Donna 1, Tumor, 0!

Hi everyone, this blog post is written by a celebrity guest, Evelyn Romine, daughter of the beautiful Donna Charlevoix. I am here to inform you of the current updates with my mom’s medical situation. My grammar and writing ability may not be at the same level as my mom’s, but I’ll do my best.

On Wednesday, November 8th, my mom went to the local medical center in Boulder, where she receives most of her treatment. This visit was an effort to get the current surgery to remove the tumor on the T3 moved up to a sooner date (initially scheduled for November 20th at the Swedish Medical Center). The pain had become more severe, and after an increasing feeling of numbness in her torso, the concern of her medical team shifted to paralysis. After multiple appointments, she was instructed to go home, clean up, pack a bag, and check into the Emergency Room at the Boulder Medical Center later that afternoon, as the surgery would be performed at that location on Friday. This was for a few reasons: 1) this would allow the insurance to go through on time for the surgery. 2) with her at the medical center, they could better monitor and help with her pain.

I did not get to see her on Wednesday when she checked in, but my dad and sister were there with her for that process. She was in the ER in a bed until 11 pm that night when they were fortunately able to move to an ICU overflow room that was bigger and, from my understanding, comfier (more pillows!!). I visited her on Thursday morning, and she was in pretty good spirits. I think that not having the stress of having to take care of herself and manage everything on her own was lifting a huge burden. (I also know that she’s a warrior and was doing her best to stay positive for everyone).

The plan on Thursday was to prepare for surgery. She was relocated to a new room that was on the first floor (the oncology section). Not too much happened on Thursday, but you could consider Friday to be quite a bit more action-packed. My dad went down on Friday morning to be with her before the operation, yay dad! However, (as per usual) they were running behind, so she didn’t get into the OR until after noon. While the surgery was similar to the last one on the L4 and L5, this one was much more extensive. The last tumor was coming into the spine from the side of this skin, whereas this stupid little bugger was in more of an hourglass shape. The tumor had almost completely rotted away the T3, meaning that a majority of it had to be removed. Because of this, they also had to put in pins and plates which are braced by the T2 and T4 to stabilize the area. The surgery was around 4 hours from my understanding.

I arrived at the hospital before 5 pm and when I got there, my dad had already been there waiting. My sister arrived a bit later and the three of us hung out in the waiting room for a while. They didn’t let us see her for a few hours because she was having trouble with nausea in the wake-up process. Because of the scale of this surgery, she’s staying in the step-down ICU unit. When fe finally got to see her she was feeling okay pain-wise, and all things considered was looking pretty good! The surgery went fine. They were able to remove a good amount of the tumor. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get it all because it had wrapped around her spine, making it too difficult to reach. From my understanding, the surgeon was pleased with how it went. Post-surgery, she will have to wear a neck brace (pictured below) for 6 weeks. Another important doctor order is NO BLT!! (Bending, lifting, twisting – sandwiches are still on the table!). The brace should help with this.

Today, Saturday, November 11th, it’s not looking like she’ll be out of here soon. My dad and I are predicting Tuesday at the earliest. From my time with her today she’s seemed okay as well. I was able to help her get some food, and apparently, the hospital food isn’t too bad (there’s an extensive menu). A popular item for her has been the apple crisp! Yum! This morning she got fitted for the custom brace and has been rocking it like a champ. Physical therapy came this afternoon, and she was able to sit up for the first time. Woohoo! Not only sit up but stand as well! She hasn’t moved yet, so maybe standing a few times and walking is tomorrow’s goal. Her blood pressure during these movements was quite low, and she was having a hard time breathing, so that wasn’t what we wanted. But, in all fairness, she’s being given a significant amount of drugs, and her body is probably very confused after all the, pardon my French, shit it’s been through.

Throughout this whole process, I’ve been really impressed with her optimism and forward thinking. She trusts science and believes that she’ll be feeling better soon (I, along with my family, believe this too). She has always been the woman I look up to the most, and I know as nasty as this cancer gets, she will continue to fight. This whole situation sucks. Like actually sucks so so bad. But I’m speaking for GDEM (Glen Donna Evelyn and Maddy) when I say thank you to the people who have sent love and support. It’s allowed our family to continue functioning in these quite frankly grim times and means a lot.

The goal is that hopefully this message can answer some questions so my mom doesn’t have to go through as much mental effort answering everyone. You are so awesome if you’ve made it to the end of this email, and I hope whoever may be reading this has a wonderful day. Okay, this is the end of my short novella, so goodbye :).