Surgery Date

We are pretty sure the surgery will be on March 25. It is scheduled with the hospital and the Neurosurgeon. The Neurotologist's assistant is double checking but thinks that date works for him too.
Farther out than we'd hoped but at least now we can start making plans....

Jan. 26, 2009 Update

I spoke with the surgeons office today & there is still no date scheduled. Hopefully she'll have one for me tomorrow.
Wes is requesting no one be at the hospital for his surgery. I'll let you know if he wants visitors in the hospital after that day but it looks like everyone should plan to visit once he's home & recuperating. My girlfriends have offered to be there the day of surgery for my support but Wes doesn't want anyone else to come just yet. I hope you understand and respect his wishes. Thank you all again for your prayers and support. We really appreciate it and hope we can count on your support once he's home....that's when we'll need it the most.

Moving along

We met with the Neurosurgeon today. We like him better than we expected to (we'd been warned that he's a surgeon, not the best bedside manner). He was very informative & again gave us the option of the "Gamma Knife" (radiation) but surgery is the best treatment option, all things considered. They are going to have to work on getting a date scheduled with the Neurotologist since it takes both surgeons to do this procedure. We are hoping to have a date by the end of the week or early next week. It could be into March since this is such a time consuming surgery. I'll post as soon as we know the date.
We got a little more info about the surgery itself. The Neurotologist (ENT) will do the initial cut and removing of the bone behind his ear. Basically, he'll get to the tumor. This will take several hours. Once he gets to it, he'll call the Neurosurgeon (literally, on the phone call him to come to the hospital). The Neurosurgeon will then remove the tumor and finish the surgery. He said that his part could take anywhere from 4 to 10 hours, depending on the tumor itself. It's going to be a very long day!
That's what we know right now. We both feel that we've got excellent surgeons and are confident in their ability.
Thanks again for all the support.

The Kids

We decided to tell the kids last night. We fear that they were overhearing enough to make them worry so we thought it'd be best to explain what was happening to them. They think it's a long time to be in the hospital and Dawson asked if he'd be able to hear after this. They are kids though & it only took a minute before they went back to their popsicles!

Details

First, the kids do not know about the surgery yet. We'll tell them when it's close to time. They don't need to worry about it now.

What we know:
Surgery will be at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta
Surgery will last at least 7 hours
ICU for 3 days
Stay in hospital will be at least 5 days
No driving for 1 month
No work for 2 months

We meet with the Neurosurgeon on Jan. 21 and should know more then.
I'll keep this blog updated as best as I can so if you want updates, please bookmark this site and check here for the latest.

Thanks to all our dear friends and family who've shown so much support. I don't know what we'd do without all of you. Please continue to pray for Wes to have a full and speedy recovery.

The journey begins

In 2003, Wes got vertigo and had to go to the doctor. He had an MRI & an Acoustic Neuroma (benign, slow growing tumor) was discovered on his left side inner ear. He lost his hearing on that side in his early 20's so probably he's had it since then & wasn't diagnosed until 2003.

A follow up MRI in January 2009 shows that the tumor had more than doubled in size. We met with the ENT this week and were told that it must be removed. Wes will be having brain surgery, probably in February. We were surprised and saddened with this news, as it was unexpected. We expected radiation therapy but it isn't the right answer for him. Now we must focus on doing what has to be done and getting well again.

The tumor has destroyed his auditory nerve and his vestibular nerve (balance). Fortunately, the body can work out the balance part but he'll never regain hearing on the left side. Now, the 3rd nerve involved is the facial nerve. This, of course, controls his facial movement on the left side. It is elastic-like and has stretched with the tumor. For the surgery, he'll be cut behind the ear and the bone will be removed. A Neurosurgeon will attempt to remove the nerve from the tumor, keeping it in tact, so that he will still have full use of his eye muscle & smile. This nerve could be affected but may improve for up to a year after the surgery, we'll have to wait and see. They will also have to cut his abdomen and harvest fat to put into his skull where bone was removed. This is to prevent cerebrospinal fluid from leaking.

December 2008

Notice that he's wearing a fish shirt when he's not drawing them?

He even draws them!