How much does eyesight cost you might ask?

I got the first, pre-insurance bill yesterday for $50,000!!!! That's for a 1 week stay at the hospital, a surgery, a bunch of drugs, and three brain scans. Considering that they literally saved my vision and alleviated what had become completely debilitating headaches, I guess that's a reasonable price!

Reba and Kelly

Last Saturday, my friend Laura and I went to the Reba and Kelly concert at the Sprint Center. It was such a cool experience. They both sang the entire concert and took turns singing back up on each other's songs. Kelly Clarkson sounds even better live. We had a really good time and the show was awesome. Tim stayed home and watched a zombie movie so it worked out for us both.

Laura and I at the concert

The view from our seats

P.S. We have gotten a lot of unpacking done lately and are getting a lot more settled. I promise to post updated pictures soon!

My Sweet Valentine

When I turned on the computer today, I found a very sweet Valentine's surprise. Tim had put the picture below as the background on my laptop. How sweet!

Therapy

Blasting your stereo as loud as you can might not be the most usual therapy after brain surgery, but so far it has by far been the best (right behind sleeping in my own bed). And the best part is I don't have to worry about bothering any apartment neighbors because there are yards and yards between us and the neighbors now. I got this awesome stereo years ago, and I've never gotten to turn it up this loud! I can hear it in every room in the house. I have dreamed of this since I was a teenager. Here's hoping I don't blow out the speakers.

Here's what's blasting now:
the Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Home Sweet Home

We finally closed on our house on February 1st! We are really excited to get more settled and start planning the spring garden. Above is a picture of the mantle in our living room, which perfectly describes how we feel. It feels so nice to have some room to breathe and stretch out. Twister, Agnes, Frances and Grant love the new house. Agnes will run up the steps in the entryway and run down the steps in the back near the kitchen.

We had lots of help moving - thanks to Andrew, Ben, Chris, Katie, Matthew, Stephanie, Gerry, Karissa, Chris, Jill, Lily, Jason, Mom, Dad, Allison, and Susan. We could not have done without you.

The house didn't come with any appliances but thanks to the kindness of others, we didn't have to pay a dime. We found a working stove/oven on the side of the road for free in St. Louis which Tim's family brought to us. Then Papa and Ruth gave us a refrigerator, my mom and sister gave us their washer and dryer and we got a deep freezer off of CraigsList (which currently smells like death but we have hope).

We really don't want to just fill our house up with stuff (and you need to hold us to that) and are looking forward to sharing the space with others. We have plenty of space for visitors and welcome you anytime you are able to come!

Here are Tim and Merci cleaning up the kitchen for us to move in

Tim's mom took LOTS of pictures (THANK YOU) when they came to help us move which I will post soon.

No Wonder Tim's Nose Hurt After Surgery...

he had one of those up each nostril! Dr. Hylton came by today and took Tim's splints out of his nose. Tim was a little nervous about them coming out but feels much better now. He is able to get out of bed and we even went to the cafeteria to get ice cream to celebrate. The doctor said that he can probably go home tomorrow afternoon - yeah! He has to stay home for 7-10 days but that is so much better than the hospital.

Lucky for me, Tim also gets to take a shower for the first time since Friday morning. Here he is pre-shower:

Even though you may not be able to tell from the picture, the doctor did not restrict ME from taking a shower. Just trying to be supportive (sounds good right!)

It All Started With a Headache...

If you aren't aware yet of what is going on with Tim, I promise it is not as bad as it sounds. I apologize if you are finding out this way but I am out of energy - it is nothing personal. Last Friday, February 1st, we closed on our house - finally! We had been moving the week prior a little at a time but the final push was that weekend. Tim's family showed up Friday night and we woke up Saturday morning ready to move. Tim woke up with a headache but figured he just didn't get enough sleep. It continued getting progressively worse all day Saturday and Sunday and no medicine seemed to help. Sunday night it got even worse so we called the doctor first thing on Monday morning.

They couldn't get us in until Monday afternoon and it was still getting worse. We went Monday afternoon and since he didn't have a history of headaches, they ordered us for a CT scan immediately. They said they would call that night but we never heard anything. Finally, Tuesday morning they told us that there was an abnormality in his pituitary gland in his brain and ordered Tim for a MRI Tuesday night. However around noon, Tim could no longer stand the pain so we went to the emergency room. It was a good thing that we did because the pain got so bad that Tim fainted on his way to his room. They gave him some pain medication and got him in for the MRI.

They admitted us Tuesday night so that they could continue to manage his pain. That night was pretty rough as he was in a lot of pain and I didn't know what was wrong. They pretty much just doped him up on morphine throughout the night. Finally Wednesday morning a neurologist came to tell us that Tim had a tumor in his pituitary gland. They are almost always benign when they are in the pituitary so that was a huge relief. It is about 1 or 1.5cm in size compared to the pea sized pituitary. They were able to give Tim a steroid that helped with the swelling and took away his headache. They showed us the MRI scans of his brain with the tumor and showed that it was pressing on his optic chiasm (where his optic nerves cross). They were very surprised that he hadn't had any vision problems but wanted to do surgery so it didn't cause any problems in the future.

Wednesday and Thursday really were a blur - waiting for doctor after doctor - more MRIs - more doctors. Finally on Thursday a really great neurosurgeon who specializes in the pituitary gland, Dr. Hylton, came to talk to us about the surgery. He walked us through the surgery and even gave me a shopping list of things that would make Tim more comfortable after the surgery. If you put your fingers at your temple and in between your eyes and go straight back then your pituitary is right there in the center of your head. They are able to make an incision in the underneath of your top lip and go through your sinus cavity to his pituitary - no cool scars for Tim! They scheduled the surgery for 11:00am on Friday.

Thursday night we watched Lost with Chris and Kate and ate junk all night because Tim couldn't eat after midnight. He had a huge party following him down to the surgery area - me, Chris, my mom, my sister, my nephew and his parents. The surgery took 2 1/2 hours (as they expected) and then we were able to see him in the recovery area. It was a day of waiting and waiting. The surgery went well and Tim is doing well. They put him in the ICU as a precaution to watch him extra closely. He is doing well and will hopefully get out of the ICU and into a regular room tonight. He will likely be in the hospital 3-5 days and then at home for 1 week-10 days.

Thank you for all of you that have been praying and thinking of us! We really appreciate it! I will try to post an update later.

Here is a picture of Tim yesterday in the recovery area: