Help Florence Pay for Her Two Brain Surgeries!

On January 14, I was in a meeting with a group of women when I got an urgent phone call from my sister Marie. I’m so glad I took the call. She was upset and described a scary conversation she had with our younger sister Florence. She told me that Florence was very confused and not making any sense. She thought Florence was having a stroke and said she was driving to her home! I told her to call an ambulance! Marie and the ambulance arrived within minutes and Florence was quickly on her way to the hospital.

It was far worse than I thought. Several tests revealed that Florence had a large mass on her brain. Because of the seriousness of this, she was sent by ambulance to a better equipped hospital in Georgia. Marie and I arrived at the hospital to find Florence laying in a bed in the Emergency Department. She had just been told she had a dangerous tumor on her brain and there were very serious risks. The first thing she said to us in a whisper was, “I think we have to plan a funeral”. I will never forget her words! Marie and I stayed all through the night. We had to tell our family what was happening that morning. It was critical to get her son Evan, who lives in NJ, to join us in SC as soon as possible. We enlisted a friend in NJ to go and break the difficult news to Evan. We did not know what was going to happen to Florence. We were all in a state of shock!

The next few days were very frightening and filled with difficult and scary details from multiple doctors. The doctors told us that there was no choice; that the large tumor had to be removed surgically from a high risk area of the brain. The side effects could be death, brain damage, stroke, loss of hearing, and even possible paralysis and spending the rest of her life in a wheelchair! Florence was devastated and very weak and quiet during this period. The look on her face is hard to describe. It showed fear, despair and horror. All this news was so frightening and hard to process! The only good thing was that the tumor had been discovered and probably saved her life!

Within two days the doctors were able to use drugs to shrink the swelling of the tumor and this made it possible to go to another hospital with a much better Neurosurgery department. The best choice was MUSC in Charleston, SC over three hours away from her home and family. Florence and Marie went to Charleston for a consultation with the surgeon and a date for the surgery was scheduled. Marie and Evan traveled to Charleston with Florence and stayed until she was released. It was the right choice to go there. With the swelling down she could think more clearly and have better conversations with the doctors and be part of the decisions.

The nine hour surgery was a resounding success and the entire tumor was successfully removed. Because she had been under anesthesia for so long, Florence had a hard time waking up after the surgery. Marie had the Nurse call her every two hours throughout the night with updates and she kept the family notified. It was terrifying to all of us! We all thought she might not wake up! Thankfully when she did wake up, it seemed that her brain function was pretty good. It would be a few weeks before it was determined that the tumor was benign. We were relieved to learn that!

During her recovery in the hospital after the surgery, we were astounded by how weak and unstable Florence was. She could barely hold a pen to sign her name and couldn’t stand on her own. After a 12 day hospital stay, she was transported to an acute rehabilitation facility in Augusta, GA three hours away. She went by an ambulance for the fourth time. This travel was painful and most unpleasant!

Walton Rehabilitation in GA was a nice facility where she felt a sense of comfort with the staff and her care. I remember the first day I visited her there. She was too weak to feed herself or stand to get into a wheelchair. She looked grey and so thin. It was hard to believe this was my 63 year old sister. She had been through hell and she looked it!

The next day she seemed stronger and fed herself. I felt good when I left her that day. Sadly that night when the nurse came in to check on her she had a dangerously high fever. They told Florence that she had to be rushed to the hospital. The news was so disturbing that she fainted! Minutes later she was being loaded into yet another ambulance to the Georgia hospital where she had been prior to her surgery. She was horrified and so scared of what was going to happen next! She was very exhausted and frail. After a few tests, it was determined that she had a buildup of fluid in her brain which was causing an infection and the high fever. The news just kept getting worse and at 4:00am she was once again loaded into an ambulance and driven back to MUSC in Charleston, a three hour journey in the middle of the night. A team of ICU staff was eagerly awaiting her arrival. They descended upon her with a barrage of tests and medications. We were hoping that her exhaustion had dulled her sensitivity to the additional trauma. When she woke up the following day she was terrified about was going to happen next. This had become her worst nightmare! How could this be happening!! After being there alone all night, Marie and Evan arrived the next day to be with her again and provide support.

Because the area where the tumor had been kept filling with fluid, a surgeon had to insert a drain in her head to hopefully collect the fluid. Unfortunately, Florence had to remain awake for this long and horrible procedure. Later that day, a different surgeon arrived and informed her that the pump wasn’t functioning and that he would have to remove that drain and replace it with another. This surgery was faster since some of the procedure had already been done by the first surgeon. However, fluid continued to accumulate and Florence had to endure needles on the back of her head to drain it. That procedure was quite painful and unpleasant.

In the end, the surgical team decided that a Shunt would have to be inserted into her brain to collect the fluid. This would be permanent and Florence would have the Shunt in her head for the rest of her life. This surgery included incisions in her abdomen where the fluid would drain from tubing connected to her head. At the end of this week long stay at MUSC, Florence was once again transported back to Walton in Augusta where she stayed for another week for rehabilitation and care.

After four different hospital stays, three surgeries, 6 ambulance rides and 40 days away from her home, dog and family, Florence could finally sleep in her own bed! Now at home, she will continue to have physical and occupational therapy as well as nursing care. Her journey to recovery has started and will take 4 to 5 months. Life changes in a heartbeat!

Florence continues to have overwhelming weakness and exhaustion. She does not have much of an appetite, has headaches and stomach pain and does not sleep well. She still has some very difficult days ahead of her!

After all she has been through, and will continue to endure, Florence now faces mounting medical bills for her hospital stays, surgeries and care! What a terrible thing she has to think about now in addition to her recovery. Florence needs help to cover these medical bills and would be very grateful for your assistance.