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The stars aligned and Joel was able to be transfered to Mercy for rehab sooner than we expected!
He's free of all ports and attachments, is not in any pain, and has a gnarly scar- over 20 sutures, and 8+ inches. He's more subdued, able to sleep a bit more, and feeling generally okay. [...]
Joel has made a lot of progress already! He's doing the most. [...]
Visitors! And a picture of the footboard that had to be removed for his long legs đ[...]
It's hard to believe that only 24 hours ago Joel was in the middle of surgery and we were waiting to hear news of the outcome. One day later and Joel's already surmounted a lot of small but important milestones -- he's out of bed and sitting in a chair; he's eating and drinking regular foods; he's chatted with several visitors; and his medical team is preparing to move him to a step-down unit later today.[...]
Joel is officially out of surgery, awake, and cracking jokes.
We met with his neurosurgeon, Dr. Bastos, a few minutes ago and he felt that everything went just as expected. They were able to remove 90%+ of the tumor (needing to leave some traces around areas that provide motor functions). They were also able to confirm that it was a glioma, although the specific grade and type will take another week or so to identify.[...]
The nurse said everything is going well! Still in surgery, as expected. Updates to come![...]
Joel's a gem.
Josh (brother), Joel, and I got here at 6a this morning. He got an MRI, which will be the map for the surgery, signed all the many consent forms and answered the many questions, and everything checked out perfectly. Not surprisingly, Joel was kind, calm, funny and ready to GO. (Is the definition of "peace" having an anxiety level of 2/10 before brain surgery?)[...]
Wow. Life comes at ya fast sometimes.
Things I'm thinking/feeling:[...]
Yesterday morning, Joel and I talked to the kids about the situation.
Previously, they knew that he had a seizure, was in the hospital so doctors could help him figure out what was going on, and then was still feeling weird at home with new meds. They've been exposed to all of those elements at different times. Everett had a one-off febrile seizure as a 4 year-old and if you know her, you know she's vocal about... Well, everything... And loves to understand medical things. And they've been through a lot with my health - med side effects, tests, appointments. I'm not one to say that the hardships we've been through are *worth it* or *necessary* in some weird way, but they've definitely learned a lot already and have mental categories for some of these issues. I'm glad it's not 0 to 60.[...]
