Events That Threw Us Into A Tailspin

I am asumming that when Scott woke up at 3:00 am on the morning of April 23, he was disorientated from all the swelling in the brain. When Scott got to the foot of the bed he collapsed. The sound was a horrendous. I jumped out of bed and Scott was laying on his stomach, which means he fell from a standing position forward.
Blood was coming from his mouth and when I rolled him over his eyes were open but, he was dazed, non responsive and he had started to posture. I picked him up and put him on the bed and began to pack for a trip to MD Anderson. Something kept telling me not to put Scott in the car and drive to Orlando. I called 911 to take him to Holmes and thought once they checked him out there then I would drive him to Orlando.

I never imagined the seriousness of his condition. They took a CT scan and the emergency room doctor came in with the results. He looked at me and said I am not going to sugar coat it for you. The swelling in the brain had began to invade the other side of the brain, the mid line shift had shifted 15 mm, there was bleeding on the brain and the spinal fluid had began to collect on top of the brain. Scott was going to need emergency brain surgery. Scott had a horrible headache and I asked if they could give him something for his headache and something to calm him down.
I don't even know the series of phone calls I made. I remember calling Aaron, Scott's best friend in Jupiter, my mom and Brandi. Brandi showed up in minutes. I saw Tex from (Texas Roadhouse) walk by the room , his son is an ER doctor. I remember telling him his son wasn't on call today and he said he was there to see me. Confused, I asked him how he knew I was there and he said my mother had called the church. Then walked in Dr. Alfant, he had left his office to come by to see if I needed anything and to give me a hug. Then it seemed like my mom, my sister and Aaron had just appeared in the room.

They began to bring in Mannitol, it is a sugar alcohol solution that reduces brain swelling. I said to the nurse that I thought Mannitol had to be given over a three day period. The nurse said not in a situation like this. The Mannitol was given within an hour and a half. They asked Scott how his headache was, it was no better. So they administered another glass jar of the Mannitol.

The neuro surgeon on call is the best in Brevard County. He walked in and said that Scott was going to die. He said, Astrocytoma patients live about 15 years and Scott was at his 15 year mark. He said , we can do the surgery but he doesn't even know if Scott would survive it. If he does survive then we could be right back where we are in four days, Scott could end up paralyzed or blind. Scott had heard every word and began to cry. I gave the surgeon Dr. Nicks cell phone number and asked him to call him. The odds were against us. I think I was in a state of shock and I was faced with a decision that could end or possibly change the rest of Scott's life. I began to wonder if I was being selfish in wanting to keep Scott here, what would be his quality of life, did I want him to suffer more chemo treatments etc...I walked out of the room broke down. I didn't feel as those things were going to be okay but, I didn't want Scott to be scared, so I told him he was going to be fine.
I then looked at Scott's friend Aaron, what do I do? Aaron stood over Scott and took his hand - I don't know what was said all I know is Scott said "surgery". I then stepped outside the room to call Dr. Nick on his cell phone. I asked him what to do. I told him what the surgeon said and Dr. Nick said "do the surgery". I told the surgeon we would go ahead with surgery. They brought all the papers in for me to sign but, before I signed them I looked at Aaron one more time and he nodded yes. It seemed like seconds after the papers were signed that Scott was taken to the pre-op surgery room. The nurse from the ER came up with tears in her eyes gave me a hug. As they took Scott to surgery, they pointed to a hall way at the end of that hall way was where the surgical waiting room was. I looked at it, the more I walked the longer it got. I remember sitting down in the hallway and crying. A nice lady walked by and asked me if she could give me tissues. A social worker asked me if she could call someone for me. My friends and family was there - but, I felt so alone. I looked up and Michelle, Karen and Doreen seem to just appear. After being in the hallway for awhile, I decided to go in the waiting room and wait. I wanted to be with Aaron because that was the closest I felt to Scott.

After the surgery Dr. T. came in and said he had removed as much tumor as he could. Scott wasn't on a ventilator , he was making swallowing noises and let's see if he wakes up. I had received a phone call on my cell phone from Tex giving me Scott's room number, his son had followed Scott through the computer and was relaying information to him. We all stayed at the hospital until Scott was out of recovery and taken to his room in SICU. I wanted everyone that had stayed the duration of the long emotionally and physically day be able to see Scott. It was hard for me to leave that night but, I knew there was nothing I could do there and they were not budging on the visiting hours.