Next Level Extreme Fitness

How I am learning to "Do Better. Be Better." after the cavernoma malformation in the pons of my brainstem bled.

Monday, April 18, 2016

March 8

Facebook post from Patrick

"Live in the Light of My Presence, and your light will shine brightly into the lives of others".
It seems as though every morning I pick up this devotional it has something in it to grasp on to and hold. If you have read Jamie's blog you have heard her talk many times about shining your light, shine it bright. Well yesterday she was shining her light as usual, it was just a little dimmer than Monday.
It is very easy to come on to Facebook and flash up pictures of your wife, three days after a major brain surgery, walking the halls and smiling after a shower. In the very same breath, it is challenging to come on here and be honest about yesterday.
We had a challenging day. Jamie's nausea is causing her to not get very much nourishment. Anything she takes in - comes right back up. It is almost like having a horrible case of the stomach flu on top of a brain surgery. The Doctors reassure me that it will subside with time. The route that they took to get to the cm went right by the main nausea control center of the brain. So nausea is expected, but we trust it will subside.
She was able to take three walks yesterday, every walk zapped her energy. But I point out that she got up and battled...I know she didn't want to do them, but she forced herself out of bed and did them.
An update on deficits - Jamie's double vision remains no more nor no worse than when we went into surgery. Her left side remained the same with forearm to finger tip stiffness and lower shin to toe stiffness. Her right toes have followed suit, but we hope like her right fingertips this will subside as well. Her balance remains "off", but we both feel it may be due to her still being "higher than a kite" (her words not mine) They do have her on so many narcotics to dull the pain.
The good news, check that, the great news is the the tingling and numbness in her face and lips is gone. The majority of her pain is coming from the incision wound in her neck. They went in to great detail with me regarding the manipulation of her neck muscles during surgery, I had to ask them to stop about half way through their description as I had enough. Honestly, I probably know 10% of what happened to Jamie during her surgery on Friday and that may be 9% more than I want to know.
Sooooo, yesterday we expected. It doesn't make it any easier to live through. We didn't expect to be riding out of here on unicorns with rays of sunshine and rainbows coming from our butts. We know that peaks and valleys are going to happen and yesterday just happened to be a valley. Today we will wake up and fight again and get better. One step at a time.
Specific Prayers for strength - healing - and rest. Jamie has a very difficult time listening to her body, if you could pray for her ears to listen a little more intently, I would personally appreciate it.
PS, I wrote the majority of this post last night in my 6 foot 6 inch cot. I am very glad to report that Jamie ate a piece of french toast and her smoothie this morning and kept it down. We took our lap in the hall at the speed of light, got her shower in, and she is now snoring as loud as her father-in-law does. Please take this post with a grain of salt. Pray for us and know we will be fighting every minute to get back home!!


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