Home At Last

After 3 days and 2 nights at the hospital my mom finally got the okay to go home. They were thinking about discharging her the day after surgery because she was doing so well but decided to observe her one more day due to the placement of her chemotherapy in her brain and the possibility of increased swelling. We were prepared to meet with speech therapy if swelling caused any difficulty with her language. Instead when we got to her room on Wednesday morning she was reading her breakfast menu and calling to order her own breakfast! This is so amazing because after her first surgery she had some difficulty reading and forming clear sentences for a couple months. We even got a text from her that night in our hotel room saying goodnight :)

                                               

Ordering "room service" in the hospital (she doesn't know I took this picture but it was too impressive NOT to!)

 Sporting our new scarves! She talked her surgeon into not shaving her entire head for surgery and once her incision heals up I bet she will be rocking a new hair do that my sister will do for her.

So impressed with the level of care my mom received at UW. All of her nurses were so sweet and allowed our whole family to be a part of her care as much as possible. Her surgeon and his team of attendees were incredible, answered all our questions and gave us such a positive perspective on fighting this disease. Plus my mom said the hospital food was the best she's had so far, top notch hospital all around!

                                         
She traded her hospital gown for her Maui clothes as soon as she got the news she was going home soon! My parents were supposed to be leaving for a vacation to Maui a week after they found out my mom's brain tumor was back. So we have postponed their trip for now and plan to take the entire family  to Maui next spring to celebrate her awesome recovery!

She is so happy to be settled in at home again and is sleeping and healing up excellently. She gets to slowly start tapering off her post surgery medications and is feeling more and more like herself everyday. My sister Taryn and I are so thankful to be living just a few short miles from my parents, where we can come by all the time to visit and help out wherever we can. My Aunt Barb stayed down in Seattle with us for the surgery, made food for us this week and has been so amazing! All of our family and friends have once again amazed us with their outpouring of support and help. Every meal, card, text message and facebook comment reminds us daily of how lucky we are to have such a wonderful support system.

We really could not have asked for a better outcome and thank God for guiding her surgeon and giving my mom strength through the surgery and recovery. She seems to have no side effects so far from the chemotherapy working in her brain and we meet with the doctor in 10 days for her postop visit and to figure out where to go from here. Please keep my mom and our family in your prayers, we love you all!