Another day of progress :)

Travis is greeting everyone whom enters the room and is starting to grasp things well with his right hand   His right leg seems to be getting the messages from his brain very well but that right hand needs a little 're-booting'.  His speech seems to be coming more easily and should continue to improve daily.

All Good News Today!!  I think he will ask for the computer and read some comments today!  yay

To all of my fellow Unadillians have a wonderful (yet chilly) Groundhog celebration today!

Smiles

Karla

Road to Recovery……

We have a plan in place (as of right now but as we all know things can change FAST).  Travis will be up here at UNMC/Clarkson Tower 6th Floor until Monday.  He will then go to Madonna for a couple of weeks of inpatient rehabilitation.  He will be allowed visitors the whole time .  I will let you all know if/when it is okay to visit as of right now I think he is still not quite ready and tires very easily.

He did really well this morning with speech therapy and Occupational therapy but after all of that he was way to tired to do physical therapy so we plan on doing that later this afternoon. He is napping right now   I am going to head home at about 3 p.m. my boys need me and I really need them....I miss them very much and hearing little stories from Grammy and Papa just makes me want to see them all the more!!!

I will be back up here tomorrow morning around 9 a.m. and post yet another WONDERFUL accomplishment I am sure!

Take care and Thank You again for all of the Love and Support

Karla

Best Greeting Ever…..

Travis greeted me this morning with a "Good Morning" this was one of the Best Greetings EVER (except for the ones daily from my teeny tinys) He is using three to four word sentences (requests) and was able to tell me what he wanted for breakfast!   I can tell he has improved dramatically from yesterday already and it is only 8:15 a.m.

He is sitting up in his bed and already has the clicker in hand!!  I feel very optimistic today   yay!  Go Trav Go!!!

Be safe on the roads and I will keep you posted when the therapy individuals come through

Once Again Thank You for all the Prayers and Good Vibes and Wonderful Mo-Jo   I am so happy I have TEARS!!!

Be Well,

Karla

Slow and steady wins the race…..

Dr. A just came by for a visit.  She said he is doing GREAT and that his EEG last night showed that he had some "trauma" (hello HUGE ASS TUMOR REMOVAL) and that is good news and she is confident his speech and motor skills will slowly but surely come back

Travis is very sleepy and gets very frustrated easily But I have been able to make him smile a few times ...even a tiny giggle when  I allow myself to be a smart-ass

Dr. A says he can go home when he is walking better, eating better and poops   (bring on the bowel movements)  This most likely will not be tomorrow but possibly Saturday.  She thinks he might be able to recover with out-patient rehabilitation but has offered to have a consult to see if he is a candidate for acute inpatient rehabilitation...so we are supposed to decide that before we head home...we will just see how he is doing by then.

Once again Thank You for all the support, prayers and kind words

Smiles,

Karla

Words, Words, Words…..What a difference a day can make!

Travis is using words today   So nice to hear him again.  He is saying one or two word answers for now and the speech therapist said she will try to get verbs and sentences out of him tomorrow.

I just got here today...I stayed home with the boys last night and took me a while to get errands ran and up here.  He has had occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech already today so he has told me he is tired.  He just let me order him some food so that is awesome as well

He looks so much better already!  What a difference a DAY can make

Once again THANK YOU for all your kind words!!!

Smiles,

Karla

Time to recover….

Dr. A just came in and was a little 'taken back' by his inability to find his words.  She said he had been doing well in surgery but did have a few seizures and may have had another one that resulted in his speech loss he currently has.  Dr. A believes he will be able to regain his speech through therapy but it may not come back to its 'normal' state.  Travis has lost some strength in his right arm and can't write at this time but that will be able to be rehabilitated with time.

Please keep Travis in your thoughts and prayers.  I am going to go home and get my babies tonight and head back in the morning...i miss them so much!!  But I also feel guilty for leaving Travis...but I know he will understand.

Be well,

Karla

Two steps forward…one step back..

I just got back from visiting Travis.  He was not as 'tip-top' as I had been lead to believe.  He was in a great deal of pain and unable to verbally  communicate to me (but through blinking and moaning I could get the picture he wanted and needed pain medication).  He had previously been able to answer questions and had asked to see me but when I got there he was not doing so hot.  I think it may have been the anxiety, pain and raw emotion all coming together and it was just way too much too soon.  They administered quite a bit of pain medication and some to bring his blood pressure down as well.  When I left a few minutes ago he was finally resting quietly.

Thank you all for the tremendous amount of support   However while in the ICU we ask that you do not visit or call his room as the nurses have told us this can be too much for him to handle at this time.  I will let you all know as soon as he is moved from ICU to a regular surgery recovery floor and at that time will be allowed to have calls and visitors.

PLEASE continue to give him words of encouragement and support through this site   I am hoping for a better day tomorrow and that I can once again share this site with him.

Thanks again...be well,

Karla

p.s. sorry if any of these posts are hard to follow or don't make sense...I need sleep

What the surgeon said…..

So we have talked to Dr. A but I have not been able to see Trav yet.  He is in recovery and will go for a baseline MRI soon. She said he is responding well and moving his right side well as of right now.

Dr. A  thinks she got MOST of the tumor.  This doesn't mean he is "cancer free" there will always be cancer cells and now we have to KILL them with radiation (to put it bluntly).  Unfortunately there a high chance of recurrence with brain tumors but Travis will have MRI scans every three months to check for new growth or changes.

The tumor is currently in the hands of pathology and we should hear back in in 2 to 5 working days.  The pathologist will tell us if the whole tumor is stage 3 or if there is any stage 4 lingering in there.  This will determine if he gets radiation only or chemo therapy as-well (the chemo would be a pill for not the intravenous type you are used to)

I should get to go see him soon...another 45 minutes or so   Man it has been a LONG day!  Thank you all for all of your support and kind words!  It has been so wonderful to see throughout this ordeal.

Thanks again from the bottom of my heart!

Karla

Just got to talk to Travis….

They nurse just put me on speaker phone in the OR and I got to talk to Travis!  It was really hard to hear each other but through the emotions I heard him say he is 'happy' and he is 'okay'.  Dr. A had just showed him the tumor and told him she had gotten MOST of it and it  had not infiltrated his primary motor function   That is a REALLY GOOD THING!!!  The tumor will now be sent to pathology to see exactly what the next step will be.  It was so great to hear him and even better to hear they got most of that damn tumor!!!

The nurse also said he has been in great spirits through-out surgery ...of course braggin' on his boys and i am SURE sharing several tid-bits about is GORGEOUS wife (lol)

He should be out in a few hours....to be continued!!!

Surgery Day…..

Well we made it to check in on time this morning (see silly story below:)) 6:00 a.m.  (too early)  Travis actually slept some last night (I can always tell because he is snoring, lol) I didn't do so well sleeping but oh well.

He was taken back at 7:30 a.m. and I got the first update call at 9:30 a.m. that Dr. A has began her incision.  They said they will call me every couple hours

Funny story-  So we decided to go for a little walk last night around the buildings here at the Med Center.  We wanted to go to the Gift Shop to look around (okay so I wanted to go to the gift shop to look around) any-hoots we only needed to go down ONE floor so Travis said "let's take the stairs I feel lazy when it is only ONE floor" so I said 'okay' so down the stairs we go.....we get to the door we need and it is LOCKED!!!  Both of us were like "OH SH*T!"  We tromped back up the flight to the door we had entered and LOCKED!!!  I swear Travis was beginning to have a heart attack at this point.  I then began to have several thoughts go through my mind like #1. I have my cell phone so we will be fine #2 crap what if I have no reception in these stairwells #3 we will have to start banging on the doors yelling "HELP" (while doing chest compressions on Travis because he seriously was FREAKING out on the inside.   We went down to the bottom level and low-and-behold FREEDOM!!!    Thank GAWD!  What a night we would have had stuck in a stairwell

Thanks again to you all for the support!  I shall keep you all posted as this is a great outlet for me!

Karla.