Mark Hayward Events

When we arrived at UCSF, Mark was back from his MRI and a "delicious" lunch of chicken, vegetables and something else was being delivered.  He was alert, sitting in the chair and looked good with no bandages or packing in his nose.  His face looked a tad bit swollen, but all in all, very good.  The anesthesia has worn off but still no pain meds - just some Tylenol.  He has a private room which is nice to have.  Since it was lunchtime, Linda (Gail's sister), Gail, Vent and myself went down to the cafeteria to grab a bite while Mark ate his lunch.  I think he wanted some quiet and felt that it would be good for Gail to get away.  We did some catching up with Linda and Gail - some about Mark and some about just families.  I think Gail needed a break to talk about something other than what's going on with Mark.

However, since we're really all concerned about Mark, one of the comments she made about the doctor sort of surprised me.  I thought they loved Dr. McDermott and had great faith in him.  When they first met with him and went through the first surgery, I think they felt that he was focused and definitely knew what he was doing.  I guess during the last couple of visits, they've had very limited time (15 min) with him and he has appeared to be scattered, not taking notes during the meeting, having different memories of what was said, etc, to the extent that Gail actually checked into some other doctors.  They will be coming back up for a checkup in January.  Let's pray that Dr. McDermott is focused, understands that there is a patient behind the disease, and is as, or more concerned about the patient as he is about his own accomplishments.  He is an accomplished neurosurgeon and there were great risks with the location of the tumor near the optic nerve and a couple of carotid veins located in the brain (I've only heard of carotid arteries).  And as Gail said, a lot of the hard work of forging a path to the tumor was done in the last surgery which made this one easier and took less time.  So yes, the doctor has his strengths, but may have some weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and worked on.

Mark is being discharged this afternoon.  There's a free shuttle from the med center to the hotel where they're staying just a few blocks away.   He would like to get home and sleep in his own bed but that won't happen until tomorrow nite.  They're both hoping that sleep will come tonite.  Linda is probably driving straight home to Placerville, so Gail will be solo driving to Reedley.  Mark's plan is that he'll be back teaching at the beginning of January when the new semester starts.  He keeps pressing forward...reminds me of the Apostle Paul.

Just got off the phone with Gail.  The good news is that Mark is doing well enough that he's sort of being ignored by the nursing staff.  The bad news is that he's being ignored.  However, Gail is spending the night in the room with Mark to be his advocate.  Last time, she slept on the floor; this time she has a chair that's supposed to stretch out - will see if someone can help her with that.

Mark is alert, refusing to take any pain meds, although he did ask for a Benadryl.  Joked about where he might have gotten that stubborn streak from. They were blessed to have an experienced anesthesiologist who took greater care in inserting the tube in Mark's throat. so he's not experiencing the horrible pain in the throat and the accompanying bleeding.  He's been eating jello (Gail was able to get additional servings for him) and requested scrambled eggs for breakfast.  There's a possibility that Mark will be discharged TOMORROW (can you believe that?).  If so, they will spend another night in in SF and get a fresh start the following morning.  Linda (Gail's sister) is at the hotel and hopefully will be able to hellp with the driving home when the time comes.  It sounds like they both have kept their sense of humor as well as the "we'll deal with whatever the circumstances" type attitude.  That's probably amazingly helpful at times like this.

An appendix to the previous entry about the chemo...a biopsy of the tumor is sent off to a lab to see if it has the "receptors" for the chemo.  If it does, Mark can take the chemo.  If not, it is unknown what the next step is.  It takes about a month to get the results.  Obviously, the hope is that he can take the chemo; the alternative is that the tumor will grow back.  Per Dr. McDermott, this is an insidious type of tumor. 

We'll get a chance to visit tomorrow and let you know more then.

Love, Ruth