Noah has a brain tumor - surgery - part 4

Tiff got the pleasure of sleeping over that night.  Noah slept pretty good, but got awake at 5.30am on April 26th and wanted to play monopoly with his mom.  Of course she did.  When I got here Noah was again acting a little short with everyone, gotta love those steroids.  But he quickly went in and out of those moods.  Thursday morning was very emotional day, I started to cry many of times but held back for Noah.  But when it came time to transport him to the O.R. and after I woke him up to move him to the transport bed, I then cried pretty hard in-front of him.  After the long (felt very very long) walk to the O.R., Noah again started crying.  Both Tiff and I tried to calm him down, but nothing was working.  I then told him there was a guardian angel watching over him today.  Pappy Benner would be here to help him after he separates from us.  Even though Noah didn't calm down 100%, he calmed down enough to let the transporter take him into the O.R.  And the long walk back to the lounge was very emotional and calming at the same time.  I am not sure if my dad's spirit was around but the calming feeling I had sure did make it feel like it.

I still feel guilty doing it, but the doctor said the surgery will most likely last 5 hours, so the family that was in town all went to eat and back to the Ronald McDonald's house.  Since we only packed for a few days we did some laundry rested and tried to keep our mind off of Noah.  But by 3.30 we were back at that lounge waiting for the doctor to come out.  The family looked through the gift shops, and had an unexpected visitor.  House of Representative Kerry Beninghof stopped by because he lost his little girl to cancer a few years before.  His kind words and history didn't make the situation any less stressful, but it did encourage us that we were at the right hospital.  At 5pm, we decided to request an update from the O.R.  but by the time the request made it to the O.R. Dr. Iantosca came out to talk to us.  But not ten minutes before that, I was stating that none of the doctors were using the doctor-patient room to have discussions, and my mom said they usually only use it when there is an issue.  And the first thing Doctor Iantosca said was I would like to discuss this over hear in private.  I felt the floor drop out from underneath me, I saw the faces on everyone else turn white.  But then Dr. Iantosca said it is good news, come on.

He proceeded to tell us how he was able to remove all the tumor, and the preliminary pathology tests were benign.  We all were relieved, but we still had to wait for Noah to be finished up and sent to recovery and then pediatrics ICU (PICU).

I gotta say my nerves had the best of me when we were walking up to the recovery room, I didn't know what to expect.  I didn't know what the night would bring.  With my tendency of getting light headed, I was afraid it would happen, and I didn't want it to I wanted to be there for Noah.

When I first saw Noah, with a catheter in, tubs hooked all over Noah, and 3 different IVs I could of probably fainted, but I didn't.  Noah looked pretty good for coming out of surgery, Noah mostly looked normal with a big bandanna on.  But in ICU, Noah continued to swell, first over by his ear, and then it continued to his eye and cheek.  The max swelling caused his eye to be swelled shut.  And being out of surgery, on steroids and a catheter in Noah was very distraught.  We entertained him with the tablet and TV.   Although most of his troubles was that he wasn't in the same room as he was.

All of his family that were in for surgery went into the ICU to see Noah.  Everyone did a pretty good at seeing him in this state, except uncle Matt.  Uncle Matt said he got weak knee'd, although nothing more.  

He fell asleep somewhat early and I crashed in the waiting room.  That was the first and only night he slept alone.