January 31st, 2005

This is it - THE day! 

We tried to keep Cole occupied with toys and treats and movies until surgery Monday morning.  This is when his addiction to puzzles began.  We had a few before this, but suddenly that's all he wanted to do.  Each time someone left and returned for a visit, they had another puzzle.  I think by the time we got out of the hospital in Mobile, we had about 40 puzzles.

Once the big day came, we didn't know what to expect.  The hospital was wonderful to us.  They had a very large room available for Jason and I, along with all our friends and family.  We took Cole down for his surgery and waited for the team of nurses to take him back, once again.  Just a few minutes before it was time for him to be taken back, he fell asleep.  Our prayers were answered a second time.

Finally, surgery was over and the doctor came to see us.  He told us everything went well.  He was able to remove the entire tumor.  This is about the time when that terrible word was mentioned - cancer.  We would have to wait to get results of the tumor, to know if it was cancerous or not.  This is where the numbers came in to the equation.  75% of this type of tumor are cancerous.  It's the best type of brain tumor to have.  Right, you're saying - there's a good brain tumor?  If 75% are cancerous, that means 25% aren't, and that's got to be us.  The doctor liked that we were optimistic, but continued to handle the situation as if we were the 75%.  He told us the pediatric oncologist would come see us and give us some books and pamphlets and as soon as they had the word, they would let us know if it was cancer or not.

We knew that there could be complications from surgery.  We knew that he would have a lot of stitches.  We knew that he might not be able to focus and see us well that first day, since his eyes may have some nerve damage.  What we didn't know is that he would barely be able to move.  The drain was in place again and Cole had to lie in a certain position for that to work properly. This meant we couldn't pick him up and hold him for a few days. 

Since he had to lie in a certain position, he just laid in his hospital bed in the ICU, listening to his favorite movies.  He couldn't focus to see the television, but he could hear every word.  He knew five seconds before the movie was over that it was the end and would quickly request the next movie.


***It seems like I had more to say leading up to this day than on this day.
Again, thanks for reading and letting me share!!

Lisa