Posted by Debbie (207.218.158.38) on July 07, 1999 at 03:52:52:
In Reply to: Re: Brain tumors? posted by Anne Thomas on July 06, 1999 at 17:52:07:
Hi Anne,
Rich has had ch's for 21yrs. 1994 mri showed nothing.
feb 1997 mri showed tumor.We kinda felt the tumor
had nothing to do with the ch's. Which was true.
To be honest I was praying that after the brain surgery
the ch's would have disappeared(wishful thinking)
Rich had surgery at USC here in california. It took about 4
hours..the neuro surgen was great. I could'nt praise him enough..
Last year it was just to hard to discuss what we were going through
This is the first time i've really talked to anyone about it.
other than Rich. For me (I'm 32) we were to young
to be having the make PLANS for the future. Our most
hardest part was having to explain this to my 5 yr old
and 8yr old. It still sends chills through my
body.(You see in 1996 I had to break the hearts of my mother in law, and children.
Rich was out with his Dad and his dad suffered a fatal heartattck.
I needed to go tell his mom that the man she loved with all
her heart was now gone. I needed to tell our children that
their papa that they saw everyday from the time they were born
was gone. I felt My family that I love so very much
here i am saying the words that would break their
hearts and change their lives...The most heartbreaking painful words
I have ever spoken.We are a very close family. And
i can honestly say I have felt my families heart break
when I spoke these words).I prayed I would not have to do it again.
But God gave me strength to talk to our boys about the tumor.And I am
so very thankful he gave me the oppertunity to tell my boys that their DAD was doing great
IM SORRY,this was more of my personal
feelings.I guess some feeling that ive kept hidden
that have been heavy on my heart.
Anyways back to Rich.His tumor was located in the 4th ventrical. Between the
brain stem and cereblumn. the surgeon was concerned as to
how far the tumor was into both of these areas. During surgery they had to removed a small piece
of the cereblumn..The tumor was considered "M"..Although the surgen believes
he got every piece of it. when Doc G (the surgeon) came out of the operating room. he was really
elated.It had went way better than he had expected.
it took Rich 4 months to make a full
recovery. I was hoping that maybe since they went in and
messed around with the brain..maybe just maybe it would do somthing to
get rid of the ch's or at least decrease the pain. WISHFUL THINKING
This cycles just been rough on him. Rich has mentioned chronic
a couple of times. He's worried this might turn into chronic ch's
3 1/2 months on the right and now the left side want to join in.
We don't know what to think about it.
He's resting now Its about 12:30pm..
Praying for pain free days..months ..years..
:)
Debbie