Update on My Daughter's Brain Tumor

Yesterday was a long and tiring day. I picked up my daughter and son-in-law at 9:00 AM and dropped her off at 5PM nand headed to the pharmacy. I finally got home a little after 7:00PM and the bottled up tears flowed.

We made it safely to Topeka for the MRI and a friend of Bobbie's that knows his way around St. Francis Hospital arrived shortly after we did and before the MRI. This turned out to be a blessing as the double Valium dose pretty much made her limp. The MRI people were "little" and would not have been able to handle lifting her. Tracy and Robert were able to assist with getting her into position for the MRI. She did move some during the imaging but the neurosurgeon said with her tremors he could not fault her that. The images were clear enough for their purposes and he went forward with his evaluation, findings and suggestions.

During his evalution with her he detected a weakness on her left side and he was not surprised. The tumor is on the right frontal lobe just past the forehead to mid top of the head and from the hair part to the right about half way towards the ear. (She thought her brain looked like lasagna, we think she was hungry.) The nurse had to give her coffee to wake her up, and it did, so that the doctor was certain she understood everything. The mass is about the size of a golf ball and has no tentacles. One core area at the bottom of the mass otherwise it looks smooth. This is a good thing from what the surgeon indicated. She has been put on dilaudid as he thinks she is having mini seizures plus seizures are a possible result of any type of brain surgery. She will stay on it until at the least six months after the surgery.

The soonest date available for both doctors was Feb. 24th. Dr. Eberling will be her attending surgeon and Dr. Fritz will be the assisting surgeon. Dr. Fritz operated on my husband's neck in Dec. of 2007. This seemed to make Bobbie happy and I have to admit I was glad to hear he will be with her too as a trust has already formed with him. The surgery is scheduled for February 24th at St. Francis Hospital. They are going to try for sooner but we are to assume at this point that is the date. The kids have no medical insurance and thus far the type of treatment they have received I have been ashamed of. We are told the hospital here never should have let her leave the E.R. when the Cat Scan showed a tumor. It is also quite possible she is not a paranoid schitzophrenic (spelling) but this tumor is the cause of all ot those symptoms and the migraines she has been having. That is all said and done and we must move forward. At St. Francis Hospital they were treated with kindness, respect and told that "the non-insurance situation can be dealt with at a later date, first we've got to concentrate on getting Bobbie better". I highly recommend this hospital as twice now I've had a loved one there for evaluation and received exemplary care both times.

Bobbie is barely able to write her name let alone keep a journal, however, I did purchase her a small notebook and decorated it up a bit. I added some quotes, stamped flowers and stickers throughout and we used it yesterday to write notes in and dates, meds, etc. My son-in-law and I will continue this for her throughout this ordeal so that she will have something to look through in later years and see what all she went through that she may not remember. She was going to show my granddaughter all of the things in the notebook today. I expressed to my granddaughter last night that it is mommies journal, not hers. She is a scared little girl as they have now told her what is happening with her mommy. Today Bobbie told me her little girl insisted on putting her to bed last night and then cuddled in beside and hummed her to sleep. A caring and loving 10 year old.

Please continue to pray for Bobbie.............