Archive | November, 2013

Introducing the Man of Steel

27 Nov

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No, not Superman, just a man with metal staples in his head…

For those of you that are interested (especially Dr Liz Cameron) here is a photo of my 57 metal staples (which are obviously from my battle with Lex Luther)
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I’ve heard via Sue that some of you kept waiting of these regular updates to know what’s going, so we know Jeremy household has been a bit slack with the blog, but I’m now back on the case and will try to update you all more regularly.

The last week has been a bit of a journey and as you can imagine we have been a bit pre-occupied with trying to get my body back in working order. I am on the slow road to recovery and am aware what my body has been through in the 15 hours operation and every day is about achieve one small step. I was aware of some of the complication that I would be facing after the operation, but I didn’t quite understand or appreciate what they said when I would have to re-learn how to swallow, which when you can’t eat or drink any thing direct down your throat you realise just how much you take these things for granted, I am now just thankful that I am though the operation so far and generally just how healthy I have been in life so far.

Sue has done an amazing job in the last week with juggling the whole stress of seeing me,feeding the kids and working and still managing to update you guys as much as possible. I also want to thank you for your amazing support of me, Sue and the kids, and for all your prayers and for all our friends at St. Paul’s who have been sorting out meals for Sue and the kids each, day, which have been one least thing for sue to have to think about. Thanks

And remember, no, it’s not a bird and no, it’s not a plane, it’s SuperNEIL!!!

There’s still 3 days left in Movember, and it’s not too late to sponsor me or my team me on this link www.mobro.co/neiljeremy1. So far our team has raised £898, thank you for all of your support so far!!

At time of writing this they are talking about getting me home early next week. So if you do pop by for a visit in the next week you might also be asked by Neil to help write a blog post (just like Pete Doorey has done today)

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Making Progress

25 Nov

It’s Mon evening and we have just got home from seeing Neil. He is so much better tonight, maybe it has something to do with the fact that he has been moved out if ICU and onto a ward. He has been given his own room, which is really nice and should allow him to finally get some sleep as it’s dark and quiet. He has also been detached from all the monitoring equipment and tubes, so can move around now. His speech is improving each day and he was able to concentrate better today and keep his eyes open more.

He is however, having some problems with the sight in his left eye; we are hoping that this is just temporary, so please continue to pray that this will be fully restored in the coming days. He has had all the bandages off too. Now you can see the stitches (the wound has been stapled – ouch!) you get a measure of how big the operation was. Having said that, he is not suffering too much pain and he feels the staff have been very good at helping him to manage it.

He has finally been reunited with his bag (and phone) – what a relief, as I haven’t seen it since Thurs morning and I was praying like mad that it would turn up safe and sound. I wasn’t looking forward to explaining that one! Anyway he is now reconnected with the world so you can text and email him now. Although he is not up to having lots of visitors yet, as he finds talking tiring, we are trying to keep it to mainly family this week and the odd friend, please feel free to send him messages, he would really like that. No doubt he will be blogging himself shortly, as from tomorrow evening he will have the iPad. I may be made redundant soon!

So I am feeling much better about things today, even if still very tired myself.
Sue

Next Update

23 Nov

I’m aware everyone is hanging on to their emails, searching them for the next snippet of news, but I know you’ll all forgive me for not updating every day too. I’ll probably blog every couple of days as life has suddenly become quite tiring.

Neil is still being cared for in Intensive care for the time being, he is making good progress, even though it is very small steps. I was amazed to find him talking yesterday, albeit a very soft whisper, I was not expecting him to talk at all for at least a couple of days. He is still very sleepy, which I think in part is due to all the anaesthetic and the fact that it is impossible to sleep in ICU as it’s always light and noisy, also the nurse has to check on him constantly, so it’s almost impossible to sleep for any length of time. He had a bit of a temperature today which was making him feel a bit grim, but he doesn’t appear to be in much pain, which has surprised the nursing staff and currently is only on paracetamol. This could well change as he becomes more aware of things over the next few days.

The surgeon’s are sure he hasn’t suffered any major stroke, but we won’t know if there is any minor stroke damage until he is more mobile and conscious in the next few days. Something to keep praying about please.

Finally, just a word of thanks for your continued support and especially to all our wonderful friends at church who are coming round with a meal for the family everyday – you have made life so much easier to manage while we get used to going up and down to Guy’s each day.
Sue xl

The Big One!

21 Nov

Well it’s 11.30pm and it’s been a very long day. I’ve just spoken to the surgeon and he has just come out of theatre. He went in at 8.30am. The main thing is that he has come through it and is still with us. They are going to keep him sedated till tomorrow morning in ICU. It would seem that the tumour was larger than they had expected and had invaded more than just the Vegus nerve, which is why the operation was so long. Having said that the operation was successful as they have removed most of the tumour.

The good news is that they have been able to save the facial nerve and the nerve that serves the ear, so there will be no hearing loss. Also he did not need the tracheotomy. The main issues he will have to cope with are swallowing and talking, but that should all improve in time and with speech therapy. They also had to take out the carotid artery, but because he passed the occlusion test last month we are hoping that he has not been affected by any stroke, but we won’t know for sure until he wakes up tomorrow.

Many answers to my list of prayer requests, so that just leaves me to thank God for listening and all of you wonderful people for praying all day. God is good and I am exhausted!
Sue x

Quick Update & points for prayer

20 Nov

Neil had an uncomfortable night, not much sleep and was sick again. Operations seem to leave him with an awful migraine. I was able to pick him up at 2pm and bring him home, where he has slept since he got in. I now have until 8pm to feed him up, before he has to fast again!

As you all know the operation tomorrow is a ‘biggy’. He is the only patient on the list and should be in theatre around 8.30-9.00am. The op will go on until around 6pm, if all goes as planned. If things go better than expected they could be done as early as 3.30pm. If there are complications, it will continue late into the evening. For those of you who are praying I thought it might be helpful to give you some specific points for prayer:

Firstly, that he survives it and that he does not suffer a stroke. While the Dr’s have done all they can to minimise these risks they are still risks associated with this operation.

Risks he is more likely to face are, permanent loss of hearing in his left ear, as they will probably have to cut the nerve serving that ear – pray that this will not be the case.

The Vegas nerve also serves the back of the throat, so we are expecting swallowing, talking and breathing to be compromised, he may need a tracheotomy. Please pray that this won’t be required and that these functions are maintained after the operation.

Also, please pray for the Dr’s and medical staff. The children are coping well this week, we are planning for them to go to school tomorrow, to keep focused on their work , rather than worrying at home. Please pray for them too.

Finally, please pray that he will not suffer any further migraine’s following the op and that his recovery will be quicker than expected. Thank you all for your wonderful support, it makes such a difference. You are welcome to txt me, but I might not answer everyone, I will put an update on the blog as soon as I have news tomorrow evening.
Love
Sue