Zac's First Brain Surgey October 27, 2010

We were back at the hospital bright and early as Zac was the first to go to the OR that day. I did not get much sleep the night before, how could I knowing what was going to happen today. Dr. Cohen came in and told us everything he was going to that day. The plan was to go between the two hemispheres of Zac's brain to work on getting as much of the tumor out as he could. Then he would drain all the extra fluid that had built up in Zac's skull and place an external shunt to keep draining the extra fluid out of his head. We were told this would be a very long surgery 6-8 hours but to remember that the longer they are working on him the more tumor they are getting out.

It was go time. We walked the walk of terror as they pushed our baby boy to the OR doors. I kissed his head and sobbed my eyes out hoping that was not going to be the last time I saw him alive. We returned to Zac's room closed his door hugged each other and cried. After we pulled ourselves together all we could do was wait.

About 6 1/2 hours later we were told that Zac was out of surgery and stable. They had taken the breathing tube out in the recovery room to see if Zac was able to breath on his own, we were told he was breathing on his own and would be back to his room soon. Dr. Cohen met us in his room before Zac got there and he said that everything went well. He was able to get 30% of the tumor out and a biopsy would be done to determine what kind of tumor is was. Also there was so much fluid built up in Zac's skull that he had lost 3cm in head circumference after draining the fluid.

Zac came back to his room and it was a flood of PICU Dr.'s and nurses we were pushed to the side as they tried to keep Zac stable. A nurse was very concerned that Zac was having trouble breathing and she thought he needed to be intubated to support his air way. We were kicked out of his room while the team worked on Zac. We were more then scared at this point. Was he ok?? We didn't know.

After 30 long minutes we were brought back to Zac's room. They had to put his breathing tube back in. It was just way to much work for him to try and breath on his own after everything that had just happened to him. We were thankful to the nurse that noticed that Zac was having such trouble with his breathing. Now we had to get through the next 24-48 hours.

The Demon Deep Inside Zac's Brain

On October 26th after Zac went to MRI about 2 hours later we were given the devastating news that Zac had a very large brain tumor. We were also told the bad news news that his tumor was in the worst location of his brain, it was in his hypothalamus and wrapped around his optic nerves. From what we were told the hypothalamus is your "life line" it controls everything your body does from controlling your body tempture, heart rate, breathing, and hormones. This was not the news we were expecting to hear.

We were introduced to Dr. Cohen one of the best pediatric neurosurgeons in the country. He said he was going to do Zac's brain surgery that day, he was just waiting on an OR to open up. The day drug on and on it felt like we were in a really bad dream and not real life. As the afternoon turned into early evening with no OR coming open any time soon Dr. Cohen made the decision to hold off on Zac's surgery and do it first thing in the Morning of the 27th. He said that Zac was stable enough to make it overnight. We were told to go home and try to get some rest.

I am attaching a picture of Zac's brain tumor. This was the MRI scan done on the 26th. The large white mass in the center of his brain is the tumor. I have not shared these pictures with very many people. This just gives you an idea of what our son has been fighting for almost a year.