Week of Mom's Surgery

Welcome to the Smith Family Blog. We wanted to create a place for all of our wonderfully supportive family & friends to go for the most recent updates on my Mom.

Just to recap the last couple week's events...on November 6th around noon my mom was doing some housework at home and started feeling strange. She remembers not being able to read a recipe, feeling very confused and having difficulty talking (saying things to my dad like "zoogle"). Luckily my Dad was home and immediately took her to the hospital. My mom had a seizure in the car just before arriving to the hospital and was unconcious when my dad pulled up to the ER. In the ER her vitals were stable and she slowly started to come to but her memory and speech were jarbled (very common post-seizure). Her CT scan came back clear but her MRI scan found a very tiny tumor in the left frontal lobe of her brain. They are calling the tumor a Meningioma, a very small, slow growing and usually benign tumor. Most likely my Mom has had the tumor for years and for some reason all of a sudden it caused irritation in her brain which caused the seizure. The location of the tumor (your language center lies in the left side of the brain) explains her confusion and difficulty speaking.

So yes my family was very scared to learn that my Mom has a brain tumor, but this is the way we've been trying to look at the situation. We really are very lucky that my Mom had the seizure because it alerted us there was a problem. So many people that experience seizures never learn what causes them and they are forced to be on medication for the rest of their lives in hopes of controlling them. Within hours of my Mom's first seizure, we knew exactly what caused it and had a very clear treatment plan for her. All of her doctors strongly recommended surgery to remove the tumor and my Mom quickly agreed.

Since being discharged from the ER, my Mom has been on a very high dose of antiseizure medication which makes her feel a little dizzy and weak, but has prevented her from having any more seizures. We met with her neurosurgeon on November 11th and he strongly recommended a craniotomy as soon as possible to remove the tumor. After viewing the MRI he believes the tumor is in fact a Meningioma and is most likely not malignant, but we will only know for sure after it is removed and biopsied. My mom is the perfect candidate for this surgery...her & my dad have been working out and eating very healthy the last couple months and are both in the best of health. The neurosurgeon even told my Mom she looked "very buff these days" at her first consultation in the office. Dr. Goldman knows my family well by this point (he performed back surgery on both my Grandma and Dad and I scrubbed in to observe a couple of his surgeries in nursing school) and will be performing my mom's surgery at St. Joseph's on Wednesday November 25th at 7:30 am. The surgery is expected to last between 4-6 hours due to the very advanced technology they will be using to locate the tiny tumor. She will spend one night in Intensive Care and then will be transferred to the main floor of the hospital for 1-3 days. If everything goes as planned, we are hoping to have her back at home by Sunday evening at the latest.

After having a very busy weekend of celebrating an early Thanksgiving with the family & an early Christmas with Skye's little girl Kayleigh, my mom has strict instructions to lay low & rest up before Wednesday. She is very ready to get the surgery over with so she can start her recovery and move on with her busy life...she's really been missing her kids at the schools and being able to work out at the gym with my Dad.



My family really wants everyone to know that my Mom is going to be in the very best hands for this surgery. We feel very confident in Dr. Goldman's abilities as a surgeon and my good friend Sarita Falcon will be working as a charge nurse in the operating room that morning. My Mom will have her own personal nurse by her side 24/7 advocating for her and making sure she gets the very best medical care possible. If there was ever a question in my mind whether I picked the right career path?? I love that my nursing knowledge can help my Mom and our family during this stressful time.

Unfortunately due to the H1N1 epidemic, St. Joseph's has a very strict no visitors policy and the last thing we want is for our family members to come to the hospital and pick up a nasty bug. I will have my cell phone on me at all times (texting will probably work better than phone calls) and will try to update the blog as much as possible.

A special thank you to Grandma & Chuck, Auntie Rene & Uncle Larry, Geneva, Barb, Nancy, Mary & Jim, Auntie Anne & Uncle George & Cousin Lindsay for visiting and bringing yummy deserts and flowers. Thank you so much to Auntie Barb and Grandma and the whole family for pulling off an amazing Thanksgiving meal this Sunday. My Mom said she felt stronger after being around all the people that love her. Please keep my Mom in your thoughts and prayers this week, we love you all very much!