Oh Crap...

Brad here - it is officially the longest I've ever gone without sleep - yes, I am Grumpy.
Last night was winding down when Sara informed me that she was running a fever of 102 - that led us to call her Dr's office in Vegas - which led to a trip to the emergency room in St. George - then a 2 am drive to Vegas - which is where we currently are - back in Sunrise Hospital...
Brain surgery and recovery is unveiling itself as a bigger pain than expected (for Sara, the most).
Sara has felt awful since Monday night - major head-banging - The Dr's are running tests here - including another CT scan, spinal puncture (sounds pleasant, huh), and MRI scan #3 this month.
She may have spinal meningitis, brain fluid leaking out of her eye, and other possibilities. All I know is Sara is in terrible pain - non-stop. Her face is really puffy and swollen.
I hope we can get her fixed up this time.
Thanks to Andrus,' and everyone for helping with the kids. Joel makes a great 3 am treat shopper for our road trip. Thanks a bunch. We owe a lot of people favors - we hope to make up for it soon.

Welcome Home Mom and Dad!

Jill here....just wanted to post a few fun pictures I had on my camera of the kids making preparations for their parents to come home.

Brad here again -

Get me the heck out of this hospital !!!

On a good note: I have a recliner chair now, but it cost me a whole pack of oreo's (nurse bribe.)

I am so tired of sitting on my butt watching Sara check herself out in the mirror.

Ok - no more of my complaining.

(42 stitches and 3 staples, 10 finger pricks, 1 head drain tube, 1 chest IV, 1 wrist IV, 1 hand IV, 1 breathing tube, 1 whiny hubby who eats my food, 1 catheter, 8 insulin shots, 1 sexy skullet (hair style named by Rog) plus whatever torturous stuff goes on in surgery!)

It has been a rough day. I was hoping to be released so we could go home, but Sara hasn't felt well. Her head is swelling and she is really dizzy. All the drugs are making her shaky. She complains of gurgling around in her head when she bends down - so I smartly tell her "Don't bend down." We are getting a better realization of how serious this surgery / recovery is.

We miss home and the kids - apparently we are coming home tomorrow. Normal release time is between lunch and dinner.

The sterroids are making Sara in to "Angry woman." (My kids may remember the last time she took them a year ago.) They reduce swelling in her head, but also mess with her sugar levels. She gets shot with that little annoying finger pricker before every meal and bedtime to test sugar, then usually gets an insulin shot to try to keep her in balance. They reduced the amount of sterroids this afternoon, but they also put her on "special diet" - which means no more "yummy." (Diabetic diet)

We also tackled her hair today. It hadn't been dealt with since before her surgery Tuesday morning. She had a bad case of bed-head with a dose of surgery-goo. I washed her up the best I could and spent over an hour trying to pick through it. (yes, I am a very loving and compassionate husband.) I only had to cut out one little piece of hair that was beyond repair. I've seen Aunt Brenda do it so I am qualified. I couldn't find scissors, but Sara's nail clippers did the trick.

I get a kick out of this chart on the wall.

I would have circled a much happier goal than #5. I've seen people today that got happy #1 drugs.

Bring Back My Mommy to ME! DAD TOO!

Jill the hacker here. Back at the BS-Baker homefront we've been super busy and having lots of fun. Hopefully we can get things back to ship shape before Brad and Sara Make it back tomorrow. I don't know that their house has ever had so much fun... ha ha!

The kids wrote a song for their parents that I deemed worthy of the blog. Hope you enjoy! Here is the text...

"My mommy went down to Las Vegas,

To Have Brain Surgery!

My Daddy took her down there.

Aunt Jill came to take care of me. (Kyle adds "AND ME!")

Bring Back, Bring Back,

Oh, Bring back my Mommy to me, DAD TOO!

Bring Back, Bring Back,

Bring back my Mommy to me, DAD TOO!"

Needless to say the kids are VERY excited to see their parents tomorrow! They have done very well and have been 'superkids' during the whole week! Needless to say, "I LOVE THESE KIDS!"

Thursday morning

Good Morning - Brad here again - 8:30 am utah time.
Still here in hospital paradise. I stayed in Sara's room last night. We were hoping the nurses could find me a recliner but they said they were all gone. I had a very nice "semi-cushioned" chair and a stool. I figured out that I could lean my chair back on 2 legs against the wall and use the stool as a foot rest - I got in a few hours of sleep between nurse visits. They came every 2 hours to give Sara her drugs - Pain, seizure, sterroids, and insulin shots. We did have a really nice nurse, but I think the crazies are coming back this morning.
Sara is doing well. The Dr. came by for a few minutes at 6 am. He ripped off the yellow tape covering the stitches so the wound can dry - It looked like it would have hurt, but Sara is still numb on top of her head.
He said if Sara feels good enough we can go home today. Sara is still dizzy, but walks to the bathroom every 2 minutes (it seems) unassisted. Right now I am planning on getting out of here tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes.
Thanks to you all...

Sara's new "doo"

Well - Brad here again - Blog attempt #2.
Lots of progress for Sara today. I couldn't sleep last night - as usual lately + the polar bear in the next room named Rog - no wonder Jane always has that angry-dazed look. - so I got out of bed and headed for the hospital around 6 am. Sara was awake, too. The sleep medicine didn't work well last night.
I was informed that she had a cat-scan at 4 am that revealed - air in her head - big surprise, I know. The tumor left a space that needed to close in so they wanted to keep her in the intensive care unit for 1 more day for observation. She still had her drain hose out the top of her head, and all the other yucky stuff that makes most men feel faint.
We cancelled our kids' journey with Aunt Brenda to see us when we heard the news, because they can't come in the intensive care area.
About 9 am the Dr. came by and seemed to change everything that was told to us. He said he was not worried at the air in her head (???) because the space was small. Then he decided to "yank" the tube out of her head because it no longer "held suction." Fortunately a great nurse was there to step in to slow him down long enough to get some fresh pain killer in Sara's head.
Then --- Yank... Staple gun.....Then Brad sits down for a while....
He informed us that we could possibly come home tomorrow - if all goes good. That was a surprise, but we'll see how it goes.
About 11 am they came in and said "We're moving.." and off we went to a private room out of intensive care... Yay! (but the nurses are a little on the crazy side here.)
Rog and Jane came by for a visit.
I can tell that Sara is getting better because she is saving less of her hospital food for her loving husband. I had to go to the cafeteria for grub.



Cam and Michelle Kelsch from our ward stopped by - Thanks for the gift bag - especially the warm Mrs. Fields cookies that Sara never knew about. Bishop Nelson also stopped by - Thanks for the support.

Thanks for the fruit boquet Cindy and Lois Jones and flowers Lauri and Phoebe and girls.

By the way, before the drain was "yanked" they unbandaged Sara's head - and Wa-laaah!!

Here are some sweet pictures. Thankfuly, she no longer resembles the Klingon's on Star Trek New Generation, without the hose across her forehead under the skin.

We just had dinner - it looked great, but it's off to the cafeteria for me again.

Sara is out of surgery

This is Aunt Jill, hacking into the BSNEWS to give you an update. Sara went in for surgery this morning and everything went well. Brad sent a text and I've talked with him a few times. She is doing well, still in a lot of pain and drugged, but doing well. They are keeping her in ICU until tomorrow afternoon. If all continues to go smoothly she'll be in a regular room tomorrow. ANyway, here are some pictures Brad sent me. The first is Sara before the MRI just before surgery and the second is just after the surgery. They did have to shave the front part of her hair and it is bandaged.... as you can see in the picture. Anyway, now you have the official update :) (I might be introuble for posting the pictures and they might disappear as soon as sara finds out I posted them)