Here they do their own postoperative recoveries in their PICU room, which is great! Cade came back to his room for recovery extubated, meaning he did not have the breathing tube in. This was reassuring because it was an uncertainty with the nature of the tumor and how it had grown. Due to its position and location it was pushing into the brain stem shifting it, which his body had compensated for and adjusted to. Once the tumor would be removed and the brain stem allowed to return to its normal position, there was a possibility it would take a while to readjust to its normal functions meaning Cade could return from surgery needing to remain intubated with the machine breathing for him for a day or so. We were so happy this wasn’t the case.
Another possible side effect that could have happened that we feared was something called cerebellar mutism in where, again, due to the position of the tumor next to the cerebellum (huge communication center of the brain) once the tumor was removed it could cause Cade to lose his verbal ability. When this happens we were told it could take days, weeks, sometimes a month before he could regain his ability to communicate verbally. Those of you who know Cade well, know this would NOT have gone over well as he is an incredibly verbal and talkative little 2 year old!! When we came back to his room to see him, the first thing the nurse said to us was “he’s asking for his momma.” This was amazing to hear!! It was another win for the Winters that neither of these possible bumps in the road happened today. Thank you God!
Overall Cade has had a decent recovery so far. Due to the nature and position of the tumor, Dr Ruge said it’s expected that he will have headaches and continued vomiting as the swelling goes down and the fluid that had been backing up in the ventricles begins to drain. This has been the case unfortunately. He has thrown up a couple times. And has woken up complaining his eyes or head hurts. He spiked a fever for a little bit that has since resolved. We are using Tylenol and adding morphine when he needs it, which he received a dose of so far. He has been drinking water and juice and keeps asking to snuggle on the couch, get up, and to lay and snuggle on me. Obviously none of which can happen at this time and this is difficult for the both of us. One of his first few things he said to us, however, were perfectly fitting- “Can we get out of here now?”, ”Is the kitchen open yet?”, and “ I want a hard boiled egg.” Now let me just tell you…this kid has eaten at least 8 hard boiled eggs since we have been here!! He’s obsessed. No idea why. He won’t have them any other way since we have been here, I’ve tried. It cracks us up. But all in all, he is pretty drowsy and sleepy and we are grateful for this right now. Dr Ruge said every hour we get further away from surgery, the better. If he’s content and comfortable, let him sleep so his body can heal. So we are doing just that. Patiently and quietly sitting at his side letting him sleep and heal. And praying for a peaceful and restful night for him.
I will leave you with a few other fun “signs” that I keep finding that fill my heart with warmth and spread a smile on my face. We are in the PICU in room 7. From the moment we got here, I kept thinking to myself- lucky number 7. Our family waiting room in the OR was room C. I smiled and thought to myself C. For Cade. Our nurse taking care of Cade today, is named Meg. Rylan has been with our dear friends Brad & Meg for the last couple days. Both of my boys today are being cared for by women named Meg. And the best one that I forgot to mention in the last update is this- During our surgical update with Dr Ruge, he was talking with Nadine about Heidi and Chris and she mentioned their surgeons name in her information she was sharing with us all. Dr Ruge asked her again “Who did the surgery on Chris?” Nadine repeated his name. Dr McClone. Our neurosurgeon repeated the name and smiled as he said “he is wonderful, that is the same doctor who trained me.”
Our Warrior Journey 