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Life

How Are We?

Hey all,

It’s been awhile since we’ve provided any update. Obviously, we’re all dealing with a new normal, so we hope everyone is safe and healthy.

Amie had an MRI yesterday—yes, April 1st, and it wasn’t a joke. I drove her to the hospital at 9AM, dropped her off, and found a spot on the empty streets, parked, enjoyed 1934’s A Thin Man and some classic Jazz—Davis and Coltrane, not Kenny G.

Amie entered the hospital and was screened for COVID-19. Some of the attendants thought she was an employee (don’t know why, wink!). But she had her temperature taken, scanned, and went down to the MRI screening room.

90-minutes later, Amie left the building and I picked her up. We had a scheduled video call with her doctor, John Hensen, at 11:30AM to go over the scans. So, we drove over to Marmite restaurant where we had preordered a take-away lunch to make it convenient when we were done with the video chat.

With the video call itself, all-in-all, Amie is doing well. The scans still show the hole in her head where the tumor lived. Dr. Hensen noted that it should continue to shrink over time, but said most likely the brain may never fill back in fully. More good news is that she is able to remove 2 of the 3 medications from her daily routine. Yay!

Mocktails

There is bad news though… Amie can’t have adult beverages for a YEAR! This is due to the third medication she is on to prevent seizures. So, we’re going to research some classic and discreet mocktails for her to enjoy. We don’t know if it’s a year from yesterday’s scan, or from her pre-op date, December 22nd. Let’s hope for sooner than later.

Again, we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these quarantine days (weeks?) ahead.

All the best.

Tim, Amie, Remi, Butch, & Squeak

Categories
Life

The Difference a Month Makes!

Life is Good

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would give this blogging thing a try! A huge thank you to Tim for keeping our blog going while I was on pain meds, sleeping or both.

Tim & Remi

The plan for Christmas morning 2019 was to wake up and see what Santa had left us under the tree. Instead I woke up in the ICU at Swedish after having my ‘satsuma’ sized tumor removed. I guess God and Santa Claus had other plans, best gift I’ve ever received!

Okay, let’s review:

  • You should definitely pick up a 3 month old puppy the week before you are diagnosed with a brain tumor.
  • Be sure to make friends everywhere you go, including in almost every department of Swedish Hospital, Cherry Hill.
  • Don’t be alarmed if you wake up every morning to the sound of hammering in your head. Tiny elves have easily built a new treehouse in my head. Thankfully they are now adding finishing touches like picture frames and crown molding.
  • Tim and I continue to be extremely grateful to our family and friends who have come to visit, brought dinner and sent treats from afar. The notes of positive thoughts, love and prayers have been super encouraging during my recovery.
  • Curbs are less scary than they used to be and I’m reducing my dependency on Tylenol. Plus my energy level is coming back and as everyone reminds me, my personality is completely intact (thank goodness!).
  • Future goals: Learning to drive again, operating the hair dryer, and having my first adult beverage in 2020.

Next appointment: February 3rd with Dr. Litvack and his NP, Nicole, to review my meds and progress.

So Much Love,

Amie, Tim, Butch, Squeak & Remi

*Enjoy a few photos from around the house. Apparently I like the saying, “Life is Good” as you can see from our wall art and my tee shirt!

Categories
Life

Out Staples. Out, I say.

Hey all—

We had one of our follow-up appointments this past Monday.

The exciting side of the visit was having the staples removed from Amie’s head. I was expecting her to have a raised ridge line from the healing, but it was perfectly flat. 28 staples removed and a baby-soft fuzzy strip of hair where the incision site sits from only 2 weeks ago.

The 28 staples out of Amie’s head.
removal
Staples being removed, one by one.

We were able to catch up with Litvack and his team, Mohab and Nicole. We received updates on the medication Amie is taking and the expectation as to when she’ll stop taking some of them or transition to an oral alternative.

From what we uncovered, the medical team did discuss Amie’s particular case during the morning’s Tumor Board meeting. We figured they glanced over it last week as it was known to be benign and not as emergent as compared to other patients’ during that review.

From looking at her scans, Litvack has asked to send along two sections of the tumor for genetic testing. By doing this, they hope to find information that might help with looking not only at Amie’s particular case in more detail, but let us know if she’ll be susceptible to another case in the future. Let’s hope not.

During the Tumor Board meeting, Dr. John Hensen, Neuro-oncologist, was interested in Amie’s case. So, Litvack introduced us to Hensen and he met with us for 40 minutes to hear more about Amie’s history with her leukemia as a kid and the symptoms we had noticed over the last year that might have been directly related to the meningioma.

All-in-all, we had a very productive appointment and I earned a few beers from Elysian while we enjoyed a much needed lunch out of the house.

Much love,

Tim, Amie, Butch, Squeak, & Remi

Categories
Life

Here’s to 2020!

Amie’s tumor is BENIGN! What a great way to start off the new year!

Oh, and Happy New Years to all!

Recovery updates:

Amie’s been doing her best to rest while visiting with friends and family over the last week. We’ve been enjoying everyone’s support through the endless amounts of food, treats, and love. Lots of movies, walks with Remi daily, and naps when needed.

The battle of Tylenol verses Oxy rages on! They’re duking it out, blow by blow. Round for round, Tylenol is ahead and will be triumphant!

Much love!

Tim, Amie, Remi, Butch, & Squeak!

Categories
Life

Road to Recovery

Amie returned home late on Thursday. Prescriptions in hand and 28 staples in the top of her noggin. What a week, right?!

With her first day back, we didn’t do much: a couple Hallmark movies, ordered pizza, and our annual viewing of Die Hard… because we sort of missed Christmas, and it’s not Christmas without a little John McClane action.

For those of you who wish to support us, Amie is a huge fan of soups, stews, and chilis or any funny MEMEs. She is very limited to screen time, but does enjoy a good chuckle.

God is definitely watching over us all!

Much love!

Tim & Amie

Categories
Life

Let’s Do This

Merry Christmas, everyone!

As you most likely saw on social media today, Amie is doing well. Her procedure ended last night and she was admitted to the ICU around 9PM Christmas Eve.

I arrived at the hospital just before 9AM this morning and stayed with her for awhile. We had some good laughs, caught up on the latest happenings around our house with our fur babies, and tied up some conversations that might have been lost pre-surgery.

Amie’s doctor came in just after 12PM to catch up and give us a more thorough report of her condition—that being stable. He did show us the BEFORE (left) and AFTER (right) of Amie’s CT for her brain.

The red highlight shows the tumor mass.

We asked about the pathology report for the tumor. Dr. Litvack, M.D. said that no one was staffed the night of the surgery, but they expect to have a report sooner than later. Their tumor board meetings occur on Mondays, but he was confident that the one in Amie was benign.

Amie was transferred out of the ICU earlier this evening. Based on her progress, Dr. Litvack, M.D. did say that she could be back home as early as this coming Friday. (Fingers crossed) She does have to focus heavily on OT and PT to make sure she can accomplish the most basic of tasks at home though.

As of now, Amie has a long road to recovery. We were informed that she will continue to have multiple MRIs scheduled over 2020, and we will be working closely with Dr. Litvack for years to come.

To end, I want to take this moment to thank Amie’s father, Bill, for calling her out for some of the motions she was having difficulty with on Sunday and he told her CALL YOUR DOCTOR. So, thank you, Bill, for going there and having your paternal instinct kick in!

Thanks, everyone.

Tim