Sigh of Relief...

Praise God! Ryan is out of surgery as of about 1:00pm. His surgeon came to the waiting room, and said that everything went well! Surprise, though, they ended up taking out the tumor on his brain stem instead of the one on the cerebellum. It makes me so happy to know that that one is out of there! Dr. Lonser went in and drained the cyst from the cerebullar tumor, but decided to head straight for the other one, because he was pretty positive that it was the one causing the problems for Ryan. It was a difficult surgery, but he said that he is glad with the decision to take that one out. We won't know until Ryan is recovered if the other one is causing any symptoms still, so we could have some time before the next surgery.
Wow! This is still kind of hard to digest...I don't think any of us anticipated dealing with the brain stem today, so now we have to get through the next couple of hours wondering if Ryan will be OK when he wakes up. We should know pretty quickly if he is all right. Continued prayer is appreciated! He is in recovery right now and on his way up to the ICU after that so we should be able so see him around 3pm.
I'll post something later this afternoon...

No news yet...

Surgery could be up to 12 hours if they go for the second tumor...They said to plan for the longest scenario, so it could be a crazy day, or he could be out of there pretty quickly. No updates yet, but they took him back about 8am, so who knows when they actually started the surgery. It might be awhile.
Guess I'll add more later...

Heading to Bed...

Counting down to surgery...It's almost 11pm and we are heading to bed, but I figured I'd better put something on here tonight, not knowing when I'd have a chance in the morning...
They will be coming to get Ryan from his room around 7am--my mom and Gabe will head over here so that we can all walk down to the pre-op area together. I'm hoping for a good night's sleep on this pull-out bed-thing I'm on while Ryan gets the cushy hospital bed that conforms to his body as he sleeps...NIH is pretty cool :)
Ryan's parents will be driving up early in the morning--Tori didn't feel great today and didn't want to chance giving anything else to Ryan, so they decided to wait it out a bit.
We had a great dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy for our routine Last-Dinner-Before-Surgery night. Ryan is really using these surgeries as an excuse to get some good meals...Typical!
Well, I guess I'll get to bed. We're pretty wiped out and have a long day tomorrow. If we get an update during the surgery, I'll try to run up to Ryan's room and post something here. Otherwise, I'll just let everyone know when we're in the ICU and he's awake. Surgery will be 4+ hours. Keep up the praying...for the surgeons, for Ryan, for us in the waiting room...and especially for the small chance that they can get both tumors out at once and we can avoid a second surgery.
We love you all...until tomorrow!

Happy 75th Birthday, Grandma Barb!

What a strange sort of limbo we are in! Part of me is just enjoying a couple of weeks without thinking of surgeries and catheters and the ICU and recovery and staples, while the other part is dreading it all and wishing it was over and we were a couple of weeks past the whole thing.
The human side of me would love to know what God's purpose in this is right now--why pneumonia the day before surgery? why so many surgeries in a row? why does Gabe have VHL? why are these two tumors that we're dealing with now in such bad places to operate on? So many questions...So many things we'll never know the answers to this side of heaven. Although I'd love to keep asking why and I know many of you ask why for us, I am confident that God does have a plan in it all. His timing is perfect and all of this is for His glory.

Whew! On a lighter note...We are having a great Labor Day weekend. George, Tori, Ryan, Gabe and I headed up to Front Royal, VA to celebrate Ryan's grandma's 75th birthday. Noah and his girlfriend Rachel met us there and we fixed a birthday brunch for Great Grandma Barb Saturday morning. Gabe got to see the animals on the farm (he likes them all better from far away...) and he loved driving the golf cart with Daddy.
We girls split up from the guys on the way home and we shopped while they checked out motorcycles on the drive down. Great fun was had by all. (and I've found a kindred spirit in Rachel...we both really love shoes :)
Rachel and I did an hour-and-half long yoga workout last night after we got home--and she bought a new pair of running shoes yesterday, so she might join me for a run in the morning. Lindsey, my friend-turned-running-partner, did a half-marathon in Virginia Beach this morning, so I won't have her to push me in the morning...which reminds me--anyone who needs something to do this Saturday morning, you can come cheer me on at my first 5-mile race! I'm really looking forward to it, and am glad to have something happy to think about and work towards in the midst of everything else.
Well, that is all for tonight. Noah has set up a huge blow-up movie screen in the front yard and we are going to watch Transformers outside tonight. Anyone driving by is welcome to join in...

Goodbye Pneumonia!

Sorry we've gone for awhile without any updates...My mom flew back to CO on Tuesday and we've been pretty busy since then. Ryan's had lots of appointments at work and is trying to get better at the same time. He flew up to Maryland last night for his check up and had the xray this morning.

The news is that Ryan's chest is clear of pneumonia. He still has a bit of a cold, so the doctor wants to give him a couple of weeks to get completely better, then they'll do surgery on September 8. He'll be hanging out with his brother Noah in Northern VA until Sunday, so pray for safe travel for him driving back down alone. He's doing well, finally feeling a lot better, and Gabe and I are just having fun at the lake this weekend. I'll post some more pictures soon...

The Skinny

Hello to all of our blog followers! We are back home as of a couple of hours ago, and I am very ready to make it an early night. Hard to say if I somehow have pneumonia, too, but I do feel like I am getting something. Maybe I am just super-tired from all of this!
Anyway--they sent us home with a week's worth of antibiotics, they'll see Ryan back for another chest CT next Friday, and maybe we'll get a concrete day for surgery sometime before then, but we just don't know. At this point, there is a small chance for surgery the week after next, but our nurse just wasn't sure. We'll float along in limbo for a bit...

How Does One Acquire Pneuomonia?

Go figure! Ryan has pneumonia. Crazy. We just talked to a really funny Spanish doctor from the 'Infectous Disease' department who gave us a crash course in the different types of it, symptoms, where it can come from (birds, for one), and what we'll do for it. We'll get the final word from his surgeon, but it looks like they'll give him 7 days of antibiotics, reevaluate him again next week, and go from there. We're trying to figure out right now whether to stay here again tonight, head to Noah's for any amount of time, or just head on down to Rocky Mount. My mom is here until Tuesday and hasn't been to our house for awhile, so we might just head down there and relax for a bit until next week. Guess we'll let you know when we know!