Surprise Surgery

Wow, I don't think those two words are ever supposed to go together. I will start by reminding everyone that Joey had brain surgery in October 2005 and has a scar running down the back of his head from that.

On occasion, Joey will get spots on the back of his head that feel "mushy." They're rare and go away without creating big problems. This past Thursday night Joey came into the living room where I was sitting down to watch Grey's Anatomy and told me he felt something weird on the back of his head. I parted his hair off his scar and immediately saw two bumps on the scar. They were mushy and caused him a lot of pain when I touched them. Looking back, they were also red, though I didn't notice that at the time. We looked and thought about it, but couldn't come up with a reason for these weird bumps. The only option we could see was to go to the emergency room in the morning. They were still there when we woke up Friday, so I took Grace to daycare, packed Logan some toys and snacks (he was off from school that day), and headed to the ER. Joey had barely seen a doctor when I had to leave in order to pick Grace up from daycare. We checked in a few times through the evening - they decided to do an MRI to see what they saw. It appeared there was fluid of some sort (duh) so they admitted him. The next morning (Sat.) the neuro doctor saw him and told him they thought it was infected, so instead of sticking a needle in them and possible doing him more harm, they were going to do surgery. The point of the surgery was to go in, clean up whatever they found, and close it up well.

So at this point I begin scrambling to find someone to watch the kids so I can go be with Joey. My dear, dear friends Rachel and Jessica pulled through for me. Rachel came around noon and stayed with them until Jessica got there around 6:30. I have never been more appreciative of two people. They gave up their Saturday off to help me out. And did it to watch my crazy kids. But actually they said the kids were really good.

Anyway, as soon as Rachel got there I left for the hospital and as I was pulling in the parking garage Joey called to say they were taking him down for surgery. "You have got to be kidding me" was all I could say. I parked and got to his room as quickly as I could and was directed by the nurse where to go to possibly see him before they took him back. Luckily, I made it in time and was able to talk to his surgeon and give him a kiss before he went back. I waited about an hour before the doctor came out and told me it went well - the bumps were infected so they took a sample and sent it to the lab for a culture, gave him antibiotics, and had to cut away some dead tissue so they could sew up healthy tissue so he'd heal well. Now we wait until at least Monday afternoon to see what kind of infection it is and how to treat it. Right now he's on wide spectrum antibiotics and isn't looking at leaving until mid to late this week.

So that's there we stand. I'll keep you updated with what we find out if you promise to pray for Joey to heal. Until then...