Tonight's update is this…Colby is out of his first surgery. They put a medium pressure shunt in his head to drain the fluid out of his brain which will reduce the pressure and swelling of the ventricles. They had to clipper two spots on his head for incisions and he was worried about his hair, but told the nurses his wife could fix it for him oh dear!! The shunt is in the top right side of his head, and has a catheter that runs down behind his ear, down his neck and chest and will drain into his belly and absorb into his body. These pictures show the catheter running through his body.
Unless there comes a time when the shunt causes problems, it will stay in his head forever. He feels really good right now. Is eating soft foods, getting up a little, and feels a little pain mostly at incision points in his head. Which is to be expected!! He's in the ICU for the night for observation, where they'll do neuro testing every two hours through the night to watch for brain swelling, or bleeding. The tests include following the nurses finger with just his eyes, not head; holding arms out straight evenly without bouncing; also straight up; holding nurses fingers while pushing away, also pulling in; squeezing fingers; smiling evenly; and even sensation on his face. So far he's passed all tests!! More than likely he'll get moved to another floor tomorrow and stay another night. We won't know answers about the fluid until next week sometime. And until we know that we can't plan for future treatment. They also want the shunt to be in for a couple of weeks before moving on to the next phase. It needs to keep draining and relieving pressure and they want to make sure it's doing its job!! Dr. T says the tumor was positioned a little strange so he won't let us go home because it's too far away from him, so we don't know how long we'll be up here. We are incredibly grateful for everyone's thoughts and prayers!!! We really can feel them and feel your love! This is hard! And I know I couldn't do this without all of the love and support I feel from everyone. So thank you, thank you!
I am so grateful for both my parents and Colby's parents for being up here to support us. We left in the night, dropped the kids off and made our way here. It was a huge leap of faith, and they followed right behind us. My parents had to stop at Makayla's and pick up Mason, he wasn't doing so great there. He wouldn't eat anything or drink a bottle for her, nor would he sleep. They brought him up here and are keeping him with them. I'll go eat with them, go to the hotel and sleep with them, and they'll take care of him during the day. And Colby's parents, and Brett and Julie are here at the hospital supporting both of us. We couldn't do this without them!! We went across the street tonight to Mimi's for dinner. My parents, Mason and I. I was doing fine until I got a phone call from Colby's boss Dave. He was a mess. And it's ok. But I do pretty good until someone else starts crying. Dave loves Colby! He thinks of him as a brother and would do anything for him and our family. He just wanted to hear my voice, and know that he'll be ok. He offered so much to us, and wants me to know he'll take care of us. I am so grateful for the amazing people Colby works for!! He will never find better people to be employed by! When I got off the phone I just cried to my parents, telling them all that Dave had said. I told them I don't want people to help us. Deep down, I do, I know I'll need lots of help, but it's so hard for me to accept it. I'm a very independant prideful person. Maybe that's why the Lord sent this trial to us. For me to lose my pride, and to let people help me, serve me. My dad gave me quite the little talk after that phone call. I need to let people help. They want to, they want to serve us. And by me telling them no, I'm robbing them of blessings from their service. Thanks dad! Thanks for making me see that this is required.
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