Please say a prayer for my wife. She is the light of our family and we found out today that she has a benign (thank the Lord) baseball sized tumor in the back of her brain today. The surgery to remove it is monday and the only option available due to the size. Because of the size and location removal without devastating damage is not very promising. I pray for a great out come but I will be grateful to just continue to have her with us, in any capacity.

Thanks everyone! God Bless!

Rex

My thoughts and prayers are with you and yours and I will say a prayer for your wife. I hope and pray everything comes out positive. Please let us know. We're all family here and wish her the best in surgery and hope for an expeditious recovery from such a serious surgery. Sincerely, Dot & Mark

Sending up an arrow prayer right now from Belleville...

hugs, prayers, and strength from Chicago, straight to your bride, Rex.

My thoughts and best wishes for you and her. The doctors can do some remarkable things now. You have my hopes for a great outcome.

Rex, our thoughts are with you and your family. If you need anything, let us know my friend.

Right here for you, Rex. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Please let us know as you drive on straight ahead.

Best wishes, Rainman.

thought and prayers sent from the mile high city!!!!!

Prayers and best wishes to your bride and your family Rainman. Think positive!

My family will have you in our thoughts and above all in our prayers, think positive Rainman.

Rainman, We are with you and will continue to pray for a great outcome.

Rainman, I am sure this has caused her suffering. It will soon be better. Take comfort and be strong.

Rainman ,We will keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers.Tom&LindaLu Siebert

Rainman, Your wife and family are in our prayers!

Prayers coming.

More pyayers fom Texas.Hope everything turns out for the best.

Prayers from Bremer Pond.

Thanks so much for the support. Even being mostly a reader in this forum, it quickly becomes a family feeling. Your prayers and good wishes have helped tremendously to bring out the emotions that have needed to be expressed and is helping us to deal better with what needs to be handled.

We have an excellent and highly qualified surgeon that gives us much better odds on a positive outcome.

I obviously will be slow to provide updates, but please know that we feel and deeply appreciate the prayers positive vibes from everyone here. The Pond Boss family is a wonderful shoulder to lean and cry on.

Thank you again for letting us share and relieve our pain, fears, and tears,

Rex, Cathy, and girls

Know that many here are sending up prayers for a good result.

Prayers from Iowa Rainman

Stay positive Rex, prayers on the way from us here in Indiana.

We're praying for you, Rex. God bless you, your wife, and your family.

Prayers from Indiana too. Sorry I got here so late but I haven't been on the site for several days.

My dad had something similar. His was on the back of his neck up next to his spinal column. He was apprehensive but the removal went like a charm and he is fine.

I will be praying for your wife and your family Rex.

Your wife is in our thoughts and prayers Rex.

Rainman, I am so very sorry to hear this news. I will include your family in my thoughts and prayers.

Rex, my prayers are with you and your family.

Thank you for allthe prayer and positive thoughts!!

While we are not out of serious danger of complication yet, the 6 hour surgery was a complete success! The hands of God, a very skilled surgeon and crew were able to completely remove the tumor that was 30% percent larger than originally thought and entangled in areas of the brain that cold be manipulated without damage. Now the only danger of major concern, is that one of the large feeder arteries that were supplying the tumor and were tied off could burst, but that chance nearly disappears in about 30 hours from now.

Bottom line--100% of tumor removed along with ZERO % of the brain!

I can't begin to explain the rush of emotion when only 30 minutes after surgey, I went in to see her sleeping and after about 10 seconds she says "Hey Baby", THEN opened her eyes!

She has no loss of memory or function and a CT scan at 4am this morning shows the brain swelling from sugery is already receading.

For some reason I keep hearing an Applebees or Chili's commercial.....I got my baby back, baby back..........But they ain't ribs! YOO HOOOO!!!

Thanks again to everyone here for all the wonderful support,

Rex

Great news, Rex! We'll keep praying--tell her to rest and get better.

This is wonderful news!! We will continue to pray for your wife's complete recovery...blessings to you and your family.

Fantastic Rex, please keep us posted as to her progress. We will continue sending out positive thoughts and prayers.

Chili's jingle now stuck in my head - for a wonderful reason!

God's choice.
You both have much more work to do on this earth. What a wonderful blessing.

Great!

Very glad to hear it.

Wonderful news Rex. Thanks for sharing that with us.

That's great news. I'm happy for you both. I will continue to pray for a quick and full recovery.

That is really good news. We will continue to pray for a speedy recovery.

Thank God, and Best Wishes!

Good to hear Rex.

Rex,
Sorry I'm late on this but that is great news! We'll keep you and her in our prayers.

Rex,
I've been praying for your wife and family since you posted, and I felt so relieved to read your post that the surgery went well. I will continue to pray for her full recovery.

Rex, I'm so glad your wife's surgery went well. I know your Applebee's commercial and yes, you got your baby back!
We wish that her recovery is expeditious so she can get back to doing everyday things she enjoyed before the surgery. Keep us posted. Take care of that wife, you hear!

It is always good to see how many friends we have and to know they are very sincere, you are fortunate to have these friends and the closeness to the lord has been a real earth shaking experience. We will continue to pray as we really do care and keep us posted as you are doing.
A neighbor went to visit another one of our neighbors who is a pentecostal and a very devote Christain, she had a bad headache so the Pentecostal lady placed her hand on this ladies head and prayed the headache would cease. As the lady with the headache left her home she stated her headache had disappeared. We need faith.

She may want to give me a brain tumor in the form of her fist, but here is a pic of her just hours before surgery--She looked the same afterwards. BTW-I think she looks pretty darn good bald!

She continues to improve rapidly and all assesments show NO neurologic impairment!

Again, Thank you so much for the prayers and support. Not only do I believe it saved her, I KNOW it saved me!

Rex

Yep, she is going to put a know on your head but you know it's worth it because she is around to put it there for you. Someone is smiling down on you.

I am so happy that all of the prayers that have been sent your way have been answered. Thank you for taking the time to write an update on how things are progressing. Our prayers will continue to be with you and your family during this difficult time.

As a side note, you truly have a beautiful wife. Her spirit seems to shine through the photo you have posted.

Rainman, I am sure that she will continue to progress. Just keep tuned in to laugh and learn.

Rainman, she probably will give you a hard time for posting that pic! I think she looks really pretty even with the short hair....and I'm a female, too. So, you tell her that...we wish her a great recovery, keep us posted during her convalescence and make sure you tell her that I said she looks good!).

Ladies, a special thanks to you both for those comments. I really think the hair is a good look for her too, and not because it was me that suggested the total trim. lol And I've told her it looks great, but she didn't believe me until others confirmed it.(I'm not sure why? something about pants making something look bigger????---I don't know???)

The last "brain drain" (shown in the pic) comes out today and she may come home this weekend or early next week.

I have a picture of what I THOUGHT was MY dog in a Muddy Water post, but they say dogs are like their owners so he MUST be Cathy's because he had a similar sized tumor completely removed from his front elbow just 3 weeks before Cathy. And like her, he has made an amazing recovery as well!

Life can be strange, but right now it is VERY sweet.

Seriously, JWAP, I thought your and Jeff's recent experiance with his dad was such a blessing, being able to be there for the last lucid moments and the chance to say good bye. Jeff's words telling us all here of the experiance brought me to tears (like now, again). I truly felt both the sorrow and joy he did when reading about it.
(BTW welcome to the forum---is it now JeffHADapond?)

Thanks again to everyone. I am forever grateful!

Rex

Rex I have less hair than your beautiful wife and I'm no where near as pretty as her. Maybe she can give me some beauty secrets. We are happy for you guys outcome. May God continue to bless your family.

Although this comment was directly at my better-half I just wanted to thank you personally for your kinds words. I miss my Dad every single day. I just choose to focus on 50 years of wonder filled timed shared with my Dad rather than 10 tragedy filled days.

The compassion shown me by this forum meant a great deal to me, beyond what I am able to express.




Actually to be 100% accurate my screen name should be Jeffhasajointownershipinterestinapond. Problem is JHAJOIIAP is too long to write and way, way too difficult to pronounce.

Ricki dives right in with pond projects. When we were chemically treating for Elodea she handled all the chemicals while I drove the boat. We kinda figured if I handled the chemicals I'd probably some how spill some or ingest some, and, given the relatively delicate balance between sanity and full tilt bozo that I try hard to maintain, a little chemical interaction may just be enough to permanently force me into the dark side.

Thank you.

I'm hoping that your lovely wife is, or soon will be, back at home with you.

You must print out and hand the next part of this message to your wife without reading it.

Be sure to have the doctor include in your discharge papers a note that excuses you from all housework and or cooking duties for the next year or two. If he won't do it, I'm sure any nurse would be MORE than happy to accommodate this request.

After all, we woman stick together on these matters!!

No problem JWAP!----or need

I do all the cooking anyway (I love it AND I'm pretty good at it)
As for cleaning---LMAO we have slaves kids.

Jeff, you and my wife have someting in common, she is an accountant. She's modest and humble and only tells people that she works at a bank, but I'm pretty proud of her, she is the VP of accounting for First Banks, they have many branches in California, Illinois, Texas, Florida, and Missouri, but I don't know if any are near you. The HQ are here in St. Louis.

Must be something about ponds and accountants, I too am an accountant. My hubbie would like me to be a "farmette" (farmer's wife) but I'm not too good on all that big machinery so he lets me do all the pond stuff, keeping it stocked, research, layout, etc. It's been a challenge and fun.

It does matter to women what other women think. I think my hubby has always told me "women dress for other women." Go figure!

I hope your wife is having a nice and relaxed weekend since the surgery (hopefully at home) as you're doing all the cooking and stuff.

i missed this thread......but couldnt express thoughts better than what JWHAP said...... best wishes from el dorado....

Thanks very much Dave.

MarkEcin, She's not home yet. I convinced the surgeon to be a little more conservative in his treatment. He agreed and the brain catheter they were removing friday was put of till sunday to minimize the headaches she still gets. She will come home next week if all continues to go so well.

On a side note she is walking with the use of a walker (for safety) faster than she has in 3 years, about when the tumor is guessed to have started causing symptoms.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

After a very succesful surgery ang ongoing recovery, Cathy has taken a big turn for the worse. A brain catheter had to be re-inserted at about 11am so I went home to get some sllep after a very long night. Upon returning to see her at about 5pm this evening, I was informed that she had stopped breathing and was being placed on a ventilator. She still recognizes me and nods her head for answers, so I know I still have her and pray she will get through this as well as the surgery. She can respond and still appears to have full function but cannot wake up for more than a few seconds now and the Dr's really have no idea why.

Thanks again for all the prayers and I am sure they will help us to get through this obstacle,

Rex

I will say a prayer right now.

Hang in there Rex - best wishes.

Rex, our prayers are with you..

God works in ways we often dont understand. Your resolve is being tested. All the best for Cathy and you, Rex. It is touching to see the love you have for her.

PRAYING RIGHT NOW

We're praying for you, Cathy, and the rest of your family, Rex.

wiping eyes and praying; stand strong

We are praying for you and your family right now.Tom&LindaLu Siebert

Rex, these posts you've made must have been so hard to type out.

Even with the responses already shown here, I know you have hundreds of more people pulling for you & your wife without voicing it here.

We're with you.

Prayers from Whitesboro, Texas, at this moment.

rex, continued prayers from el dorado that cathy will pull through.

prayers sent from colorado

Praying now.

Rex, I am sorry to hear about your wife's setback. Our family will keep her and your family in our thoughts and prayers. As ewest said hang tough.

Rex, I just prayed for both of you.

Rex, I was thinking I'd check to see if your wife was home yet and I read the recents posts. Oh my gosh, I am so sorry about Cathy's setback--my prayers are with y'all. I hope she pulls out of this and gets home (she will). Be strong for her. I know she wants to be home. dot

What an emotional rollercoaster. The Dr's have gotten Cathy's blood chemistry re-balanced, the brain pressure relieved, and she is now pain free, awake, alert, and breathing on her own. There may have been some slight damage to the right side of her brain but is not yet noticable. The only indicator of damage is from an EEG that showed slower electrical activity on that side, but as I said we see no impairments.

Thanks again so much for all the prayers, very gracious offer for help, and the support this family provides.

I ask for your continued prayer and positive energy---I know it has helped her get through this!

Rex

You got it, Rex. Thanks for sharing the positive news with us. We'll keep praying!

Thanks for letting us be there with you. Great news.

God doesn't give us what we want. He gives us what we need.
Prayers continue from Chicago.

Yahoo Rex. We will continue to pray for a quick recovery. Tell your wife she has the best bunch of people on the planet on her side.

We definitely will continue to send prayers and positive thoughts your way Rainman. Thank you for the updates.

Prayers sent from the north. I wish your family good luck.

Prayers from me too!

Great News, Rex. Tell her y'all friends at Pond Boss are thinking and praying for her recovery and get on home.

We are still riding the rollercoaster. Cathy isn't showing much improvement, but is not worsening much either. She continues to get a rapid onset fever (103+) that can spike in under 10 minutes and is very spotty in the areas of the body affected, and her blood chemistry continues to give her hell, mostly rapid sodium crashes. The Dr's cannot find any cause and are limited to intense detction and treatment of symptoms. I am having to spend most of my time with her to watch for the troubles since the nursing staff can't/won't watch her constantly. All the worst possible complications have been ruled out like stroke, seizures, infection, but it's starting to look like some minor neurological damage is being done, probably by the fevers. we won't know now if anything is permanent until she stabilizes--IF she stabilzes. My biggest fear is that she may grow tired of fighting this if she doesn't feel improvement soon.

I want to again thank you all for keeping us in your prayers, the offers of help, and the cards. They really mean a great deal to my family and are truly appreciated!

A special thank you to ewest and Brett295!

Rex

Rex, we will continue sending prayers your way. Try to keep her spirits up, remind her how much she is wanted, needed and loved.

We pray for a speedy and complete recovery.

I'm still praying. Please keep us updated when you have the strength. We know how hard you're fighting right along with her.

Still praying in Texas too!All our best hopes and wishes to you and yours.

You have my thoughts also.

I pray for God's blessings for you, your wife, and your family during this extemely stressful time.

Bing

...and prayers from me in Indiana...

Rex, Know that we are thinking and praying for your wife and family. We are with you. Hang tough.

dittos to heybud, continued best wishes from el dorado rex.

Thanks again for the prayers and positive thought.

Just a short update.....

After a little over a week of complications and only being able to treat symptoms with no causes, we may finally be back on the road to recovery. The worst of these problems were the rapid onset high fevers, continuous blood seepage into the brain and very severe sodium loss.

Although she remains in intensive care in very serious condition, the last couple days have shown some improvements. within the last two days Cathy has had only 3 fevers and none exceeded 101 (down from 8-10 per day at 103+), the blood seepage into her brain seems to have finally subsided, and her sodium levels are beginning to SLOWLY return to normal. She does continue to get very high doses of sodium infused and has to salt all her food to a brine taste, but it looks like it's working. She is starting to wallk again and regain some strength. We also hope to get the brain catheter removed in the next couple of days and the weaning process has been started.

All the prayer and thought have helped! Hopefully, the next update will be when she comes home, possibly in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks again to the Pond Boss Family----You're the best!!!

Rex

...continued strength and prayers to both of you.

What Brettski said...

Thanks for keeping us updated.

Live Strong - prayers.

Great news Rex. I will continue to pray for you and your wife. Thanks for keeping us updated.

Continued prayers from the left coast. Thank you for the updates. This must be a very challenging time for you.

Thanks for the update, Rainman. You have offered very knowledgable posts during a trying time. We hope that PB has been a positive diversion for you.

Continued prayers from Indiana!

Thanks again everyone!

Cathy seems to have stabilized and has been moved out of the ICU

Great news!

big step forward; smiles at this end

Fantastic News. We'll continue to pray for your family.

The man who helps the fish to thrive shall and be rewarded. The one who shocks and takes greed from the fish shall meet with fire.
wise quote but true
God bless you and your family

Great news, Rex! More prayers for you, Cathy, and the rest of the family.

Yep great news!

More prayers from New York for your wife and you.
Stay strong and by her side.

We in Mississippi continue our prayers for both of you. Prayer is a very powerfulo tool, may the Lord bless both of you and remove all burdens to both of you so you two may enjoy life to the fullesat extent.

Great news! Will continue to keep you and yours in my prayers. Here is to a full and happy recovery.

Great news, Rex! Dot

Prayers can have such great value!

Rainman, Gail and I very happy to hear that Cathy has left the ICU. That is a giant positive step!

I finally got to take Cathy out of the hospital to an inpatiant rehab facility!!!

Her insurance Co. had denied any transfer and even refused payment for the medicine that saved her life and the last 5 days of her stay (3 of which were in the ICU), but fortunately the bank she works for is self insured so after I made a call to her company, the next response from the insurance was "We'll pay for whatever she needs!"

I hope it's not inappropriate (if it is, please delete this paragragh) for me to recommend you do business with a bank that takes care of it's employees! That bank is First Banks Inc in Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and California. First Banks Info The owner, Jim Dierberg, is one heck of a nice guy!!

Thanks to all of you here, a very gifted surgeon, and a great employer, she should be home VERY soon and in great shape to boot!!!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa hooooooooo! You must be so relieved! Let's not forget to thank the Lord as sometimes we forget that. God Bless You!

I can tell you stories about insurance companies and our medical profession but I won't go there since someone here may consider it "political."

I will say I was one semester short of being an RN years ago, and some of the things I saw made me decide not to pursue it any further.

Very nice. It's a great day.

The sun is shining over here, too. Great news; great progress!

Good news ! Stay strong. Pass on our best wishes to Cathy.

Great news! Praise God! That realy is a great employer. I already do my banking with First Bank in Belleville. They are great with customer service, and apraently they also treat their employees realy well.

Thank you for the update Rainman, I am so glad to hear that she is improving!

Thanks for keeping us updated, Rainman. Here's to Cathy getting out of ICU and onward to recovery (and home)! And, you are right, she does have an exceptional employer that took care of business. Dot

After a week in a Physical Therapy hospital, Cathy has made tremendous progress and is coming home tomorrow! She will have to continue therapy a few hours each day for quite a while, but a full recovery is now in sight.

Thanks to ALL of you again for the prayers and support to help us through this.

Rex

Great news ! Through faith all things are possible.

Great news again. Thanks for keeping us posted.

That is fantastic news Rex. I like a story with a happy ending!

Yippie! That's is great, Rex. No place like home. Prayers answered.

This is good news and we hope this young lady will continue to improve. Mississippi is thanking God on a regular basis. Sorry for not saying something earlier, just a little under the weather. My thoughts are, isn't God great and I love to read where so many are praying. This forum is very much different from others in a good way. I have probably said to much but Rex the love of so many really shows. May your lady continue to improve.

Hey Doc Rainman...
How goes it with our favorite forum patient?

Sorry Brettski! I completely missed your question.

She is doing really well! She is still doing rehab during the day. It's so cool to send the youngins off to scool with a lunch bag and a walker! Actually, she is mostly using a cane to walk and sometimes uses nothing now around the house. She still has quite a bit of dizziness and nausea thouigh. Doc said she can go back to work when she feels ready and strong enough.

Here are 3 shots of the tumor. It is very obvious in the pictures but was nearly twice as large as shown. It still amazes me that she had something that large in her brain and that it was able to be removed with no real damage being done!

That is amazing Rainman. Your whole story is amazing. You are a very fortunate man. Thanks for sharing & I wish your family a blessed future.

Rainman, thanks for reminding us just how precious life is.

Answering Burgermeister's question about my wife's recovery update.

Cathy was able to slowly return to work. As you know, she is the VP of accounting for First Bank and like most banks, the economy has hit them hard so I want to give props to them for holding her position and paying for medical treatments insurance had denied in order to provide her with the best care possible. This was in a time when it would have been easy to cut her position since they had to lay off 6% of the staff. If you live near a branch-please do business with them, they are as nice as the family here.

Back to Cat! In December she started back to work with quite a welcome back ceremony being thrown for her....She was VERY humbled by it all. She began at around 15-20 per week without letting the branches know of her return so she could get back into the swing of things and was not sure of any memory loss yet. Her job is VERY mentally demanding and she was exhausted after even the short days. She was still unsteady walking and if she turned her head she would become very unbalanced. She walked the halls often turning her head to re-learn her balance which really has paid off.

I was driving her everywhere because of the dizziness and I am happy to report that with her hard work on rehab, She began driving again this last week. The fact that I replaced her car learning the new feel, bells, and whistles, was more difficult for her than the driving itself.

She is now up to a 35 hour work week and is feeling pretty comfortable again in her job AND in walking, driving, etc.
I would say she is at about 95% of a full recovery---Plus she hasn't touched a cigarette since first being diagnosed. Wish I could say the same thing but she doesn't complain about my smoking.

I again want to thank everyone that said a prayer for us and kept us in your thoughts. I have no doubt all the positive energy played a huge role in her recovery. I KNOW it kept my sanity!

I also want to thank everyone that sent cards, letters and offer to help. They meant so much to us!

I hope that Bob, Otto, and the rest of the Pond Boss staff don't mind me saying a special thank you for giving me the honor of attending the Pond Boss Conference as their Outdoor Activity Director for the Conference. I will arrive at Big Cedar early Wednesday and Cathy and our girls will drive down Friday evening. We will be heading back to St.Louis sunday afternoon.

We look forward to meeting and thanking everyone more than you can imagine.

This Forum is truly a special place with VERY special people!

Yeehaw Rainman! Looks like being a tough survivor runs in the family! God most certainly makes it happen but only if you won't give up.

Rex

Sorry I entirely missed this story from last year. I am very happy to hear your wife is on the road to recovery...my family will keep your family in our thoughts often!

Look forward to meeting all of you in person in September!

Good to hear.

I also failed to pick up on this last year. Too many personal problems of mine. I have always injoyed rainmans posting and the family will feel my prayers. Glad to hear she is doing better and as you described her determination it lets us know she is tough, and a good fighter. good luck

deaner, you left several kind words on this thread. I'm sure since the outcome was great it simply slipped your mind. Too bad for you that we must share the same memory deficit disorder!

We hope your circumstances all came out for the best as well!

I'll second doing business with First Bank. They are a class act bank. My wife and I wouldn't do our banking anywhere else.

Rainman, Thanks for the update. I'm glad your wife is doing well.

Rainman,

Thank you for updating us with Cathy's condition. I read your post to JWHAP, and she was as thrilled to hear the good news as am I. When I saw the thread come up again I re-read it from the beginning. What a trying journey your family has been through.

It's also great to hear an employer go above and beyond the call of duty to help one of their own.

Please tell Cathy for us that we're so glad she is doing well and back to counting beans - (well that part was just me).

That's just awesome Rainman. I'm so glad to hear Cathy is doing well, and thanks for the update!

Rainman you are so right about my forget fulness, I apolgize as I checked the threads and missed where I had posted. I am thankful this forum is so user friendly as I am getting older and I realize I miss so much---thanks everyone. I did not mention how nice Rainman was to open my eyes----thanks.

Knock it off Deaner. You're not getting old. Like me, you just have more years behind you than you do in front of you.