Fresh Mountain Air = End of the Blog

Adri got clearance to head to the mountains for part of her recovery. The fresh air and relaxed atmosphere will be good for her continued improvement. She is heading to Graeagle with my parents tomorrow. This has become a family tradition over the last few years and we are so glad Adri is feeling up for the journey. She is nervous about the car ride but my parents have promised to take it easy and pull over for breaks when necessary.

This blog has really been an outlet for many of us to share our experiences with all of our family and friends. Adri has treasured the comments from all of you and has continued to be inspired by your love and support. We are not taking the blog down so feel free to keep commenting as we always look forward to your thoughts.

From here on out please contact Adri directly re: visiting. She will be in the mountains for awhile and will look forward to a busy visiting schedule when she returns.

Thank you for all of the flowers, gifts and cards. Unfortunately she won't receive anything you send to my parents house for some time. Please reach out to Adri if you do have something you want to send her way and she can tell you how to find her.

Please read below for some last thoughts from my mom.

Thank you all! This journey would have been so much more difficult without the support from our treasured family and friends!

Limoncello

14 days plus "9 hours and 45 minutes" plus another 6 weeks = FULL RECOVERY

Adri is on the road to recovery, and I must say it is a very profound journey.

Along the way, our family has benefited more than we could have ever realized.
Our family has become even stronger and closer.
We have reconfirmed our amazing friendships with our lifelong friends.
We have reestablished bonds with people whom we met along life's journey.
We have renewed contacts with business associates of years past.
Individual friendships have extended to become family relationships.
We are cared for by the most amazing medical staff.
We are watched over by our Guardian Angels.
The uncanny "Six Degrees of Separation" theory has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.
We have been introduced to people who have become instant friends, including others with acoustic neuromas and ICU nurses that we would not have met without this twist of fate.
And the list goes on...
These are the precious gifts of life to be cherished.

All because of an ice cream cone shaped tumor (the doctors description) lodged next to Adri’s brain. My son-in-law says he can't wait for Adri to tell her nephew-to-be about the summer Auntie Adri got an ice cream cone stuck in her head. Ahhhhhh, family stories!!!!

One never knows where life will lead, but Adri has shown us how to make the best of any situation that comes our way, the good and the not so good. She has demonstrated great spirit, defined courage, shown dignity in all actions, looked at the big picture and approached everything with a smile and a sense of humor. She makes us all proud. Lemons or Limoncello? Ask Adri, she knows the answer to that one!!

Who knew you could learn so much from your children?

Adri keeps saying, "I am so lucky". My family amazes me. Adri is wise beyond her years. Allison is determined and strong of heart. Lex is protective and steadfast. Molly and Mike are treasures. My husband is our pillar of strength. I feel as if I am the lucky one!

Every kindness sent to Adri is so greatly appreciated. Thank you. Life is good.

Mom/Marlene/Grandmother-to-be

Thank You!

A wise friend recently asked me if I was still counting the hours, or days, or weeks since my brain surgery. It's day 12. And I can't sleep. I can't sleep for a lot of reasons, reasons like the new seemingly permanent throbbing on the left side of my head and thoughts that keep me awake about how I feel like I might just be the luckiest person in the world. You'd think the roxy/norco/valium combo might help fall into a deep sleep but sometimes it's a matter of the heart that keeps you awake at night. You know when you were a little kid and you'd want something so badly you thought you were going to burst? That's how I feel now... but it's more like I put my hands together close to my heart, squeeze my eyes tight, hold my breath and .... smile. I am smiling as I sit here sleeplessly 12 days after brain surgery. I am so thankful this has happened to me, so thankful I feel like I might burst. I would never wish a brain tumor on anyone, but it has been a gift to experience so much love and kindness; I wish everyone could joyfully squeeze their eyes tight in gratitude and see what this brain tumor has shown me. Life is good.

Thank you for the flowers, meals, care packages, visits, cards, texts, phone calls, blog comments, emails, FB messages and endless prayers. I am surrounded by fragrant, happy, flowers. I am tucked into cozy, comfy PJs. Words of encouragement hang all around my parent's home, pulling my spirits upwards. I re-read the blog on a daily basis, just to remember that this really is happening. Facebook has become a source of inspirational quotes.

It has taken an army of love and support to get me through to day 12. Thank you, each one of you, for your outpour of love to me and my family. Your prayers, positivity and generosity in support have been the motivator of my success. My only option was to rise to the challenge; we can't help what life deals us but it has been your words that make me endure. Thank you!

Sushi? At a Restaurant? 11 Days after Surgery? YES!!

I just got home from dropping Adri and my mom off after going out to dinner with them. We had sushi at a little local joint. The biggest challenge for Adri was the noise. Since she can only hear out her right ear, she struggled a bit with processing our conversation and all of the background noise. Her brain will eventually help her tune in the good stuff and tune out the garbage. Something we could all probably benefit from.

She really is improving but it is still going to be a long road. I am sure she is in her jammies right now and headed to bed. She is such an active person and it is really hard for her to sit still and just heal. If you have any good restful hobbies you could recommend she pick up that would be great, maybe knitting or origami?

Adri is so appreciative of all of the support, love, flowers and gifts. She has told me so many times that she hopes to someday be able to verbalize and thank everyone for everything they have done for her through this process. You all have made it easier for her and for our family.

Thanks!

32 years old and Adri still needs a babysitter!

Mom and Dad were invited to dinner and even though they were tired, I am sure it was nice to get out of the house. My guideson's (his parent's aren't religious) birthday party was tonight so that left Adri in need of babysitting! Luckily her friends Stephanie and Megan stepped up to the challenge. They were left with written drug instructions and warnings to keep the chatting to a minimum and let Adri get her rest. I am sure they did great and the rest of the family enjoyed a night off. Thanks!

Ouch- that hurts!

Adri was told that getting the staples out was no big deal, well she said it really hurt!

Let's give credit where credit is due

I just want to make sure that all of you know that this blog has been a true team effort! Lex was the creator of the blog and also all the postings posted by Adri's Blog. Molly was a huge contributor as well. This has been really a fun distraction and hopefully a nice way to communicate this info to you. This blog would not have happened without Lex and Molly!

Fewer Postings= More Progress

So I am sitting here with Adri at my parents house. She is resting a bit in between visitors. I look around the place and here is what I see:
-The scrapbook with all of your notes, pictures and stories. Adri says she looks at this daily and it makes her smile.
-Tons of beautiful flowers in various colors.
-The closet doors in the bedroom are covered with cards and notes from all of you. She looks at them before she goes to bed and when she wakes up.

She continues to tell me how she feels so loved and how she truly believes all of the support has made a difference in her recovery.

As you know Adri is a pretty active person, she doesn't like to sit home and watch the boob tube. She is getting a little, ok maybe a lot, bored. But the problem is she still doesn't have the stamina to do much. She just had a visitor and as soon as she left Adri closed her eyes. I brought over all my cheesy DVDs to try and give her some entertainment since she is still struggling a bit with reading.

Some big news today, Adri has ditched the walker! She is walking on her own, although carefully. She is still working on her balance and getting her footing right but this is a big step towards recovery.

Tomorrow is going to be another butt numbing experience! She is going back to Stanford to get her 28 staples in her head out and the 3 sutures in her belly button. They had to do a mini liposuction from her belly, like there was anything there! They took some of that fat and created a "fat dam" where the tumor was in order to create a dam between her brain and her spinal fluid. Is that gross or what? Our whole family offered to be donors but no such luck!

I hope that once Adri gets her staples out she will be up for some blog postings. Look for another update tomorrow evening!

Thanks again for everything!
Allison

Father's Day, just another walk in the park!

Funny Moments and Visiting Hours

Adri has been thinking through her experiences over the last, almost week now, and she wanted to share a few funny moments with you.

When she first came out of surgery they asked her what year it was? Adri responded with 1978. Pretty funny since she was born in 1978 and was not really talking yet. They asked her who the President was she replied, I don't know. Well now she has gotten things straight and knows it is 2010 and Obama rules the roost.

As you know Dr. Harsh was Adri's neurosurgeon. But did you know Dr. Harsh is married to Meg Whitman, the woman running for Governor of California? With a successful surgery, Meg may have secured a few more votes!

Adri had what mom called a day off today. She mostly slept and watched the boob tube today. She is missing some pain medication so the pain was a bit more today and hopefully that will get remedied tonight.

Adri is looking forward to having a few visitors this week but for those of you who do come by please keep your visits to 30 minutes because as soon as you leave she will go straight to bed! Please send me an email if you would like to see her and I will help coordinate your visit.

So Many Drugs!

This is most but not all of the drugs Adri is on to help with the pain, nausea and inflammation.

ADRI IS SNUGGLED IN BED WITH MR. GREEN- POSTED BY MOM

EXPLANATION: Mr. Green is a crocheted blanket made by my Mother (who will be 91 this week) for Adri before she was born (we did not know the sex of our babies, therefore "green"). Mr. Green was her constant companion, dare we forget him at any time was not a good thing for the entire family, and he even experienced some of the first days at UCSB!!! I got him out of retirement and he still cleans up pretty good.

You know how you can look back on life and think, wow, that was interesting, or, I really had fun, or, what a happy occasion, or why me, or that could have gone better, or, that was lousy, or, wasn't that intriguing? I was thinking about that today on how we categorize daily happenings and they go into a myriad of different memory files that you keep as your own personal journal of life. On my drive home from Stanford today with my "acoustic neuroma free" baby girl, I was thinking of this. To categorize this day for my life files, I will say that it has to be one of the best days of my life.

Mom/Marlene/Grandmother-to-be

No more hospital gowns!

Adri got into some yummy new jammies and said goodbye to Stanford! Thanks for taking care of my tumor, but I am outta here!

Home Sweet Home

Adri left the hospital around 1:30 today and came home and went straight to bed for a 3 hour nap! The car ride wasn't that bad which was a nice surprise because we had heard horror stories.

Before she left today she spent some time working with a Physical Therapist because she is still not able to walk on her own. This is pretty unusual for someone with an acoustic neuroma. She was sent home with a walker and will continue to walk with that until she is cleared by the therapist. She is going to need 30 days of physical therapy to get her to the right place as far as walking is concerned. She walks a little to the right and feels like she may fall backwards. This is mostly due to the vertigo.

Her pain was better today, somewhere around a 2, which is a big improvement. She is also having more pain that normal so hopefully the steroid regiment will help with the inflammation to the lining of the brain.

Adri also had some trouble reading this morning. Last night she was able to read the blog entries with no problems but this morning she couldn't read. The doctors believe that this has to do with her brain settling after the surgery. They were in there messing around for 10 hours!

She is really excited to see people but still completely exhausted. Hopefully she will be up for a couple of visitors tomorrow but we will ask people to limit their visits so she can get her rest. Hopefully she will be feeling great soon and be looking for companionship.

Adri said she may be up for posting her own thoughts on the blog tonight so stay tuned!

Meningitis Free and Time to Go Home

Adri had her blood work done and she does not have any evidence of meningitis which is great news! She will still be taking the steroids to help with any swelling or inflammation.

As many of you know my dad is a numbers guy, so we tasked him to count the staples and she has 28 staples! Ouch!

Adri will be headed home Monday, hopefully she will get discharged at around 11AM. She is making great improvements but just felt more comfortable taking one more night at the hospital.

The drive home is going to be a challenge with her vertigo. She feels like things are swaying and moving so the hour long drive with all that motion is going to be tough. Not too mention the bumpy roads! They are the worst in SF.

Once we get her home we will figure out how she wants visiting hours to work. She is anxious to see people and still trying to focus on her recovery.

Thanks for all the continued support- everyone has been truly amazing!

Almost Tube Free!

Adri has a few holes but for the most part she is tube free! She actually had so many tubes and IV lines she was wearing a wrist brace that protected all the lines so she could not accidentally pull them out.

Thank you for the flowers and cards!

Big Hair Follow Up Picture

Having some pain problems/ Aseptic Meningitis

The doctors came in this morning to check on Adri and the biggest topic was pain. She is still at about a 5 out of a 10 in pain and it is especially painful when she gets out of bed.

The have given her a preliminary diagnosis of aseptic meningitis. This seems like a scary term but here is the definition:
Aseptic Meningitis is an illness characterized by serous inflammation of the linings of the brain. Meningitis means inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

The doctors say this is not the scary kind of meningitis that has to do with infection but much more about inflammation. Since they were in there poking the lining of the brain it is not uncommon to have some swelling after a surgery like hers. They are going to put her on a 5-7 day dose of steroids to see if they can get the inflammation under control to help her pain.

The doctors were not ready to release er this morning but said they would check on her this afternoon to see if she is ready to go home. The nurses are pushing Adri to get up and walk around, not lay in bed because they want her to be more active to prevent fever. So far she has avoided that.

Big Hair

As the days go by, the curly hair grows, but it's strangely flat in the back. She thinks she looks scary. I think she looks great. It is truly hard to believe that she is doing so well considering what she has been through.

Adri had a few visitors today and although she loved the company she was tired tonight.

This morning when the doctors were doing their rounds they told her there was a possibility she would go home today and she simply said she was not ready. There is a chance that she will go home (my parents house) tomorrow, she has not committed to anything but decided to wait and see how she is feeling and make the call then.

She showered today, got fresh sheets and went for a couple short walks. Life is good.

Saturday

Adri had a bit of a rough night with pain, they are trying to get her off IV drugs so she can get ready to go home. The nurses and doctors are trying to only give her oral meds which takes a bit of time to iron out how much and when. She was sitting up in her chair eating lunch a little while ago and had a session with an Occupational Therapist who got her up and out for a walk. She continues to improve but they need to find the right mix of medications so she can go home.

A note from Adri

Thanks friends and family for all your thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming because it seems like all those positive well wishes are working!

Love Adri

Real Food

Adri is eating a yummy strawberry thanks to a scrubbed and gloved Mike G.

Is your butt numb?

Houston, we have lift off

This morning Adri got out of bed and walked down the hallway!!! She also managed to eat a little bit of food and is sitting in a chair. This is a huge improvement and we are so very happy for her. Dr. Harsh came in during lunch to see how she was doing and said that her progress is very "above average." Most patients after this surgery apparently aren't up until two to three more days later. Truly amazing. At this pace we think she **might** be able to check out Sunday or Monday. Adri said she would be up for reading the blog later today so please post!!!

Goodnight from Adri

Adri has been sound asleep most of the time since they transferred her from ICU early this afternoon... As everyone can imagine she is exhausted. Adri is doing great, smiling and even cracking a few jokes, and like always, has a great spirit.

Those of you might be aware that Adri has her list of her 100 things to do in life (the bucket list). She informed Marlene tonight she added "Brain Tumor" to the list bringing the number to 101. :)

Lex asked her what quote she wanted on the blog. Adri said to quote her as saying "blaaaaahhhhhh."

The family appreciates all of the kind words and notes from everyone. I'm sure Adri will enjoy reading all the comments when she is feeling better.

Adri also asked us to say thank you to everyone for all the love and support.

A Move and Visiting

Adri has been moved to the neurosurgery floor out of ICU which is good news. She is still in pain and vomiting.

When I asked her about visitors she simply said "not yet".

At this time we would like to request that any flowers be delivered to Mom and Dad's house next week. We will let everyone know when we get her home!

Thanks again for your well wishes!!

Adri this morning- pretty good!

Visiting Adri

Many of you have reached out to me to see if you can come and see her. She is still in ICU and we hope she will get moved later today to an area with better visiting hours. I am not sure she is going to be ready for visitors tomorrow but we will check with her once we get her settled on the next recovery floor in her new room and then I will let you know.

Thanks for your patience as rest is a huge part of her recovery!

Difficulty commenting on the blog?

I have heard from a few of you that you were not able to comment on the blog. I just changed the settings so I am hoping that it will be easier for people to comment now. If you do comment and you do not register please sign your comments so we know who you are.

Thanks!

16 hours after surgery

Mom and I just completed our first visit with Adri this morning. She looks truly amazing considering what she has been through. Right before we went in to see her, we spoke to Dr. Harsh. He said he had visited her this morning and she is doing really well. Her hearing is gone in her left ear and there was very little chance of saving it since the tumor extended deep into her auditory canal. She has a little blurred vision from the vertigo, she told us she had to tell Dr. Harsh during his visit, "I don't mean to be rude but I can;t tell the difference between your eyes and your nostrils."

She has a great attitude. We complimented her bravery and strength and she simply replied that it was her only option. She seems to be very aware, she remembers saying good night to us last night, what was said during previous visits, all of the people who have come by to say hello. She is lucky enough to have such a big network of friends that she actually knows one of the nurses who works in the neurology ICU, another friend who works in the recovery area and one of Dad's old business colleague's daughter who is a resident here who happened to be working in ICU last night. They have all stopped by and been great. Lisa the ICU nurse texted me updates early this morning when we weren't allowed to visit.

She is still in ICU for now but the plan is to move her to the next stage of her recovery on the neurology floor where she will have more flexible visiting hours and we are crossing our fingers for a private room!

I took a picture of her to post so as soon as my IT support (Lex) arrives we will post it so you can all see how good she looks.

Good Night Baby Sister

So I just got home from a super long day at the hospital, we arrived at Stanford at 5:15AM! We were able to see her from 9-9:30PM and again at 10PM. During the 9:00 visiting period she was doing pretty well, actually complaining of being hot, which is hard to believe, she is ALWAYS freezing! She is very thirsty and was begging for ice chips and water but even a little ice chip made her sick. The procedure cut her vestibule nerve which is the balance nerve on the left side. Her brain is currently trying to compensate and it usually takes 2-4 days to get that sorted out so in the mean time she is on anti-nausea medication. Unfortunately it seems that she has lost the hearing in her left ear. She says it is really weird to not be able to hear out of that ear. Even after almost 10 hours of surgery she looked beautiful! When she smiles both sides of her mouth curve up indicating that the facial nerve is still in tact. This is all good.

Her ICU nurse Dona was great and Adri seems to be in good hands. We only stayed a short while during the last visiting period because they gave her some Valium and she was so tired. She sent us home to sleep in our own beds and we will be back in the morning for the next round of visiting hours.

This was a really long day for all of us so I hope everyone gets some good sleep tonight knowing that our brave Adri did remarkably well and is now tumor free!

Good Night Baby Sister.
Good Night Everyone.
And THANK YOU!

Adri Sighting!!!

She was wheeled by on her way to ICU and she actually looked pretty good for being in surgery for 9 hours and 45 minutes! She was in a little pain and the doctors said it could not have gone better! One of the doctors told me that she remembers the baby's name, even though the anesthesiologist said she was "wasted"! We will get to see her again in about 30 minutes and looking forward to hugging and kissing her! We got to see the bandage where the incision/ hole was and it was just behind the hairline of the left ear. Looked like a 4 inch bandage and it didn't look like they shaved much hair. She is so brave and we could not be happier!

8hrs and 1min

Well, just after Lex's last post Dr. Harsh came out to see us. Everything went really well! She is still in surgery, they are closing her up and replacing the piece of bone they removed from the skull. She will get wheeled by us at around 5:30 and then we should be able to see her around 6:30 in ICU. They were able to remove 99-100% of the tumor and it looked to be a typical benign, non-cancerous, acoustic neuroma. The facial nerve is 100% in tact which is fantastic news. Dr. Harsh was not optimistic that she would retain her hearing in her left ear after the procedure. We are all so relieved and thankful that the procedure was successful! I will post my next update when we get the drive by! Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts, it looks like they were answered!

8hrs

We don't have any updates

Mom just erned a life time acheivment award

We just gave Mom a life time achievement award for drinking 1 liter of water.... Mom never drinks water. She needs to rehydrate.......

Small update

All we have heard is that things are going well but we don't know how much longer she will be in surgery.

Waiting is the hardest part!

So she left us at 7:30AM and the surgery started at 8:30AM. She has been in surgery for just over 5 hours. No news is good news and we knew it would be a long day. We have all eaten lunch and taken a little break from the waiting room but it doesn't make it any easier. We wanted to post something because we know everyone is waiting for the good news too. As soon as we hear anything we will let you know.

Adri in Pre-Op

The Family Care Package

She is spoiling us, even from the OR!

Surgery has Started

We just heard from the Waiting Room Attendant that her surgery began at 8:30 this morning. We did not get to see the doctors before the surgery but Adri was too cute because she asked the OR nurse and the anesthesiologist to tell her, even if she couldn't hear it, "that the surgery was going well", "the doctors were doing a good job" and that "she would be fine." Positive Reinforcement never hurts!

Adri just went in

Adri just went into surgery at 7:30. Mom made all the doctors pinky swear that she would be ok... she also hugged the head of anesthesialogy who had no idea what was coming. Adri is in good hands. True to form, Adri packed a survival kit for the family including a mini pack of airplane wine and gummy bears. Allison asked the doctor if the "happy juice" had kicked in to which he replied "yes, she's wasted.". Allison also told her the baby's name to see if she will remember. All we know is that Adri likes the name...


Her status will be posted on the update board in the waiting room and we will write more soon.

Recovery Address

Many of you have asked for an address for my parents house where Adri will be recovering after she is released from the hospital so here it is:
Adri Hallenberger c/o Mike and Marlene Hallenberger
1896 Pacific Ave #204
San Francisco, Ca 94109

Wednesday June 16th- Surgery Day

As most of you know Adri will be having her brain surgery preformed at Stanford on June 16th. She is due to check in at 5:15 AM and we are not sure what time the actual surgery will begin but I will update you on that. She is going to be operated on by the team of Dr. Harsh, Neurosurgeon and Dr. Jackler, ENT. They operate in a team so they can leverage their specialized skill sets to give Adri the best possible outcome. The procedure is going to be about 6-8 hours with hopefully 1 night in the ICU and a total of 5 days in the hospital.

Our family thanks you for all the love and support you have shown Adri over the last few weeks as we have approached this day. She has been overwhelmed, in a good way, by all of the well wishes and support she has seen from everyone.

Please feel free to forward this blog along to anyone I may have missed. This will be a really easy way for us to stay in touch with all of you as well as a great mechanism to capture your thoughts and comments through this process.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed, say a pray and keep her in your thoughts on Wednesday.

Thanks,
Allison

Adri Our Sunshine Girl

Acoustic Neuroma Definition By Mayo Clinic Staff

Although it's frightening to learn that you have a tumor growing inside your head, it may be somewhat comforting to know that an acoustic neuroma is noncancerous (benign) and usually slow growing. These tumors develop adjacent to your brain on a portion of the eighth cranial nerve, which runs from your brain to your inner ear. Also known as vestibular schwannoma, acoustic neuroma is one of the most common types of brain tumors.

Symptoms of acoustic neuroma, including hearing loss, develop from the tumor pressing on the nerve. But, acoustic neuromas don't invade brain tissue like cancer does.

For some people, an acoustic neuroma remains so small it never causes problems. Treatment options include regular monitoring, radiation and surgical removal.