it's my one decade craniversary!

Craniversary.  That's what a lot of brain surgery survivors like to call the anniversary of their craniotomy.... and ten years ago today, I had brain surgery to remove a meningioma brain tumor.  

This morning at church, it seemed rather fitting that the first song we sang was "Blessed be Your Name." Ten years ago, Tree63's version of that song played a lot on the radio and was the key song in the soundtrack of my whole brain tumor diagnosis and surgery. 

Our family, August 2004, just before my first MRI.  The one that revealed the meningioma.

Below is what I wrote about the whole experience on my Caringbridge page after being home about a week after my surgery.  (I must point out that I was rather heavy on the exclamation points.)

Just after being wheeled to my room in the ICU. It's funny, but I was wondering if I should smile at Matt when he took these shots, and opted for the more "serious" look since I'd just had brain surgery.

WOW!! GOD IS AWESOME!!

Thanks so much for praying for us during my surgery and the beginning of my recovery! We can REALLY tell God is answering your prayers!!

There is so much to tell about the surgery, it's hard to know where to start! We believe it went about as well as it could have... Dr. Ciric and his team were able to remove the WHOLE tumor! The tumor was wrapped more around my optic nerve than could be seen from the MRI, so that was a surprise, and they were also able to remove the part that was around my internal carotid artery. It was a HUGE answer to prayer!

I knew God was with us, answering prayers, on the morning of my surgery. I awoke at 2:30 a.m. with a racing heart. I knew I couldn't live like that for 5 hours until my surgery, so I asked God to help me. I felt a calm wash over me, and then I laid in bed, with praise songs running through my mind. It was very cool!

We were able to get special permission for Matt to go into the holding area--where they normally don't let anyone go with the patient--so he could talk with Dr. Ciric ahead of the surgery, as well. We met and talked with the anesthesiology team, who were both from the Ann Arbor area, where we lived for a couple of years. :)

As time went on, I became more and more calm. I asked the anesthesiology resident if people ever go into the OR without the "cocktail" she was going to give me to relax. She said sometimes they do, and if I changed my mind that it was drawn up and she could give it to me.

I said goodbye to Matt, and the anesthesiologists rolled me down the hall to the OR. We talked on the way about Michigan and what church we go to. As they rolled me into the OR, Dr. Ciric said, "Oh, she's not sleeping!". I said, "No, I wanted to be awake!". They wheeled me to the OR table and asked me if I wanted to put myself onto it. So, I did.

I laid there looking up at the huge lights and thinking, "Wow! I should be SO freaked out right now, but I'm not!" I KNEW it was God making me so calm & peaceful! I silently prayed as quickly as I could for everyone I knew would be worrying during my surgery. The nurse squeezed my hands a couple of times as the oxygen mask was put over my nose and they asked me to take a couple of breaths.

I squeezed back, and the next thing I knew it felt like I'd been dreaming a little while, and I was waking up! It was so interesting feeling myself waking up. They let Matt come into recovery with me! :) And Dr. Ciric told us that they got the whole tumor!!

The whole experience at Evanston Hospital was wonderful! We had so many great nurses, nurses' assistants, neurosurgery residents, food service people, etc. It was really amazing! The cultural diversity was so refreshing... we met people from Jamaica, India, Nigeria, etc. and heard about some of their families. It was really great!

We've been home for over a week now, and every day I feel more and more like my normal self. Today, the staples were removed at Dr. Rovin's office (one of the local neurosurgeons). Everyone was so glad to hear that our experience at Evanston went so great!

My parents stayed almost a week after we returned, and we were all sad to see them leave. It was such a HUGE blessing that they watched the 4 older kids and helped so much around here after our return! We were also SO thankful for our friends Jim & Jane, who watched Naomi... we felt bad taking her away from them! They were having such fun with her!!

We have help through church and Youth for Christ with food and childcare. It's so amazing how much God's family wants to help us!! Thanks so much to all of you out there, who are praying, writing, helping with the kids & making food, just to name a few of the things we know you're doing! We appreciate you all so much!

God is SO great!!
Amy & Matt,
David, Marissa, Joshua, Jesse & Naomi :)