless churches, many of you all have prayed for us each day, and if you were not praying you were thinking about us. Wow. This is what being a Christian is all about, thank you all so much. You have truly loved us through this trauma in our lives and we have emerged healed, humbled, and stronger in our faith. Thank you and God Bless you all!!!

Its Cortney again... Holly has another four days of antibiotics for the UTI. That should knock it completely out. Today we went and purchased Spencer his new school uniforms. He is going to attend a new charter public school a half mile from our house, it is called Imagine School of South Vero. Then we took Spencer to the doctor for his 6 year old well visit, all was fine. Then Holly drove home after dropping me off at the title office. I attended a closing for a condo Ann (Holly's mom, a.k.a. Grams) just purchased. It is beautiful and given the sinking real estate market she scored a beautiful condo for a bargain price. Then we all went out to see it. We got home and Holly was pale, I always know when she has overdone because she gets pale. She had a some delicious chicken pot pie and hit the bed. It was a very active day for her and she did well, we will see how she feels tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am going to help Grams move to the new condo. She is so excited and the area is beautifully landscaped and has lots of private areas for the kids to play, she is so excited because now she will have room to have us over for dinner and have a fun place for the grandkids to stay over night. It is about 5 miles from our house. I am going to keep Holly away from the moving activity as much as possible. Spencer has a birthday party at a friends and there is a school picnic tomorrow night. I dont know how much of all of this Holly will be able to do, we will see and hopefully going to bed early tonight will help her bounce back from overdoing it today.

Hey its Cortney again. Yesterday Holly and I took the kids to the fountains to play (it is a city park with fountains of water the kids run through). She was worn out when we had the kids loaded and were pulling out of the driveway. She sat on a chair in the shade and watched the kids play in the water. She got her second wind and did well, we were there for about an hour and a half. When we got home she was pale and I told her to go to bed, she did and slept for three hours. Being gone from home for two hours and driving across town was a big event and took all of her energy. Yesterday evening our neighbor Mark was going to mow our lawn again but Holly wanted me to mow and she wanted to be outside and trim a few flowers. She ended up sitting and watching me but it was progress in getting our lives back to normal to mow our own lawn.

Today I had a meeting for work and Holly had to drive Sydney to gymnastics. This was the first time she has drove and she said it was overwhelming, it was amazing how much concentration it took her to drive and how tiring that was for her. She said she was white knuckled on the steering wheel and was very nervous. I got home at 3pm and she had just returned, she had had a shower, was dressed pretty, and had makeup on. She soon lost the good clothes and was again in comfies and rested.

She finished three days of antibiotics for the UTI this morning, I think we will call tomorrow and get three more days because she still has a back ache. She says it is better but not totally gone yet.

All of this is progress, little steps towards recovery. Not as far as we thought we would be at six weeks post-op, but we will take the progress.

I didn't expect to blog again so soon but thought I would keep everyone informed. As I mentioned in my last entry I am on the road to recovery but don't we all know that every road has bumps. I have been telling Cortney that something is just not right. I am getting better but there is something that is hindering the progress. The past several weeks I have had a severe backache and my fever has not gone since surgery. I visited my family doctor for a urine test a couple of weeks ago thinking possible UTI and it was negative. I have been so worried that I have another problem occuring and it was going to take testing and persistence to resolve the matter. When I saw Dr. Hoh for follow-up last week I mentioned my back pain. The diagnosis was no kidney problems since I didn't wince when my back was pounded. I insisted that they take a urine sample just in case. What do you know, I got the call today that indeed it is a UTI and I am now on Cipro for the infection. As crazy as it may sound I was ready to get cake and ice cream to celebrate the announcement and the medicine. Tell me that brain surgery doesn't make you a little crazy!! So now I am back on meds and hope to recover from this little bump in record time. Hopefully then it will be full recovery ahead and we can back up and talk about what I have been through and not what I am going through. Keep praying.

Also, please pray for a friend I have made from Ohio, Nicole, who is going for appts.the next two days for opinions about surgery for her new found aneurysm. She too is young with 2 small children and very frightened just as I was.

WOW! It has been so long since I posted I had to return to June 10 to see where I left off. I last blogged in a state of intense fear and apprehension. It is truly miraculous where I have been since that morning, with all Praise to my Faithful and Incredible Father God!! I do not yet have the energy nor the mind set to fill you in on my experiences, but over the next couple of weeks I will journal (blog) about the surgery and recovery. You have all been so faithful and incredible to stick with us through this journey. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts about the experience with you.

I would like to take this first entry and say THANK YOU!! Those who have been reading the blog, you have helped Cortney so much through this trial. He is so anxious each day to see who has left comments and viewed the site. What great support you have been for him. Also, thank you for all your prayers on behalf of our family. They have gotten us through some really horrible days. God Bless each of you.

BTW, I am finally feeling the recovery process kicking in! I continue to be very fatiqued but I am pushing daily to get back to myself. I am looking forward to being a wife, mother and friend again very soon!

THANK YOU! We will talk soon!

We returned from Gainesville about an hour ago. It has been a really long day and it was really hard on Holly. She is going to be exhausted tomorrow. It is about 3.5 hours door to door, times two ways, plus two hours to get through the docs office, plus a quick meal and it all equals a really long 10 hour day for me and an especially tiring day for Holly. We met with one of the team of neurosurgeons, Dr. Whiting, we had not met her before, she was young and pretty technical. We asked all of our questions:

1. Insomnia = may continue for months but should lesson with time, take sleeping pills if necessary
2. Scab on incision = this was the only real concern of the doctors, there is still a large scab (see pic at bottom of blog) it is normal and is not infected, but the scab needs to stay in place for a few more weeks to properly heal, there will be a dent there but it is still really attached and a deep scab, there is no puss or leaking so it is fine just let it heal
3. Pooping = take laxatives if necessary, common after a major surgery to have poop problems for 6-8 weeks
4. Driving = not until Holly feels like it, after the drive to Gainesville she has had alot of vertigo, she is not to drive until she feels like she can, she said this could be a while and dont rush it and have a wreck
5. Swimming = ok but dont get the scab real wet, fine to get head wet after scab falls off in a few weeks
6. Numbness to head = may last forever, may get better with time, Holly has a numb spot where the scull was removed and has a major itching sensation there and when she scratches it she can't feel her scalp and can't satisfy the itch, it could drive you loco
7. Five pound lifting ban = removed, she is free to pick up the kids
8. Clicking noise in head = not very common, unknown cause, thinks it will go away with time
9. Jaw not opening very far = common may get better with time maybe not, they had to cut one of the muscles which controls the jaw and the swelling is causing resistance with opening her mouth very far
10. Lower back pain = may be low grade urinary tract infection, they had Holly pee in a cup to analyze for possible infection as a precaution

They said everything looks great, their only real concern was the scab staying in place so the incision could heal properly. We then met with Yolanda, the PA, who was the one who was so helpful on the phone several times with the pain med issues. Then Dr. Hoh came in for a meet and greet and he took a look at the scar. He said there would be a CT angiogram at 6 months, 1, 2, and 4 years post surgery. He said there is a less than a 1% of having another aneurysm or having another one form at the base of this one they clipped. Holly and I joked that she is just a lab rat with a number and is part of a study Dr. Hoh is conducting. God Bless you all!!!

Happy five weeks post-op. Holly continues to progress with strength building. She pushes herself everyday, I liken it to working out, no pain no gain, but it is not pain it is being tired. I guess you do not get stronger until you push the limit each day a little more. Step by step, day by day, she gets stronger. I wonder how long the strength building will take? I assume months before she is truely 100%. Praise God that Holly has the ability to get better and that annie which was in her head did not burst. Holly's brother Freeman had an MRI and MRA with contrast scans done yesterday to make sure he did not have an annie also. Sometimes they run in the family. Praise God his scan was clear. The kids are well today. The flu like germ caused a high spike of fever and feel horrible for 12 hours then rest for 12 hours and all better. Weird germ. So far Holly and I avoided it. We go to Gainesville on Thursday for the first post-op doctor visit.

Holly had another decent day. She acts like her old self but with a greatly reduced energy level. She has her humor back and the kids are not confused because she is not lying in bed all the time anymore. We are anxious to see the doctor in Gainesville on Thursday. I assume he will allow Holly to lift more than 5 pounds and maybe drive a car. We are compiling a long list of questions. I think there will be a calming feeling after the appointment just to know the answers to all of our questions.

Brogan feels much better and Sydney and Spencer spiked fevers of 102F tonight. Sydney really feels bad. I pray Holly does not get this germ. I put them both on antibiotics tonight just in case it is bacterial. This will alter the child care arrangements for a couple of days.

Today was another decent day. We see small steps in strength building daily. It is a slow process but she is improving. Currently her strength level is about 2 hours of gentle activity then she needs to rest on the sofa. She did not take a nap today for the first time since surgery.

For those interested in seeing the healing progress of the incision scroll to the bottom of the page. I added two photos taken today.

Oh slow and steady, oh slow and steady, oh slow and steady, she is getting better. Last night I slept with Brogan, he spiked a 103.5 fever in the middle of the night again. I was awake at 4AM so I decided to do some work. Holly had a very restless night with insomnia ever time she woke up.

Today the two oldest finished a week of camp and they are sooooooo tired. Brogan is really tired but is feeling much better after 36 hours of antibiotics. What a week, wow... Camp is all great during the day but the parents suffer when it comes to bed time when the meltdowns occur. I told them to sleep extra late tomorrow.

Holly has felt really good today even after a poor night of sleep. We went to Spencer's camp award ceremony tonight, he was the best listener for the six year old group, and that was one of our first big outings. Holly got showered, dressed, and we were out for 2.5 hours. Progress!!! Slow and steady progress.

Well today has been a good day. Holly is worried about why she is not healed and feeling totally well. Understandable fears given what she has been through and the statements of the docs before surgery that you will feel much better at one month post-op. I wish our appointment with the doc for the one month checkup was this week instead of next. This would allow us to discuss some of the feelings she has in her head and body.

She is building strength everyday but she has a long way to go. It is a slow steady path of improvement, but she is improving everyday. If I put a percent to her level of strength, it would be about 25%.

Today Brogan, our 22 month old, spiked a fever of 103.5F. I took him to the doc and he has a sinus infection, strange he does not even have much of a runny nose. He has not felt good all day. I hope Holly is able to avoid the germ. I will be up checking on him throughout the night.

I just realized that the blog will have 5000 visitors tomorrow. That is overwhelming. I just want to take a moment and thank you all for your love, prayers, and support. God bless you all!!!

Again another late night blog. Sorry it is so late. Today was about like yesterday, Holly is still feeling sort of blah and does not have alot of energy. I think she is still feeling the effects of overdoing it on Sunday. Obviously in a slow healing process one has to pace themself, but it is so hard when they finally feel better to not do too much. This morning she took a shower, she put on makeup for the first time post-op, we drove around town and I ran into a couple of stores to get stuff (she stayed in the car) and she enjoyed getting out of the house. But that alone wore her out and she took a three hour nap this afternoon.

I have to go to Gainesville tomorrow for my masters student's thesis defense. So I will be gone for a long day and there will be bunch of family and friends here to keep her drinking and eating and exercising while I travel up the state and back. She says she is nervous to have me away for part of a day.

Sorry for the late blog. Holly definately over did yesterday and is feeling horrible and tired today. She has rested alot today and has had mild nausea. I am not sure what is causing nausea but it does worry us. She has had a headache and has taken tylenol and ibuprofin three times. We have lots of questions for the doctor at the one month checkup, which is actually during week five. I wish the appointment was this week and not next. Tomorrow is one month post surgery. Hopefully tomorow Holly will have more strength and feel much better than today.

Today Holly has felt really good. She and her mom cleaned the house, two woman with borderline obsessive compulsive disorders in one house going cleaning crazy for hours, LOOK OUT! From what I understand Holly sat in a chair and directed her mom in the cleaning. I learned a long time ago when Holly gets in that OCD cleaning mood, get as far away as possible. I think her mom learned that lesson today and will be sore tomorrow. Having already experienced Holly in this mode before, I stayed away. After I went to church with the kids we went swimming for hours and then played outside until dinner. I came back in and they were still cleaning and her mom was really tired and Holly was still directing traffic from the sofa. I assume she pushed herself too much today sitting up and walking around the house a lot, but we will see tomorrow. It was obviously a day with minimal nausea, some food, taking no drugs, and being up and active for 8+ hours non-stop (although all the cleaning by Holly was done sitting in a chair). My dear Holly is getting better and I am glad I was away with the kids having a fun day!!!

Well I took yesterday off of blogging for the holiday. Holly and I slept until 10AM yesterday and relaxed around the house. Grams had the kids and we enjoyed a quiet night and morning. We had some friends over and blew up the neighborhood with fireworks last night. Overall Holly has made improvements every day since she has refused to take her pain meds. She is eating better, has more strength (she still has a lot more to gain), and is NOT NAUSEATED!!! Praise God!!!

We just returned from our family doctor, no test results were a concern, he basically feels all of the nausea is from pain meds. All the blood and urine analysis results were ok, her SED rate and liver enzymes were quite elevated but this is not uncommon after surgery. Holly is still naueated but less each day, she has not had a pain pill since Sunday and one nausea med Tuesday night. Other than that she is drug free. Slowly cleaning her system out seems to be helping with eliminating the nausea.

I just wonder where she would be in her recovery if she had not spent two weeks puking from pain pills. That took all of her energy which should have been used to heal and gain strength. I feel so sorry for her, I just think about the first few days in the hospital and Holly having endless dry heaves, and if that could have been avoided by changing the pain meds...

A much better day!!!
Holly has had a good day. She ate three meals, drank lots of fluids, and has taken nothing medicinal except tylenol. She has pain but she can control it somewhat with her mind. She had blood drawn and gave a urine sample at the doc this morning and will find out results tomorrow morning. I am definitely leaning towards Dr. Vendryes's thoughts that the nausea is an extreme reaction to pain meds and it will take time to get them out of her system. The nausea has lessened today, still there but not as bad, and she has not had to take anti nausea meds. No meds today except two tylenol. She has been sitting up alot today and is much stronger and feels much better.
Yeah!!! Thank you God!!!

Well today the nausea persists but has lessened slightly. I called Dr. Hoh's PA and she told me to make an appointment with our local doctor. She said the nausea should have passed from the pain meds and the impaction, if it really was one. She is worried about a urinary track infection or an ulcer.

So late this afternoon we went to Dr. Vendryes here in Vero. He does not agree with the PA statement that the nausea is not caused from the pain meds just because Holly has been off of them for a couple of days, he says actually they stay in your system for a period of time and are flushed out eventually with time. But how can they be flushed out in the past few days because she had limited fluid and food intake. He checked her out for infection and an ulcer and doesnt think that is it at all. He is blaming the pain meds, not even considering the lack of pooping for causing the nausea. He said for an impaction to cause extreme nausea it usually is associated with pain in the abdominal region which Holly did not have. Anyway he is doing blood and urine work in the morning to make sure there is nothing going on. He believes the nausea is just from the pain meds. We will see.

I also inquired about the nausea being from the brain surgery but the PA stated specifically, "I can guarantee you that the nausea has nothing to do with the surgery", and she has been a neurosurgery PA for 20+ years and so she knows. She has been so helpful through all of this.

Praise God for Holly being here having these troubles. These troubles are nothing compared to what might have been if the annie decided to rupture. It is a great comfort to know God will solve all of this, His schedule is sometimes different than what our desired schedule is but He will work it all out. One of my favorite sayings is: We live our life going forward with faith, and we understand our life looking back. God has a purpose for all of this, we may or may not eventually know what it is but we go forward knowing God is precisely preparing each step of our lives before we take it. There is great comfort in knowing that.

1 PM

Well the nausea persists... She is not vomiting but is nauseated and food sounds horrible. I am making sure she is hydrated and eating what ever I can get her to eat. We have been reading about nausea after a craniotomy on the internet and it is quite common. I pray it ends soon. She is weak and has lost 17 pounds in 19 days. Not the way anyone wants to loose weight.

She is also experiencing some insomnia. Again one of the side effects of a craniotomy which has been magnified by taking fioricet. She has only had three fioricet pain pills in two days. I dont think that it is proper to not take pain meds when in pain but she says anything including pain is better than nausea.

Other side effects include hearing swishing in the head, a thumping or tapping noise in the head, jaw pain and an inability to open her mouth as far as before. She is also experiencing what are called the heebie jeebies, or random firing of nerves in her head which cause twitches and shooting minor pain sensations. The area of the scull which was removed is also really itchy but when she scratches it she cant feel her fingers touch it. All of these are common side effects and usually dissipate with time and are caused by the nerves reattaching and reactivating. These definately cause stress and crazy worrisome thoughts.

Please pray she can get over the nausea and be able to eat so she can regain her strength, also pray for the insomnia to cease, and the side effects to go away soon. Please pray for my endurance and patience to care for Holly and the kids.

Holly wanted me to express that my last blogs were not very accurate. I actually made them sound too nice, she wanted you all to know that Friday and Saturday were her worst days since the two after surgery. That is how bad they were.

Basically she had narked her bowels with narcotics and the buildup of poop was toxic and caused EXTREME nausea. She was hours from having to go to the emergency room. However, she was officially able to blow the toilet up and she feels much better today. Now it is strength building time.

We just finished Spencer's 6th birthday party at the skating rink. Holly made it through half of it before she had to have Sandy drive her home. Her bowels are officially completely cleaned out. Sorry about all the poop and puke blogs, maybe that worry is over. The doc says within a couple of days she should feel much better. She was 24 hours from having to go to the hospital because of the toxins accumulated in her and her inability to get them out.

She has not had pain meds in two days or nights, she just refuses. I think she needs them especially at night but she does not want to go through what she did the last two days. She does have a high pain tolerance.

Now it is time to gain strength every day. Her recovery has basically been delayed by so many ill effects of meds. Hopefully that is behind us.

5 PM

Three poops and two pukes since noon. It has been the worst day since we were discharged from the hospital. I think she will feel better when she gets rid of all the toxins in her body.

12:30 PM

Holly went through the night without pain meds. She moaned a few times but forced herself to go back to sleep. She said she was done with pain meds. Five laxatives and an enema and not much poop yet. The doc gave her other suggestions we are working on. She is really clogged up. I suppose when it gets flowing look out.

We just gave her a fioricet to releave her head pain, she is tough but she gave in and took one, still definately still needs pain meds, she is still nauseated but not puking. She says all she would have to do is stand over the toilet and look down and she could puke. She is not hungry at all we are having to force her to eat soft foods.

The doc says this is all from not pooping, so we will be patient and let the laxatives work. The toxins from all the meds are built up in her system and cant escape without pooping. I hope my next blog will report massive flowing poop. Sorry about all of this poop and puke talk but I feel so sorry for Holly.

Well yesterday late afternoon Dr. Hoh prescribed lortab for pain to replace the fioricet. Surprise surprise, this morning Holly woke up and started puking again. She then had to take anti nausea meds and she slept all day, it makes her so groggy I have trouble waking her up even shaking her. I am getting frustrated, it seems like since surgery the only troubles we have had are related to the medicines she has to take. Percocet and lortab make her puke, anti nausea meds either dont work or make her drowsy, fioricet makes her hyper and gives insomnia. So I called the doc again, I spoke to his PA, she said she believes Holly is impacted from the pain meds and this could become serious. So Holly is now trying two over the counter meds to make her poop again. So far no success. The PA said it is critical that she poops by tomorrow and I am to call and inform her tomorrow. So my question to her was what do I give Holly for pain when she goes to bed. Her answer was give her benedryl or tylenol PM and 30 minutes later give her the fioricet to take care of the pain and hopefully the sleep aids will counteract the caffeine in the fioricet. My bathroom looks like a pharmacy! I think this blog is turning into a listing of side effects of drugs and how they all are preventing Holly from just sleeping and healing. Since surgery I have been reporting about giving her drugs and more drugs to counteract the other drug and then give another drug to counteract that drug and ...

I am getting frustrated with drugs and their dang side effects. Why cant we just simply control the pain so she can sleep and heal. Please pray for all of these side effects to end and for the need for pain meds to end asap! Remember Holly is a tough one with a high pain tolerance, she had all three kids all natural with no pain meds. I guarantee if she says her head hurts that it is not a minor pain, but luckily the pain is mostly at night when she is lying down.

I know you all are waiting for Holly's first profound blog. She is a little upset with me that I put so much pressure on her. Thus you will have to wait. You are going to get more blogging from me for a while.

Holly did over do yesterday. She went to bed with a bad headache and took a fioricet. She is having trouble sleeping at night and even during the day since she has been taking fioricet. Interesting when I looked it up on drugs.com that it has caffeine in it. Holly has never been a big caffeine person. Anyway the insomnia she has had is due to the caffeine in the pain meds. So at midnight last night she took a percocet so she could get rid of the headache and sleep, against Sandy and my recommendation. Guess what, mild nausea has returned. Proof the nausea is from that darn percocet. I just called the doc to get something without caffeine to control the pain, they will call me back. Strange how all these meds are needed to control pain and they all have side effects hampering the healing process.

Holly is also really tired today, she definitely over did yesterday. Once she went to sleep last night she slept until 12:30 this afternoon. She is still really weak. She will take it easy today and rest, Dr. Ohs' orders.

Holly had the staples and sutures removed today. It turns out that is was actually 39 staples and 8 sutures. I had counted 37 but there were a couple hidden under the old scab. She said it did not even hurt to get the staples removed.

She has been up almost the entire day, I feel she has over done and hopefully won't feel it tomorrow. Today was Spencer's 6th birthday, we had a little party with family and Aunt Sandy made him the coolest pirate cake ever.

Holly had a very good day yesterday and great morning today. NO MORE NAUSEA!!! Amazing what giving her a different pain med will do. She was better within a few hours. She has not needed anti-nausea meds since changing pain meds. It is amazing how many of you have responded that percocet makes you nauseated as well, it does not do that to me but everyone is different. Holly is sitting up for extended periods and is doing really well, now the next step is for her to gain her strength back. She has walked around our cul-de-sac (six houses) and then she is spent. She needs to build energy and I see this will be a gradual process.

Holly will get her staples out tomorrow afternoon. The incision is not going to be noticeable after it heals, even if it was not above her hair line. It is a very clean incision which should heal into a little white line.

Holly will take over the blogging soon. She says she wants her first blog to be something profound. I think she is still figuring out what her profound first entry will be. Stay tuned.

Hey all. I skipped blogging yesterday because Holly sat up until midnight and watched a movie with me and Sandy. Yesterday morning the nausea was still there, Holly missed her middle of the night anti nausea med. We slept through the night and didnt get it taken. Anyway when she woke up with nausea I had had enough, I called the doctor, told him the situation and he finally changed the percocet to fioricet and scribed more anti nausea meds. Holly took the first fioricet and had no pain and the nausea was GONE!!! She has NOT had nausea since. The doctors all said they thought that the nausea was from the anesthesia and mass dosages of narcotic pain meds, but this on call doctor said that 10 days post-op he is becoming suspicious it is simply the percocet. Finally, nausea relief!!! Praise God!

So yesterday she sat up for four hours non-stop and watched a movie in the afternoon, she ate three decent sized meals, and then stayed up late and watched another movie. The best day thus far!

This morning I took the kids to church and she and Sandy slept in late. Holly woke up and ate a good breakfast and refused to take anti-nausea meds or pain meds, she said, "I dont need them". So she is sitting up now and watching cartoons with the kids! She is acting like a new person, the persistent nausea was slowing the healing process.

The sermon today covered several verses but the main focus was on James 1: 2-8 which is about tests of faith and how God uses them to mature us.

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

This has definately been a test of faith. God led Holly to find out about the aneurysm, to find the proper doctor, to have the surgery and have it be a success, to arrange perfectly everyone to care for Holly, every little detail of the entire process God was and is there. We have all had tests of faith and will have more in the future, but this one has been the first major one where I had absolutely no ability to do anything about it other than give it all to God. God took care of everything, even the little details that we ourselves had not anticipated. God is Great!

Holly has again had a very good day. Her best day post-op. Still has alot of pain, we figure the tissues are healing and are causing it. She ate pretty good today and the nausea is still there but is under control. She has been up several times today and done some walking. A very good day! Praise God!

I know you are all curious as to what the incision looks like. For those of you interested scroll to the bottom of the page. They shaved very little hair and the scar will be covered when the hair grows back.

9:05 PM

Holly said today was her best day post-op. She still needs anti-nausea meds, I hope this ends soon... We reduced the dosage by half and she is not as drowsy today and the nausea has been under control. She ate three small meals and held them down all day. She complained of pain about every 3 hours, this was different from the past three days because she has not taken many pain pills compared to what was prescribed. The doc had prescribed to take 1 or 2 percocet (325 mg) every 4 to 6 hours or as needed. She has probably taken 10 total the first two days at home, but today she needed them more frequently than the previous two days. I will say that she did push herself a little today and sat up for 2+ hours this morning and came outside and watched the neighborhood kids play out front for about an hour this afternoon. Tonight she spiked a fever again, today it was 100.6, not to the 101 call the doctor level, but too close. I read about fever after a craniotomy online and many sites said a fever of 101.5 and others said a consistent fever above 101 is when you should contact a doc. So I guess I will just monitor it and pray it will not go any higher.

I just want to thank you all for loving Holly and checking out this blog to see how she is doing. I have to say I am surprised by the number of people who visit the blog daily. We find great comfort in knowing there are so many of you out there caring, loving, and praying for her and us. We are also humbled and very greatful for the outpooring of love from those of you locally who have helped with child care and provided all the wonderful meals. God bless you all!

10:35 PM

Today began with her feeling pretty good, then she ate oatmeal and an ensure and it stayed down two minutes. The pesky old nausea was back. Started anti nausea meds again, she slept, ate a few bites today. I am not sure, I spoke to a friend who is a pharmacist and he confirmed the statement of the doctor that this is from all the mix of narcotics she has had, he said it should pass when they are out of her system. He did mention that he would give it one more day and ask the doctor for another pain med, he would change percocet for dilotid. I think I will call tomorrow at the first sign of nausea and ask for another pain med. She still needs to take pain meds about every six hours, the pain is not extreme but it is enough to want it to end. She had a fever again this evening of 100.3, we assume it is from the trauma to her body. I will ask tomorrow when I call but they were clear to not worry until it is over 101 and a low temp is normal. After all of this Holly did say today she felt better than other days. Go figure.

Please pray for the nausea to end!

11:15 PM

Sorry I have been slow blogging today. I want to give at least a daily update. Today has been much better. The new nausea medicine she took yesterday helped dramatically with the nausea but has a side effect of drowsiness. So I had to wake her up regularly today to exercise and eat. She was really groggy. We walked up the street a few driveways and back twice today. She is still not hungry but ate three meals, about a fouth of what she would normally eat, but she ate and did not have nausea. I have felt so sorry for her, she has never had nausea even close to this level before. She never had morning sickness with pregnancies so she doesnt know how this would compare.

Today was the first day she could get the incision wet so she took a shower and then I helped clean some of the gunk from her hair and dried blood from around the incision. It looks much better. I think the doctor used neosporin as a hair gel to push her unshaven hair back away from her forehead and then it dried. It will take a while to get it all out. She had a fever of 100.5 tonight but it went back down. We are to call the doc if it exceeds 101. Please pray for continued protection from infection.

I certainly see that the recovery is going to be a slow steady process and it is going to take time to get back to normal. Before surgery, the doc said to expect about a month to be back to normal, I now see that it could take that long. This is nothing compared to if it had ruptured though. We were also told that the brain would do weird things in healing, she has experienced the first weird sensations today. Nerves fire and send tingling sensations down her face, neck, and her fingers feel tingly sometimes. She is also hearing some sloshing noises in her head. This too we were told may occur but will go away with time. Please pray for continued healing over the next weeks and for these sensations to be minimal and not last for a long time.

10:30 PM

Holly still had nausea today, I called the doctor and spoke to his PA. She said that sometimes they have patients complain of the worse nausea they have ever had after surgery, the kind of nausea that makes one cracker in your mouth seem to grow to ten and you cant swallow it then. She said it is definately due to the combo of narcotics she has had and everyone reacts differently, it has nothing to do with the brain and the surgery. I requested a different anti nausea medicine and she said we would have to see a local doc to get a script because she wanted her to be checked out. Actually, she wanted to free herself from liability but no problem we understand. Our family physician gave Holly a new medicine and it helped almost instantly. She has eaten soup and rice pudding for dinner and has been up for a couple of hours and just gone back to bed. I think she slept for well over 24 of 36 hours since we have arrived at home. Today I took her brother Freeman to the airport then picked up sister in law Sandy from Alaska. She is going to be here for two weeks to help with Holly and the kids. What a blessing.

4:45 PM

Holly was discharged by the doc at 7:30 AM but we didnt get the actual papers until 12PM. We hit the road, nausea hit hard one time, then she slept all the way home. She said hello to the kids and is now sleeping. We arrived home about 3:30 PM. I am glad to be home, Holly was apprehensive to being away from the doctors. Hopefully we can keep it quiet around here for a few days and she can catch up on sleep.

6:45 PM

Holly slept for 3 hours and then we walked around the hallway, she did really well. She just ate about half of some mystery meat loaf, mash naters, green beans, waldorf salad, and apple pie. She is talking to the kids right now and we have been waiting for the doc all afternoon. I dont know if he will still show up tonight and if we will consider being discharged tonight if he offers, or if it will be tomorrow morning. She is much improved and ready to go. She is definately going to need lots of rest for several weeks, she is going to sleep alot and fatique easy but she is not going to have to worry about the pesky annie in her head.

Again I just want to express my sincere thank you for all of your love, prayers, and support in so many ways. We are very grateful.

2:15

Holly had a little fried chicken, a few spoonfuls of mash naters, some jello fruit salad, two ensures, and a few bites of chocolate cake. Still no movement so the doc just gave her the sure fire you are going to poop treatment. I assume he will discharge later today because the treatment is successful as I type and laugh. Holly and her room mate and I have been getting a good laugh out of this one. If discharge is not today I feel it will definately be tomorrow. She feels less nausea but it is still there, definately an improvement and she has been in good humor. I am not certain how she will be handle the 3 hour drive home but I guess she can lay back and sleep. I know she will sleep better at home because they are in the room every half hour or so and waking her for some purpose.

10 AM

Holly was nauseated all night, she stopped heaving but felt like she could at any moment. She didnt follow my directions and eat crackers all night, she ate two. I arrived at 8 AM and she had already walked to the other hall (at least a distance of a block or more) and taken a shower and returned. She is still VERY nauseated. The doctor was in this morning and will be back this afternoon, I think they want to release her but she has to eat. He ordered something to get the old pooper going again and he said lots of times this will activate the rest of the digestive system. She ate a half of a large fruit bowl. She just has to get past this nausea, physically she is doing really well, the problem is she is having side effects from taking so much percocet.

5:30 PM

Well today is the nausea day. We switched pain meds but I understand it can take a few days to flush it all out because she has had so much the last two days. She had a little chicken noodle soup, a few crackers and two ginger ales. Not enough to make her feel better and fill the stomach. I ordered some sauce free pasta and bread for dinner. Hopefully she will be able to eat more this evening and get her digestive tract activated.

She said me, "have you put a prayer request out on the blog to have the nausea stop?" I said I have but will do so again.

Dr Hoh came in this afternoon and said he will discharge when she can eat solid foods, he didnt care about pooping so much but she definately has to eat solid foods and keep them down.

12:20 PM

Hey everyone. Holly has been up on her own three times this morning. PT came by and helped her walk to the end of the hall and back. She was tired after that and is now sleeping. She has extreme nausea, her food intake today has been two saltine crackers and a ginger ale. She has to poop before she can leave and obviously a cracker will not be enough. So they increased her anti-nausea meds and are changing her percocet to toradol to see if that helps and will still take care of the pain.

Pray for: nausea to get better, for her to be able to eat, and for that hospital discharging poop to occur. I know that seems like a strange thing to pray for, however, everything I put on the blog and you all pray for has happened, God is listening to your prayers!

9:30 AM

Hey bloggers, sorry for my lack of recent blogging. Holly had a great afternoon yesterday, she was sitting up and awake for 5+ hours. She was worn out after that and had jello for dinner and went to sleep. I went to a friends house and slept well, I feel so much better. I arrived at 8AM and Holly is really nauseated. She has taken anti-nausea meds several times but not helping. The nurse says it is caused by the pain meds. She has to eat solid foods before she can be discharged. They sent eggs, bacon, biscuit, and rock hard oatmeal this morning. I dont blame her for not wanting to eat it. I will request another meal before lunch with some not so heavy solid foods. I thought they would start with toast and jelly or something not bacon. I am back and will keep you updated. They still say discharge tomorrow but she has to eat.

2:35

God is great!!! I had to sleep and went to Franks house (another UF professor) and slept for a few hours and showered. Along the way Ann's car broke down, so I made a detour to the Acura repair shop. The shuttle driver brought me back to the hospital and when I arrived Holly was awake, had no drain tubes, was walking with minor assistance, and she is still awake and doesnt want any more pain meds. I knew the major source of head pain was those drain tubes, I have purposely not discussed them with you all. So Praise God, she is making major progress and has been reading the blog and has talked to the kids. An amazing change from 7 AM.

About the drain tubes, Holly has he sense of humor back, her quote, "I would rather have had natural child birth three times than to have to endure that again", and she said it with a big smile. They pulled tubes from under the skin and gave her six stitches without any local anesthetic. I can't image having stiches in my scalp with no local, and on top of that pulling of the tubes. But the level of improvement she has experienced once they were out is incredible.

For those friends of Holly's from the brain forum who are still considering having surgery let me tell you have surgery and get it repaired. The halls of three floors of this hospital are filled with patients with ruptured aneurysms and related problems who are alive but will never function again. The stories are all similar. Thank you God for giving Holly all the signs to find this and get it fixed.

7:30 AM

She had a good restful night, the night nurses were excellent and did a very good job caring for Holly. A young neurosurgeon just came by and said later today he would remove the drain tubes. This has to be contributing to the pain, trust me. She is nauscious from the pain meds. She is to continue to get up as much as possible today. The doc will leave specific directions with the nurses.

Prayer requests: the tubes come out with no major pain, she reaches a point of rapid recovery soon, she is able to eat more today to gain strength, please pray for my strength and health because I am feeling run down and have a scratchy throat.

10:30 PM

New shift of nurses, totally different environment. They must have been short a head nurse last shift. The nurses are on top of her pain meds, she has been to the bathroom two times. She is much more coherent. Dr. Hoh came by and said tomorrow he may take the drain tubes out. I know they are a major source of pain. When I ask her to show me where the pain is she points to the tubes. He said she is doing everything according to schedule and he expects a Fri or Sat discharge. He spoke to the nurses about managing her pain and getting exercise tomorrow. I feel so much better when there are caring nurses who are aware of who Holly is and what her needs are. Good night. Thank you all for your love, God bless.

6:10 PM

I just chewed the nurse out. She realized that she had screwed up and couldn't defend herself. She told me that she would arrange for the floor coordinator to come by, I told her to please do so. Good news is Holly went 5.75 hours without pain meds. The patient care assistant finally helped me out, she came into the room and did a sonogram of her bladder and said oh you are full we are going to catheterize you again. I said no, Holly said I want to get up and go to the bathroom, the PCA's jaw almost hit the floor, she said lets try use a bed pan then she looked at me and I said you heard her she wants to get up and go pee. She okayed it with the nurse and Holly got up on her own and walked to the bathroom, went pee, walked back to the bed, and looked at the PCA and said now can I have my pain meds. I think the PCA almost passed out, she couldn't believe Holly just did it. I will be glad when the new nurse comes on at 7 PM. The PCA now knows Holly and the new nurse will meet me soon, hopefully the nurse will be more responsive to Holly's needs.

4:45 PM

Been in this unit for three hours, have seen the nurse for 10 seconds, there are alot of rooms and alot of people hussling and bussling but no one to see Holly. They told me the visiting hours are over at 9PM. If they try to remove me without showing me that they can care for Holly more frequently than they have thus far, they better get security. She has been in la la sleep all day. It has been 4.75 hours since last pain meds, she said my head hurts and then went out again a few minutes ago. Obviously the staff is spread thin.

2:45 PM

Holly was just moved into the adult medical surgery unit, they call it the 6500 unit. She is in a semi private room and I have requested for a private room so I can stay in the room at night with her, but priority is given to those with medical needs. This was the first bed available in the 6500 unit that we just moved into. She had four of seven IVs removed, lost all the monitors except blood oxygen and pulse rate, and they removed the catheter. She is basically in la la land from the pain meds, she has had ice chips and orange juice. I will be happy when the drain tubes in the head can be removed. Still no bruising or swelling because of those drains though. They say she is progressing exactly as expected. Freeman and Ann just left to return to Vero to take care of the children. It is just me, Holly, and you amazing blog readers out there for the next three or four days. Holly is aware of how many of you have visited the blog and is very thankful for your love. I have become aquainted with other patient's families who have had the same procedure today. Interesting they all had headaches as well and were blessed to have the aneurysms fixed before they ruptured. Funny the doctors all insist mild headaches and other symptoms have nothing to do with the aneurysm.

12:10 PM

I have been to the hotel and slept. They do not allow guests in the NIC unit from 7-11AM because many doctors are making rounds for educational purposes and there is a shift change of nurses. I just checked the blog and there has been over 200 hits since last night. I am sitting here crying and absolutely overwhelmed by all of your love and support. Holly is scheduled to be moved out of intensive care today but there is not a bed available so when one becomes available she will be moved to the neurosurgery department, I am not sure the exact technical name of the department but I know it is on 6th floor.

The nurse said Holly is rested and is still chasing the pain but it is under control. I am not sure what is involved with the next department she goes to. She still has two drains with a little discharge, seven IVs, and about 20 monitor wires so it will have to be pretty intensive. She is aware and completely coherent but in and out of sleep. I am not sure how much she will remember from the last day later on, but she does remember everything right now.

Prayer requests: no infection, continued healing, relief of pain, safe travel for Ann and Freeman, continued protection for the kids.

I thank you all so much for your love and support. I will keep the blog updated as I know more. God Bless!

4:30 AM

Holly has had a restful night. I have made sure the pain meds were given every four hours. This last time she awoke right at four hours and the nurse gave them to her. She had a fever of 100.6 at midnight but it was back down to 99.5 at 4AM. The nurse says this is typical and not high enough to think there is an infection. I rested alittle, I am going to the hotel and have Holly's mother and/or brother take over so I can rest some.

8:45 PM

Holly's pain is bad but manageable and is head and back pain, however, it has not required additional morphine. She is taking two big percocets every four hours, however she is asking for another one after 2.5 hours. The nurses say for 24 hours post-op unfortunately we can only chase pain, after that time usually we can stay ahead of it. They could give more pain meds but then she would have trouble answering all of their questions and sensory tests every hour. The new nurse is from Louisville KY and is here for 12 hours, she is young but is really good.

I was astonished by the incision when I first saw it. I assumed it would be covered with bandages but it is not. It consists of 35 staples and is about 6 inches long. Her hair was shaved over the center of the forehead to over the ear up only about an inch from her hairline. The incision scar will be covered by hair when it grows back and she will be able to cover it with her bangs in a few days. She has no brusing, little swelling, and she is not even pale. When not asleep, she is coherent, can talk, and can shift herself on the bed alone.

Specific prayer requests: avoiding potential infection, pain control, healing of the wound, no complications.

6:30 PM

I just went to dinner downstairs and when I returned there had been another 55 hits to this site. I dont know who all of you are but thank you and I will keep you informed.

Holly's pain is under control. She is able to take percocet in pill form and this will help her eventually stay ahead of the pain. I am allowed to stay with her all night but will probably go to the hotel late tonight to get rest for the days to come. She is in very good care here. The neurosurgery intensive care department is an incredible place. There is a nurse for every two rooms, the nurses desk is outside the doors and there is a window so they can see the numerous monitors in each room while standing at their desk. There are two full time neurosurgeons on staff 24/7 who are constantly going in between rooms. There are also many physicians assistants who check her often. I have not had much experience with an intensive care unit, the level of care provided to these patients is incredible. The hall of 30 rooms is filled with patients who have had ruptured aneurysms and related brain issues, I have not seen even one of the other patients out of bed. I am so thankful that this aneurysm was detected and could be treated. I think of the many friends Holly has communicated with on the brain surgery forum and who have also had this procedure and are now living normal lives as Holly will soon. This surgery although invasive, is nothing compared to the long term issues many other patients in this hallway are facing after a rupture. Thank you God! I pray you help heal the other patients and touch their families with your love.

4 PM

We have seen Holly and she knew us. She was in alot of pain and had a morphine shot and some anti-nausea medicine. She is in and out of sleep. We were alot shocked when we entered the room and there were no bandages or wraps. It was definately not what we expected.

The nurses say she is doing exactly as expected and is properly alert and responsive. Every hour they will quiz her to test her mental state. They say by tomorrow they will have her out of bed and sitting up. Usually within 24 hours is when they will move Holly out of neurosurgery intensive care.

This neurosurgery intensive care unit is an incredible department, there must be 30 or so rooms and all are filled with people with brain issues. We are again reminded how thankful we are to have found this before it ruptured. Many families in this units waiting room have been here for days and even weeks. They are sleeping and living in the waiting room with belongings spread all over. Most are here for ruptured aneurysms and everyone has a story which landed their love ones in here for extended periods of time.

I put a counter on the website to see how many people actually visited this blog. There were 425 visitors today. I am humbled and thank you for all of your love, prayers, and support.

1 PM

Dr. Hoh just called and he said everything went perfect and there were no complications. She is being transported to recovery and we can see her in about an hour. Praise God!

12:40

Finally. She is doing fine and they are putting the dressing on. The surgeon will be down soon to talk to us. Praise God!!!

Noon

No word... Keep the faith!!!

11:10 EST

Holly went into surgery as planned at 7:56AM. We were told we would have an update in 2.5 to 3 hours. It has now been 3 hours and no update. I will post again to let everyone know when we hear something.

One last entry before the journey to the hospital this morning. I am to arrive at 6am and prepare to have surgery within 1-2 hours. I was told yesterday to expect 4-6 hours in surgery and then immediately to ICU. I will be monitored around the clock by the doctors in ICU and will be awakened every hour and bombarded with questions "who are you" "who is the president" etc. I sure hope I pass the test:) The nurse told me not to expect to remember anything about the first 24 hours. Cortney will not be allowed to stay in ICU over night so he will return to the hotel in the evening.

I awoke at 3 am this morning with much fear and apprehension and as Cortney and I lay and prayed, it was all washed away. Jeremiah 29:11 playing in my head "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future". Also, my fav Jeremiah 17:7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. whose condfidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out it roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; it leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

For now, I will sign off and thank each of you for your continued prayers and well wishes. For all you early risers, PRAY PRAY PRAY. Pray for the doctors and nurses, for Cortney and my family as they wait through those long hours and pray for my babies and their safety as we are away. Cortney will be in touch as he is updated. Remember, surgery at 8am. That's 7am for all you central time zone people! In Him, Holly

We have arrived in Gainesville and have completed the pre-op procedure. The surgery is the first scheduled in the morning, 8AM. She will check in at 6AM. I will post more later and keep you all updated.

We have had a crazy, busy day. Trying to tie up all the loose ends and make sure all is in order. I know many have called and left messages or e-mailed and we have not replied but we have been overwhelmed with the last minute "panics." We are leaving for Gainesville at 8 am in the morning and picking up my brother along the way at Orlando International Airport. I have my pre-op appointments at 2pm and 3:30pm. Currently the surgery is scheduled for 8:30am on Tuesday but that is yet to be confirmed. We will have final confirmation after 7pm tomorrow night. We will update after we have a definite time.

I am now 3 days to surgery and counting. I have been asked by a friend to give a few more updates. So, I sit here thinking of recent happenings. God has truly blessed me with a calmness and peace about this procedure and the outcome. This being said, I have decided to reflect on a few prior incidents that I have not revealed in the blog. These incidents are just a few more testimonies to God's awesome hand in this series of events.

During Christmas Eve service at our church I had a brief dizzy spell and actually blacked out for a few seconds. I visited the doctor in January and he ordered many different tests on my heart, all coming back great. I think back now that God probably was starting the process at that point but realized the doctor attributed the blackout to the heart and not the head, so He gave me the headaches :-) On top of these signs is probably the craziest! Are you ready for this?!?!

I have realized that along with age, as most of you know, comes a little extra weight and less exercise. I joined a local gym that has been in the area for 50 years! I joined on a Monday and worked out every day that week. I worked out early morning, many times never seeing another person. The following Monday I arrived at the gym ready to work out and was told the gym burned down over the weekend. They stated it would be about one month to open. I called at one month and was told they "ran into unexpected difficulties" , the opening delayed indefinitely. It was in the paper yesterday the gym will be reopening June 9 "rain, sleet or snow". I will be driving to Gainesville that day for pre-op. There's NO chance I will visit the gym. Coincidence?? I don't think so. The only order my doctor gave me was not to over exert myself until surgery time. Thanks God for burning down the gym so I wouldn't over exert and rupture "bubbles" the annie!!

By the way, Cortney and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary today. Together for 15 years!

As the surgery nears I ask that each of you pray specifically for Dr. Hoh and that God guide his hands. Also, please pray for Cortney and the kids. The kids will be taken care of by many incredible church friends during our stay in Gainesville, but they will miss their mommy and daddy and be confused and out of their normal routine. Also, Cortney will have my mom and brother with him in the hospital on Monday and during surgery on Tuesday. However, if all goes well, they will drive back to Vero on Wednesday, leaving Cortney in the hospital alone. They must come back to Vero to help provide for the kids. Please pray special strength for Cortney! Thanks to all who have provided words of comfort and encouragement. Many have asked how to help and my response would be to go to the Lord on my behalf and my families behalf! He is able!
By the way: I have not had a headache (that particular type) since the day I visited my doctor and he ordered the CT scan!!! God speaks!!!!!

June 2, We have elected to have the clipping surgery on June 10 at Shands in Gainesville. We go June 9 for pre-op and have surgery in the morning of June 10. The surgery: Open brain surgery has prevailed as the choice for my circumstances. This will involve making a 2 inch in diameter incision above the right ear, go through the skull, carefully separate the brain to reach the aneurysm. A titanium clip will then be placed on the aneurysm. Hence, the "clipping" procedure. I will spend 24 hours in the neurological ICU and then with God's grace be moved out of ICU to the neurological hospital room. I anticipate a 3-5 day hospital stay and have been informed to have extra help for one month. My brother will be arriving from TN on Monday June 9 and will visit through June 16. June 16 my sister-in-law from Alaska will visit to provide care through June 30.

May 22, we arrived at Shands Hospital in Gainesville and had further testing. A CT angiogram had been scheduled before the appointment with Dr. Hoh. We then met with Dr. Hoh and his fellow Dr. Fox. They confirmed the aneurysm in the exact location and size the radiologist in Vero Beach had reported. The aneurysm is located on the middle cerebral artery (MCA) between the cerebrum and cerebrellum lobes. Treatment options were discussed with alot of statistics. 90% of patients never know they have an aneurysm until it ruptures, 50% of those die immediately or within a month, another 25% have long term serious neurological problems (vegetative state), and another 25% survive with little or no side effects. Of the fortunate 10% who find the aneurysm about 3% find it for unrelated reasons such as headaches or being in a car accident and having associated MRI or CT scans. Or as I believe, because of an Awesome God looking out for his child!!

Treatment options include observation over time (the ticking time bomb option), using a coiling procedure where they go through the femoral artery in the leg with a catheter and place coils of platnum wires in the aneurysm causing reduced blood flow and scabbing over, or open surgery where they place a titanium clip at the base of the aneurysm and eliminate blood flow. Coiling has a 20% reoccurance rate and is a great option for high risk patients and those aneurysms in positions which are very difficult to reach through open surgery. Clipping, although a more invasive crainotomy, has a <1% reoccurance rate and as it turns out is the best option for my aneurysm because of the location, size, my age and general good health.

Dr. Hoh performs over 800 aneurysm surgeries per year, about half coiling and half open brain surgery. His procedures consists of only surgeries of the blood vessels of the brain. The sucess rate is 96-97%. If we chose the option to wait and monitor, the likelihood of rupture is 1-3% annually, and is additive. Therefore, if we were to do nothing for 10 years the likelihood is 10-30% for a rupture. Comparing these statistics makes it clear that for long term the annie must be clipped.

I said to Dr.Hoh, "thanks for the great news" in my best playful joking voice. His response, "actually I am giving you very good news." Then he said, "I can fix this, but if you wait until it ruptures and you show up in the emergency room in a coma, it is too late, all I can do then is stop the bleeding, the damage will be done." He said this with almost a tear in his eye and with conviction in his voice. We have thought greatly about this. This man has dedicated his life to helping people with aneurysms and related problems and 90% of his patients show up when it has ruptured and it is too late for 75% of them.

We opted to call back to schedule an appointment for surgery and traveled 3 hours back to Vero Beach praying and thinking.

May 19, I visited the local neurosurgeon and he was unimpressed with the CT scan images and made statements that the radiologist had made a diagnosis as to the presence of a aneurysm from a questionable image. The neurosurgeon said he didn't see the aneurysm in the image and would have called it a location that requires more imaging. He mentioned that even if it were an aneurysm he would recommend not doing anything and monitor it yearly. We pressed him for further information and who he refers surgical aneurysm cases to, he said Dr. Hoh at Shands in Gainesville. He had no idea that we already had a second opinion scheduled with Dr. Hoh in three days. He wrote us a prescription for further imaging and we left confused but hopeful that maybe there was not an aneurysm after all and the radiologist report as to the location and size of aneurysm was possibly wrong.

May 12 I was at my doctor's office at 8 am, waiting on my referral appointment. The appointment was scheduled the following Monday, May 19. We immediately contacted Shands hospital at the University of Florida to see about a second opinion. We were told there is a 2 month wait and the only way around this time frame is to have my doctor send a referral. They receive 1000 referrals a day and each morning teams of doctors gather to determine the needs of each patient. The doctor faxed my info immediately and I received a call at 4 pm on Friday that I had an appointment the following Thursday, May 22. Praise God for this appointment!! He is able!!!

May 7, I visited Vero Radiology and had a CT Scan with contrast performed. As the days passed, so did my anxiety, thinking no news is good news. By 5 pm Friday I had not heard from the doctor, so I was very relieved. May 9 at 6:30pm I receieved the call that ultimately has changed my life and my view of life. This call was informing of a 5mm aneurysm found on my right Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA). I was told to have as good a weekend as possible and I would be referred to a local neurosurgeon on Monday. What a way to start Mother's Day weekend. I can assure you it was a weekend filled with much prayer and God has been with me each step.

May 5, I began like every morning the previous month, with a very bad headache. However, this morning was different and God spoke to me encouraging me to see my medical doctor. He had been speaking quite some time, I just wasn't listening :) I made an appointment for 11:30am and upon arrival discussed my headaches and requested meds for a "sinus headache." Thankfully, my doctor refused and insisted that I have a CT scan to rule out any problems. He stated "I am 99% positive we will find nothing but lets make sure." The procedure was scheduled for two days later.