A small update

Today, Monty flew in from Oklahoma. We are all so glad that he is here! Mom is continuing to make small steps towards recovery. Today she was able to get up with some assistance and walk to the bathroom with a walker. She then walked back to the bed with the walker. This might seem small but in reality is a huge step.
She also will be moved out of ICU tomorrow and down to a post surgery room. This is also a good step towards her recovery. We are all pleased with her progress thus far and pray that she will only continue to make these small improvements.
The family is still planning on meeting with Mom's primary surgeon on Monday. We all hope this meeting will reveal what her recovery process will en-tail so we can start making plans. Tonight we all sat at Mark and Martha's and talked of the things to come over the next 6 months. This was a good conversation among the 10 of us. Much input was given and received by all. I am so blessed to be a part of the Hooper family where we can all share our hearts and be received so well without fear of judgement! God has truly blessed us. My prayer is that through all of what Mom is going through and is about to go through, that God may been be seen in her every moment and others will ask what is different about Mom. I pray that that would be a way to share the word of Christ with others who can relate to her story.
I hope to blog again on Monday after talking with the doctors. So please look here again Monday night!
Tara

A little background info.....

It was brought to my attention that not everyone knows how things came about with mom's tumor. So I thought I would give everyone the "background" on how it came to be known.
As all the brothers, sisters and their spouses have been talking this week, we have all begun to put the pieces of the puzzle together. As far as we can tell, her symptoms started around mid-January. Dad and Mom took a trip down South to spend time with Matthew, Sheela, Annie, Breeana, Mark, and Mikala. On the way there Mom had mentioned to Dad that she was having some headaches off and on. They thought nothing of it then. While at Matthew and Sheela's she was still complaining of headaches and Sheela was also noticing that Mom's behavior was not right. She told Matthew this but again, it was somewhat "put on the back-burner". They came back and Mom seemed to be a little better. Dad soon after left for his recent trip to Bangladesh on Feb.11th and as she always does, came over to Jackson to be with her precious grandkids. She stayed that Sunday with Martha and Mark and it was then we all started noticing little things that weren't quite "right". Little things she would do (or not do), or say were out of character for mom. She left Wednesday to go back home and still at this point none of us said anything to anyone about what we were all starting to notice. She came back again he following weekend to stay with us all. She spent one night each with Martha, Mary and then here with Michael and I. She stayed here Monday night while she, Mark & Martha, the girls and Michael and I all watched our favorite obsession, 24! While watching the show, she was holding Tyler, (our 9-week-old) and again she just wasn't right. It was almost as if she didn't know she had him at times. Tuesday morning started the chain of events which lead Michael, Martha and I to believe she needed to go to the hospital and be checked out. She had been complaining of pain behind her eye anyway so she went with Martha at mid-night Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It was then Martha INSISTED the doctor order a CAT-scan of Mom's head. Upon much resistance from the doctor, they agreed and obviously found the tumor. The doctor was very apologetic and mom sat and waited to be transfered to where she is now.
You know the rest of the story and hopefully this is helpful to those of you who wanted to know more of how this all came about. We all love the comments that are being posted and hope to make mom a little scrapbook of them along with e-mails and letter we have received. So please keep posting comments, mom will eventually read them herself. Thank you all again for your love and support. Until tomorrow's blog....
Tara

Friday night 7:30pm

We just got home from the hospital where we have spent most of the day. Maxine has been in and out of sleep for most of the day....understandably. We were all able to go in and visit with her a few times during the day. Most of the day was spent sitting out in the waiting room, talking about what the next steps would be for her to come home. 

She was able to sit in a chair (with the help of Mark and Michael) and be upright for the afternoon and into the evening. She had been complaining of her back hurting from laying in a hospital bed for three days! 

She is much more aware of her surroundings today. She knew where she was and why she was there. Before the surgery, she thought she was in her house, in her bedroom and that the nurses has transformed the house into a hospital. She would ask some of us to go get different things in the house and we just played along for the moment. She is now very aware of where she is and what is happening. We are very thankful even for the smallest of things!

Just before we all left the hospital tonight, the doctor came in and spoke with everyone. He performed some tests to make sure she could feel her feet. He touched the bottoms of her feet and she would then tell him which foot he touched which she passed. He then asked her to hold her arms up as if she was holding a pizza. She did but her left hand was noticably lower than her right. This is to be expected because they went in to the right side of her brain. She is also leaning to her left when she is upright. He concluded that she was doing fine and will slowly get better.

She had another MRI done today at about 10:00am. We weren't expecting to hear anything today but when the doctor came in, he wasn't able to say much (he isn't her primary doctor) but did say that the results looked good and there was no new growth or anything else to be worried about. So with that said the night ended on a good note for us to go home. 

Again, thank you to all who are praying and lifting Mom up at this time. Please continue to do so and keep checking back here for more updates. I will try to post things every day. 

Tara

Maxine's Post surgery update

Friday morning: 8:30am

I just got off the phone with Dad (Marty) and things are looking good!Sugery started at 4:00 yesterday afternoon and ended about 8:30 last night. As soon as 9:00, Marty was right there with her and she was responsive, holding Dad's hand. Although her eyes were closed, she was already telling Dad that she was here to stay; reassuring him with her touch. 

Dad returned the notion and stayed by Mom's bedside all night, not leaving once. She awoke this morning to find him next to her, snoring I'm sure! If you have ever stayed at Marty and Maxine's house, you know what I'm talking about! 

I spoke with Dad at 8:30 this morning abd was reassured by Mom's voice in the background that she was doing as well as could be expected. She has a slight headache (to be expected) but has not accepted any pain medication. As I was talking to Dad, he said she was very lucid, wanting to brush her teeth and go shopping for wigs! (Stay tunned for later pictures of wig possibilites!) I aksed her what it was like to be bald and she said she wasn't sure yet but wasn't looking forward to it either. I told her now would be a good time to go for a different look, maybe a red head or even a blonde! To that she tried to laugh....... it was a good sign to me that she will slowly return to herself. 

For those of you who aren't quite sure what took place with the surgery here it is:

The doctors cut through the front temporal region of her head. Basically where your hairline begins and back a few inches. They went in to the temporal part of the brain which is what controls your emotions/ personality behaviors. Once inside, they began the tedious process of removing what they could of the lemon-sized tumor. They were able to remove about 70-80% of the tumor. She has what is called a glioblastoma. This definition is taken from wikipedia:

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and most aggressive type of primary brain tumor, accounting for 52% of all primary brain tumor cases and 20% of all intracranial tumors. Despite being the most prevalent form of primary brain tumor, GBMs occur in only 2-3 cases per 100,000 people in Europe and North America. 

Treatment can involve chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, all of which are acknowledged as palliativemeasures, meaning that they do not provide a cure. Even with complete surgical resection of the tumor, combined with the best available treatment, the survival rate for GBM remains very low. However, many advances in microsurgery techniques, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are slowly increasing the survival time of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma.

We are pretty hopeful knowing that she is awake this morning and are now waiting to meet with the doctors to hopefully give us their opinions of what happened during the surgery and what to expect now that the surgery is done. Please continue to pray and look here for further updates. I hope to update this if not every night then definetly every two days. Thank you for all your prayers and concerns for the Hooper family at this most crucial time. We are faithful that God can and will bring her through this. Praise be to God for His mercies!

Tara Hooper