N3il’s Blog

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

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

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

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

Two days to go before my first operation this week and I have had another short pre operation hair cut.

I will need to be at the Kings hospital by 7am on Tuesday for  Embolization operation and hopefully I should be in and out on the same day, Wednesday will then be a day recovering at home, before being at Guys for 7am on Thursday. I will be in Guys for a least a week, possibly 2 weeks. Sue will keep you all up date with progress on this blog.

If any of you might be thinking of paying me a visit in hospital, which your welcome to do, we would just ask that you contact Sue my wife who will be coordinating visiting during my stay in hospital. The is mainly due to the fact that we really won’t know how I will be feeling or whether I’ll be up to see many people.

If you have her mobile can you text her, otherwise email her on sue@beetlebug.co.uk. Please say in your text or email, who you are and that you want to visit me and Sue can then let you know whether I’m feeling up to visitors and when would be good times to visit and what ward I’m on. If you want her mobile number beforehand, then please text or email me before Thursday.

Thanks again for all your ongoing prayers and support.