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: