My sister Options

[Rachel]

Thursday night, we found out my sister, who is only 25, had a massive brain tumor in her frontal left lobe. She had an awful headache for 3 weeks and her boyfriend and I took her to the Tucson ER Thursday night. They did a cat scan and told us they found a mass. The mass was pushing over the right side of her brain and was also cutting off ventricles. I called my parents right away and they came down from Phoenix with our family friend Pam, who works as a nurse at St. Joseph’s hospital. The main concern was that she would seizure. We transferred her via ambulance to the Barrows neurological center, the best in the country, at about 3:30AM Friday morning and she had surgery at 12PM. 4 and 1/2 hours later her surgeon came out and said he was confident that they got the entire thing, which was 5x7x3 cm (looked almost like an egg), and said he thought it was an "aggressive tumor." When asked what the hell that meant, he took it back and said that we wouldn't know anything until pathology tests came back, which should be Tuesday. He said possible treatments would include chemo and radiation if it shows to be cancerous.

When we went to see her after the surgery, she was awake and cracking jokes, 10000 times better than I expected. She had absolutely no idea what was going on, just that she had surgery. Kyle, her boyfriend, and I refused to leave and stayed with her the entire night. Her headache was finally gone and all that hurt was her stapled incision.

She was moved from ICU on Saturday afternoon and is already in a general room. Her vital stats and everything are perfect. After her surgery, her neurosurgen said she was pretty strong. She would be out of the hospital by today, but with the holiday, all the pathology tests are pushed back and she will probably be out Wednesday. We are all pretty sure that the tumor, which looked like it took up almost a 1/4 of her brain, is cancerous and she will need some post-treatment, but she made it through the scariest part.

My sister is an amazing fighter, hours after major brain surgery, she cracked an Arnold joke "It's not a tumor!" (Kindergarten Cop anyone?) She had us so incredibly scared and now she should be out of the hospital in a few days. It blows my mind how strong she is. I can only thank God and continue to thank Him for everything.

As my dad said Thursday night, “These are trying times and we just need to stick together.”

[me1issaaaa]

Oh, dear. How frightening, I have no idea what to say - your sister and family will be in my prayers, love. Best wishes through everything.
I'm always here to listen, Rachel. For anything

(St. Joseph's in which state?)

[*suddenly she*]

Rachel, you're lucky to have such a strong sister.
My sister cries because my dog bumps her in the nose.

[*yrrnotelekktric*]

wow! i`m glad she`s better.

[PINAYSTER]

yaay!! your sister made it!! im soo proud of her!!
also proud for your family to support her!
glad she made it through

[unconfirmed_exis...]

A strong person indeed. I bet you're proud to call her your sister eh?
She reminds me of one of my sisters as well.
Except mine is a bit more errr.. Aware of her strength and
comes out sounding real stuck up and aggressive sometimes.

[xforgottenlove]

wow you must be very lucky to have such a strong sister [:
mmm and i hope she continues to stay healthy for a really long time :DD

[Rachel]

Thanks guys! We actually we just got her home today :) She gets her stitches out in about 10 days and we should have the pathology report by then. We are basically 100% sure that she is going to have 6 weeks of radiation, Mon-Fri and most (if not all) brain tumors come back so we are expecting it. It's pretty scary but she's going to make it through.

And Melissa, St. Josephs is in Phoenix, Arizona.

[xmoon_lightx]

Lucky yu have such a strong sis. HOPE FOR THE BEST IN THE FUTURE =)