Charysse just went in for surgery a few minutes ago, 11am. We now wait another 8 or so hours for the surgery to be completed. Pray for us…it’s going to be a long day.

It’s 10:31am and we just heard from Marvin. Dr. Liau had another surgery this morning and she’s wrapping that up now. They’re expecting to wheel Charysse back at 10:45am.

—Kyle

Guess we failed to mention that her surgery begins between 10:00-10:30 AM PST. Marvin is still with her now, somewhere in this huge hospital. She had to be here at 7:30 AM. Next time we see him will be when they forcibly kick him out. So, until we do, we know the surgery has not begun.

A little background on Charysse’s doctor for this surgery. We found her on TV, strangely. I was browsing through stations one evening and stumbled across Dateline. They were running a story on an actual brain surgery she was doing. The surgery involved a father and musician having a tumor removed. The newsworthy portion of the show was that due to the location of his tumor, he was at risk of losing his musical abilities. Dr Liau is one of few who actually wakes the patient up during the surgery and then stimulates the portion of the brain that they are looking to take. While doing so, as long as the patient is able to speak intelligently, or in his case, hum a song, identify musical notes, etc. then they know they are not creating a residual effect by taking that tissue. Fortunately for Charysse, this is not necessary.

Being in Texas and two hours ahead of Charysse, I called her and told her to be sure and watch the whole show. I only saw a portion of it. She did and two days later Dr Liau had Charysse’s brain scans in her hands. As you may know, Charysse is and has been very aggressive about learning all she can and taking her health into her own hands by being informed. Long story short, even though 4 other doctors had told Charysse that her tumor could not be removed, Dr Liau said she could get it. The proof was in the fact that she did.

We are thankful today to be fully confident of this caring and talented doctor. She has been spot on, on everything she has told us from day one. Adult brain tumors is all she does and her experience is clearly working for us again today. We will be very anxious to see her late this afternoon, to learn more about what she finds. But, we know she is the right person and God is directing her on our daughter’s behalf.

Prior to today’s surgery they have taken 3D images of her brain in all kinds of color to know exactly where they want to go to reach the area of swelling. Dr Liau would have studied those again last night, at home after she put her children to bed. That’s when she and Charysse have spent many nights emailing back and forth. After she removes what she can see, she will then do another MRI while in the operating room. This allows them to, right then, see if she missed anything. If necessary or possible, she will then go back and get any residual tissue before closing. That’s what we know. We’ll let you know as we hear anything throughout the day.

http://faculty.bri.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=8887

http://www.knbc.com/newslinks/5546445/detail.html

Charysse’s mom:

There are many times a parent watches the back of their child as with each step they get further and further out of reach and out of site. I don’t care how old they get or what the circumstances, I think we always feel mixed emotions as they do. Somehow we parents learn to live with the dual conflict of being excited and uncertain at the same time. We watch eagerly at times as they march forward into the unknown challenges of life. It’s all a part of what living life is about. But, at the same time, we feel the need to protect them and be close if life dishes a blow that may bring them pain. I’ve learned all too long ago, that we can’t be there always to fix it. Knowing that however, does not diminish the desire. Watching her walk away this morning was a bit overwhelming, I must admit.

Today we pray again for our daughter, as we have every day of her life. I am reminded of the day we dedicated her back to the Lord in front our friends and family shortly after she was born. In doing so, we gave her back to the Lord acknowledging that she was a gift to us in this world, but ultimately she is God’s. She is an amazing girl, as many have witnessed and that is attributed to the God she so willingly and unreservedly serves. She, as we, today are faced with the biggest test of our faith to date. To “trust” in our God with the life and the future quality of life for this very precious woman. We thank all who are helping to share this journey with us, and for your continual prayers today.

I’m posting some pictures from the premiere last night, for those of you who don’t believe our story. It was slightly chaotic, so they’re a little blurry, but I think still clear enough so you can see that we didn’t make the whole thing up…..

Today was great, just hanging out with my family all day. It’s always fun to be together, even if it is for brain surgery. We try to make the most of the time we have together. My brother bought some Nascar tickets for this weekend for him, Marvin and my dad. There are 2 things that are great about this: 1. That they can have some good male bonding time at a sporting event 2. That they won’t be sitting in my hospital room staring at me everyday. Everybody wins here. Last brain surgery, to get the boys out of my hair, I found some UCLA football tickets online the day after surgery. It was awesome. The Bruins were not only playing at the Rose Bowl for that game, which is not their normal stadium, but they weren’t sitting in my room staring at me all day, either! Although, if anybody should’ve been able to go that game, it should’ve been me. Speaking of football, for those of you who aren’t Pete Carroll fans….he really isn’t a very nice guy in person, either (He was at the premiere last night).

I told you I wouldn’t ramble again, but I promise you will not hear my rambling tomorrow. We covet your prayers tomorrow, as you already know. One thing I didn’t mention before, that I would be grateful that you would pray for, is that my left visual field will be unharmed tomorrow. There is a possibility, because of where the tumor is, that it could damage my left-hand peripheral visual field. I already have some minor damage from the first 2 surgeries, but there is a risk of having some significant damage from going in that same area, again. Thank you so much. You are all amazing, and I love you. I’m going to head to bed now because I’ve got some stuff going on tomorrow. Good night…

    Wow, we packed in a lot today.  Our day began with an MRI, which was much shorter than I anticipated, much to my delight.  Last time I had an MRI done here, it seemed like at least 45 minutes, but this one was only 20 minutes.  Yay!  After that, we killed some time walking around the UCLA area, until my appointment with Dr. Liau.  I think I could spend a week around this area and never run out of things to do.  Our appointments with her are always a breath of fresh air.  She is such an amazing person.  She is so compassionate and genuine, and I’m truly amazed that this person who’s been featured in numerous shows like Dateline NBC,  will engage in email conversations with me, whenever I have a question or concern.  In December, when I first found out that my tumor was for sure growing, she was still emailing with me at midnight that night.  Simply amazing.  These are the things that we learned from Dr. Liau today:

~ My tumor is not visible on MRI, yet, as an actual white mass.  Some of you may be wondering then, why in the world I’m letting this woman cut open my head for something she can’t totally see??  Here is why.  There has always been some swelling along the cavity of where she resected the last tumor.  This area of swelling started to look a little “plumper” on my October scan.  She caught the change, but my local radiologist didn’t.  So we waited until the December scan to see if that area changed, again, and it did, looking slightly more plump.  So she said that it is creeping very slowly, but with these tumors, it is always best to stay ahead of the game and get it out, if something happens to be in there.  Astrocytomas love to morph or recur as high grade, and become very difficult to control, at that point.  So surgery it is!  She also thinks that taking out that swelling will help alleviate these pesky seizures that I have from time to time.

~We learned that the area that she wants to take out, that was possibly inoperable, is bumping up against the membrane/blood vessels that surrounds the brainstem, but that she thinks she should be able to successfully remove it.  Yay!!  This is never a given until she is actually in there to see what’s going on with her own eyes, but that was very encouraging.

~The surgery will probably last around 8 hours.  We were hoping that it would be significantly shorter than the last surgery, which was 10 hours, but it sounds like another marathon.  Boo for my family sitting in the waiting room!

After that appointment,  I had to meet with the anesthesiologist, get some blood drawn and pay the cashier in Patient Financial Services.  The MRI and appointment with Liau took about an hour and a half.  The other appointments took 3.5 hours!!  I would say 3 hours of that was just spent waiting. (sigh)  SO glad all of that’s over.

This morning, Marvin ran to Starbucks to get a coffee before one of my appointments and noticed that they were setting a whole bunch of stuff up at the Fox theatre next to Starbucks.  He asked what they were doing, and the guy told him that they were setting up for the premiere of Will Farrell’s new movie Semi-Pro, and that the whole cast would be showing up tonight.  Sweet.  We’re there!  So, after dealing with some pesky motorhome issues, we headed over to try and get as close as we could to the runway that they had setup.  When they do these premieres, they give away of ton of tickets to the actual movie premiere showing that night, through contests, connections, etc, so there are people swarming everywhere.  We mingled our way pretty close to the fence that surrounded the carpet they had setup, so we had a great view of all the actors/actresses who were there.  The longer we stood there, the more drawn into all the excitement we became, to the point where I was a little bummed out that we couldn’t go inside and see the movie.  I noticed a guy running around, that appeared to be heading up the whole event, so I thought I might track him down and chat with him for a second.  When I stopped him, I asked him if there were any premiere tickets left…..and I’m not totally sure, but I perhaps mentioned that I was there with my husband for brain surgery this week, and would love to go to the premiere (wink, wink).  He asked where we were standing and then told me that he would see what he could do.  About 20 minutes later, a lady came over and tapped me on the shoulder with 2 tickets in hand.  So we got to go to the premiere!!!!  The timing worked out so well that we actually followed Will Ferrell down the carpet runway, into the theatre.  After the movie, we headed into the lobby and were able to get some great pictures of Woody Harrelson, Marvin talking to Andy Richter and Marvin slapping a high 5 with Will Ferrell. There were some other celebrities, too, but I didn’t know most of them.  If I was a faithful “The Office” watcher, like 99% of all of our friends are, I could tell you the name of the cast member that was standing next to me while I was waiting for Marvin, but I have no idea.  So, anyways, that was quite the unexpected surprise ending to our day!

Wow, thanks for sticking with me through all of that rambling!  So at this point, it looks like we will be heading to brain surgery, rather than Disneyland on Thursday.  God is amazing, though.  The tumor still looks to be low grade and it looks to be completely operable.  I am so blessed, and I get emotional thinking about how good God has been to us throughout all of this.  His mercies have been new every morning and his grace has been beyond sufficient.  We’re so humbled by his blessings through each step of the way, and we know that so much of it is due to our family and friends backing us up in continual prayer.  Thank you so much, from the very depths of our hearts!  Our boys are doing amazing being away from us, which is a huge answer to prayer, as well!  I promise I won’t yap your ear off tomorrow.   The next time you’ll be hearing from me, I’ll probably be sporting a stylish new gauze turban.  Until then….

Well, the fun is officially over and we’re onto the home stretch. We were able to spend some great time with Marvin’s family over the past day or so. We had some great laughs with his sister and her family. It’s always entertaining at the Sikkema household. My toes are officially surgery/Disneyland-ready now, meaning they’ve been pedicured. We just left his grandparent’s house, which is always heart-wrenching. They are jewels, and we don’t get to see them much, so tears are always shed, especially when they’re sending us off to something like this. Marvin’s family is amazing, though. We were so blessed by all of the cousins, aunts and uncles that popped in while we were there, even though it was for just a small window of time. When I was hugging his Grandpa Visser, I told him thank you so much for the heritage that they’ve passed down, that we can face these trials with faith and assurance in Christ. Seriously, can you imagine not having God to lean on during these trials? I would feel so lonely and hopeless, as I’m sure my husband would definitely be feeling, as well.

So, a lot of you are wondering about the details what I actually have in my head. It’s called an oligo-astrocytoma. All that means is that it is made of 2 different brain cell types. ..astrocytes and oligodendrites. They are cells that are found in everybody’s brain (hopefully), but mine have just decided to get together, once again, and start another party. Yes, it is cancerous, but it is low-grade cancer. These tumors are scaled from 1 to 4 and this is a 2. Those are the dirty details.

These are specific things we would love prayer for, going into my day of appointments tomorrow:

1. That my MRI at 8:50 in the morning shows NOTHING!! They will be taking a 3D image of my brain that will help guide the surgeon in knowing where to go, once they are in. As I re-read that sentence, that sounds a bit disturbing. So how incredibly amazing would that be if there was NOTHING??!! Amen.

2. That God will give the entire medical team treating me, wisdom and guidance. That the physician of all physicians will have gone in before them to do his handywork.

3. Please pray for my husband. I can’t imagine watching your spouse go through something like this one time, let alone 3 TIMES!! Poor guy. I think he’s realizing that he’s stronger than he ever thought he could be. I’m a lucky girl.

Other than that, please pray for safe traveling for my parents and brother who will be flying in on Wednesday. I will post tomorrow if we hear anything news-y throughout the day, but otherwise, you might be getting blessed by the words of my husband on Thursday. I love you all! Thanks for all of your love and prayers. We don’t know what we’d do without them!!