Flashback #1 - How it all began
Our "cancer" saga started towards the end of September 2010. We had just recently bought our first house in February followed by the birth of our son (4th kid) two weeks later in March. Things were frankly, awesome! We had a wonderful family, my in-laws whom I love dearly lived close by, I had just turned 30 in July, I was involved with my MOPS group, David had a great job...things were sailing along quite nicely.
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| David, Red One, and Red Baby that September, before... |
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| At Six Flags beginning of Sept, so the headaches had probably already started |
Then David started getting pressure headaches. He assumed it was because he had started to cut back on coffee and just needed some caffeine (if only). They got worse and worse, and by a couple weeks later, he actually left work early he was in such enormous pain, which was completely out of character. He told me he almost passed out from the pain...ok, this is the guy who played high school and college football, had multiple surgeries, on the job injuries, and hardly said a peep! He went in to see a doctor at our practice that night (thank goodness for extended hours) and that doctor knew enough to see that he needed a CT scan. He told David to get one in the morning and then come back to see his regular doc. At this point we were wondering what was going on, but I never thought it would be so serious. I was completely clueless. I'm the sort of person who says, especially to the kids, you're fine, it's not serious, get over it...I do have a hypochondriac eldest, lol...who gets it from her daddy...and go figure, they are the ones who actually do get something serious at times...and oh boy, was it serious! On a side note, one of my magazines had actually had an article on headaches and the different kinds, how serious, and how common/rare the different ones can be. This came in the mail right when David's headaches were starting. In hindsight, I think the Lord was laying some groundwork for me.
Anyways, in the morning, we go get the CT scan...wait for the copy, go back to the doctor's office, see his physician, who tells him he needs to go to the ER, there is something on the scan and he needs to be seen immediately and probably get an MRI as well (the first of many). At this point, we're bewildered, a bit scared, David is starving, and so he chooses for his last meal, a double cheeseburger from Wendy's (his favorite)...We were kinda laughing about it, but at the same time, we were wondering...but of course, how can something that vague but ominous really sink in? It certainly hadn't at that point. We decided to go to Hartford Hospital on our Doctor's recommendation, and got into an evaluation room pretty quickly. David's GP had called ahead to help us out. This is my FB update from that point.
As you can see, we knew it was serious, but were still in the dark. Did I mention that we were lugging our 6 month along with us still at this point. In the morning, as far as we knew, we were just going to a doctor's appt. I actually had to leave David in the ER at 3 to go pick up the girls from school. I'm a little fuzzy on the details at this point...I do remember my father-in-law made it to the hospital while I was gone, and he met the neurosurgeon (I didn't until the next day I think).At that point my mother-in-law and sis-in-law watched all the kids while I went back to the hospital. David was admitted to the Neuro-Trauma ICU and they were thinking he might need emergency surgery the next day.
He had problems with the first MRI they tried around midnight, so nothing happened until he could get a good MRI.
- I was still able to find the silver linings at this point, lol
I'm weirdly ok so far...dunno if it's just shock or what, but just gonna keep trusting in the Lord and lean on all of y'all wonderful people
Mary Catherine Woolley completely sudden...i certainly had no idea when i woke up yesterday what was gonna happen, that's for sure!!! but guess i'm glad it's getting taken care of! i definitely feel the love!
The second attempt at an MRI went smoothly...
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
David's surgeon was busy all that day with another patient, so it was a long day of waiting...
Mary Catherine Woolley but that it ran out of room, is starting to push the left side of the brain over to the right, and it's starting to erode the bone because of how big it is (roughly baseball size) Because it is not an immediate hazard, he is going to take the time to study the images and plan the surgery instead of a rush emergency job, so that is good. Also, more likely to be benign, but of course won't know till after the surgery and it is biopsied, etc. David is gonna be moved to a regular room tomorrow and then if all is well, he will be discharged Sat morning with steroids to keep taking to bring swelling down. We are going to meet with the dr early next week for more in depth planning and set up the surgery time. Will be keeping updates coming of course.
They kept David another night (Thursday), trying to reduce swelling and pain...
Sunday morning I posted my life verse, which has comforted me in many, many trials.
We met with the neurosurgeon, Dr Schwartz, Monday morning. He is a wonderful doctor, talented neurosurgeon, and the only doctor (other than David's GP) who we feel actually cares about David as a person. We really love him. I had missed meeting him the first day at the hospital, but my FIL had met him, and every time he talked about him, gestured about chest high. The men in the family are tall, but Dr Schwartz really is short. He makes up for it by being extremely talented though!
David went ahead and shaved his head himself...mostly to help the kids get used to it. I think that just made it more real for me...I got really scared at that point! We certainly didn't have all the info, but we let them know that Daddy would be having surgery in a couple of days to get rid of the tumor that was causing all of his headaches and that we really didn't know much more than that, but that they should pray for Daddy. And we all did really start praying!
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| These were taken at the beginning of September 2010 |
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| Red One was 8, Red Two had just turned 7, Red Three was 4, and Red Baby was 6 months. |
I'm including David's take of this time that he videoed back in Nov 2010...It goes a bit past where I ended, but I'll catch up next Flashback post.
To Be Continued...gotta go pick up the girls from basketball, lol...
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