Day #2

Well, it's almost midnight on day #2. Darin has had a fairly good day, and is resting at the moment. The doctor came in this evening, and explained a list of things. I've copied the following from what I posted on: caringbridge.org/visit/darinnicholls

Dr. Daniels arrived around 6:30 tonight and talked to us. We really appreciate him, as he takes time to answer questions etc. He talked to Darin and asked him to make some "faces" for him, and looked over his chart. Darin was supposed to have a cat scan done earlier today, which wasn't done yet... so he talked to the nurse to make sure that he got one done tonight. He said the results would be in tomorrow, but said that he expects everything to be fine with it. If there was a problem he said there would be other signs, and so he thinks everything should be fine.

He explained again for Darin how the surgery went, and that he thinks they got 99.9% of the tumor out.

The dr. explained that he expected Darin's right side of his face to be weak, due to the stress that was placed on that nerve. But he did not expect it to be quite this weak. The right side of Darin's face doesn't have a whole lot of movement at this point, he is able to open and close both eyes, the right eye seems just a tad bit delayed when he closes it. The doctor said he "tested" the nerve just before closing up surgery and it reacted fine to the test, and so he's not sure why the lack of movement is this extreme. But he said that he is optomistic that Darin will regain the movement, he said it could be 6 weeks, it could be 6 months. He told Darin to do 20 repititions of closing his eyes really tight, then smiling 20 times in a row, then frowning, and a few other "faces". He said to do this twice a day, Darin asked if he should do it more? The Dr. said that would be great. He explained that everytime he does that his brain is sending a signal to his nerve to move his face, and so it will strengthen that nerve and in a sense re-train it to work correctly again.

Darin has not struggled with being nauceous (someday I need to learn to spell that word correctly) today, and has not been dizzy. Dr. Daniels was suprised at this b/c he said he should be dizzy all the time, feeling like the room is spinning. The balance issue is a little more complicated to explain, the Dr. said that he has not had a patient that hasn't been throwing up all over the place the first 48 hours b/c they are so dizzy. He said that Darin's ears normally send signals back and forth to each other, telling the body to balance itself. Usually after this surgery, and the fact that the hearing nerve was cut, the "good" ear will still send the signal but it will have nowhere to go and it will bounce back to the "good" ear. Possibly this is not happening with Darin, the signal is being sent and he said maybe there are remaining fibers there that are "accepting" the signal and causing him not to be dizzy, etc.

But the Dr. said he's never had this happen before so he doesn't know for sure if that's the case, but he said that's the only possible explanation that he can give for it. Or maybe God has had something to do with it???? :0)

Darin had a few visitors this evening, and the visit with the doctor was tiring for him, and then he was off to the cat scan... the poor kid is wore out. He's currently sleeping, throwing in a good snore every once in awhile for good measure.

THANK YOU for your prayers & notes, they are an encouragement! The doctor said he'd be in sometime tomorrow, probably in the afternoon and will most likely discharge Darin from the ICU, and he'll be moved to a different floor. The Doctor said it's noiser there, and the possibility that he will have to share a room. Hopefully he'll be able to have a private room tomorrow.