Pictures...

Scotlyn sent this picture for me to show her daddy. She really misses him.

This is a picture of the procedure that Matt had done, hopefully you can read it. The top picture is the description and the bottom is an illustration of how the surgeons separated the parts of his brain to get to the tumor.

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Afternoon

2:00pm: Jeff and Deann Stratton arrived at the hospital, as well as Dave Branham and Tom & Royce Tait. Deann isn't into needles/blood/surgery/hospital-type stuff, so she walked in the room and kissed his forehead, then waltzed right back out! Matt held up a conversation with Dave a little (he'll be back tomorrow), and Jeff a little more. His friend from Ameriflight also stopped by, Simon, and had a small chat. Matt's still sleepy and in-and-out today, so this was nice to see him talking a little.
2:30pm: He got ready for a shower; they have removed most of his IVs now so this is possible. Jen asked him if he would rather have male or female nurses, and he said "I'll do it myself". Jen then said "oh no, that's not going to happen. Even if you're in a chair, you must be assisted. How about Starr? Will you let her help?" He didn't say anything, so she took that as a yes and told me that I get to be in charge of that since she would do it, but he might get a little embarrassed with the whole brother sister thing.

He returned back to bed, obviously tired from walking to the shower and back to his room, but he feels a bit better. The right side of his face is still swollen and he says his right eye feels puffy. It is starting to bruise a tiny bit. He hasn't eaten much and doesn't feel like eating. They are trying to get him to eat because they have a transfer in to move him to a regular room but he needs to be eating more food first. Things are still looking good with his tests and he is passing all the OT questions and can move on his own. The therapists are worried about his use of stairs when he gets home. His mom and dad will be coming back to Idaho Falls with us in their own vehicle to help him with the recovery process. Right now, if everything goes well, and continues to improve, he might be released as early as Monday. It is all up to Matt and how each day goes.

Saturday AM, January 19, 2013

Saturday AM, January 19, 2013

8:00am Arrived at the hospital. I went in and Matt was asleep.
9:30am: He woke up for a short bit but was more sleepy than yesterday. He had some vomiting during the night, but not so much that there would have been intracranial pressure (WHEW). He is cranky, and not as chatty. This doesn't bode well for his scheduled friend/family visitors for the day (Royce Tom, Dave and Cortney, Jeff and Deann are all supposed to be here today). The nurses said he had a good night, but he says he didn't sleep well. We think it's because he is just more aware of things now. He has continued to pass all the requisite questions (person, place, time). Took his morning meds, and trying to eat breakfast  (scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage links, apple juice and milk) but again the smell of the food made him a little queasy. The ART line came out; this is one more step toward the goal of showering. He then quickly fell back asleep around 9:45am.

Friday Afternoon and Evening; after MRI

Friday Afternoon and Evening; after MRI

3:30: Eric Bradley visited. He is a friend of Matt's from Ameriflight.
3:45: 30 minute warning for the MRI. Nurse came in and hooked him to the portable monitor (BP, pulse, O2 sats, etc).
4:00: He is peeing 500cc, when a normal female would pee 20-30cc. The body and brain have not readjusted to what it's supposed to do yet; this is somewhat normal after removal of a tumor by this area of the brain.
4:30: Matt taken for the MRI.
5:51: Matt back in the room from MRI. It will be at least an hour for the results. He is trying to eat dinner (chicken, mashed potatoes, berry cobbler, fennel/arugula salad), but is very sleepy and has a headache from the transfer and travel to the Imaging department. Bumps hurt. He asked that the door be closed, because the hallway was loud.
6:26: Matt asked when he could shower; the nurse said he cannot at least until the ART line is removed (maybe tomorrow, but we'll see when the Dr reports).
7:00 pm: Jen talked to Dr Eskandari (5th yr resident; was in the surgery) who came in and answered her questions.

• MRI was "pristine"--no tumor, all the remaining parts are intact and unharmed. The radiologist will need to review it in more detail still, but he was pretty confident in the findings.
• As long as the fluid status/urine output is normal, he can leave ICU tomorrow. He will likely be here at the hospital for at least a couple more days. Right now he is still wasting water and keeping salt in the system.
• He has a few titanium plates, and "maybe 8 screws?" in his skull. They will stay there forever. Staples in his scalp will need to be removed in 7-10 days. 
• Bandages come off on day 3 and he can shower on day 5. Cannot soak the wound site (hot tub, bath) for 4 weeks.
• Return to Moran Eye Center in 4 wks for full eye exam and then right after (same day) at UofU Hospital for follow up.

This is our command center. We kind of took over the NCCU waiting area, across the hall from the ICU (he is room 3321). We have a total of 5 laptops, one iPad, and several phones. Starr has been in charge of her blog, her phone, Matt's phone, and all the visitors. So far we had Matt Hintze, Clark Johnson, Robyn, Britney and then of course Jamie came before surgery. 

Matt has been checked on by the nurses on an hourly basis, and today was "upped" in status which means he only gets checked every 2 hours now. This makes him happy, because every hour of the hour they wake him up, ask his name and where he is and why...he is understandably sick of this! Still waiting for the MRI. Endocrinologist came in and needed some info/records from Idaho Falls that he didn't get yet; he will check back later. They told us that Matt will be in ICU for another 1-2 days still. Doing much better... He ate a little food, and let his tiny little Haagen Daaz ice cream melt, so they brought him a raspberry sherbet. These nurses like him :) Is drinking water regularly, and has good output (although kind of clear, so they are monitoring sodium levels closely).  ....I'm sure he will be super excited to read this.

Afternoon-Evening

Post Op: Friday - I stole this from Jen because apparently she is more detail oriented than I am.

10:00 am: The surgeon and the physical therapist had been in this AM. He needs to walk and sit up to make sure everything moves properly. He says he gets a little more of a headache when he does that, but knows this is normal.
Had labs drawn; blood sugar is 129 and they will check his protein levels every few hours or so. Apparently he has had to pee every hour for the past few weeks, and this is because the tumor was pressing on (?) which controls the sodium/kidneys and the body has been confused on where the sodium is in the body (inside vs outside an area? This will hopefully level out soon, now that the tumor is out. He still has the catheter in, isn't real excited to have it taken out because of the removal (ouch) and he knows he will have to get up to pee, and he gets worse headaches with standing. The nurse says this is ok for a while, but should look forward to having it out today. They will wait until after the postop MRI (should be anytime). Jinnefer and Jen were reminiscing about previous cath removals after childbirth years ago, and that didn't alleviate any of his concerns about pain hahaha sorry Matt.
Jen had a great convo with him today; asked him lots of questions about yesterday, the pre op, waking up, this AM, etc. He remembers everything he needs to, which is fantastic. He remembers when the anesthesiologist drove his bed away (from us in preop, to surgery yesterday) that he kept running into walls. The anesth said "jeez we need a new bed for you! haha". Then he went into the OR, lined up next to the surgical bed and climbed over (scooted over) to it with a little help. Then he doesn't remember anything else. That's good; he was worried about that yesterday. The nurse yesterday said it took him a little longer to go under because he's a big guy. Came out of it ok. He remembers waking up. Doesn't really have a sore throat from the intubation, but says he felt like he had to cough up or clear up his throat a lot. He was doing that last night. It scared me and Jen because he would be lying there under the oxygen mask, drifting off (breathing labored because of pain) and all of a sudden we thought he was choking. Yikes we were on high alert!
Back to today...he is on steroids to reduce any inflammation (there's bound to be some of that; they dug around in his brain for crying out loud!), got a dose of IV antibiotics when Jen was in there, and he is on Lortab every 6 hours for the pain. They don't want him on IV or injection pain meds because they want him to be able to understand and tolerate the pain, because when he goes home he can't take Fentanyl with him.

Update Day 2 (morning): January 18, 2013

Matt had a good night. He didn't get to sleep that well because there were nurses coming in and out  checking on him. They did give him the max dose that they could for pain because he said it was a 10 out of 10 between his head and where they cut his jaw muscle. I stayed with him in the ICU through the night in case he woke up thirsty. He was able to eat 2 saltine crackers. They brought him breakfast but he didn't have the appetite for it, and the smell made him sick. They have started him on anti-seizure medication, for only precautionary measures.  An MRI is ordered for sometime today between the hours of 10am and 4pm, they like to give you a good estimate on time! He'll most likely be moved to a regular room tonight if he continues to improve. He's a pretty good patient minus him asking them to stop jacking on his catheter like they're riding a horse. He mostly tries to sleep but knows who has been here visiting and very appreciative of all the kind words, prayers, love, and support. I have been reading the texts you all have sent him. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We know some of you have been down on your knees, and/or fasting for him. Words will never be able to express our gratitude.