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.