Posted for Maria by her husband, Wayne:
In her last post, Maria was in Florida with the sunshine, enjoying a nice long walk on the beach and trying to relax after a long week in Minneapolis running her trade show/conference. Unfortunately, the rest of her week did not go well.
On Thursday, May 12th, Maria started experiencing a headache in the back (between her ears) of her head. At first this was annoying but as Thursday turned to Friday, Maria called me to say that this headache had gotten worse. Friday she was in bed all day, experience nausea if she tried to get up along with feeling very dizzy.
So, on Friday I booked a ticket to Florida to arrive early Saturday morning. Maria was scheduled to fly back on Sunday, so I booked my return flight to match hers. I got to Florida and Maria was feeling horrible. She mostly stayed in the bed, tried to eat a little and drink a little, and rest before we flew back Sunday.
Of course, as things do sometimes, more stuff happened. Early Sunday morning, like 6am, I get a call from American Airlines saying that our flight from Ft Meyers had been cancelled. We were supposed to make the short drive to Ft Meyers and leave around 11:50 and arrive in Chicago at 2pm. Instead, our only option (other than connecting flights going through La Guardia) was to drive to Miami and catch a flight at 5:40, now arriving back in Chicago at 8pm. By now, Maria's headache is even worse and she is not sure she can ride in the car to Miami, much less fly. But, it was either go to the hospital in Naples, or make that drive to Miami and fly home.
We managed to get to Miami, leaving early to allow plenty of time if we had to stop, and we waited and got on our flight ... and finally arrived in Chicago. Maria was exhausted and wanted to go home and sleep before we went to the hospital.
On Monday morning, we got up and drove to the emergency room at Northwestern Hospital. By 10am they were doing a CT scan .. by 11am we were told that her cancer had moved to her brain and there was a tumor the size of a silver dollar in the back of her head, pressing against her brain and causing all of this pain. By 1pm, the decision had been made to do surgery this week and we had already met with members of the neuro-surgery team. By 5pm we were in a room here at Northwestern and the surgery had been set for Tuesday morning at 10:30 or so.
Tuesday morning, they showed up early, flipped on the lights and announced that a cancellation had occurred and we were going to surgery NOW ... of course, in hospital time that meant go now and wait .. but oh well.
The surgery went as planned and was executed perfectly. Anything that could go wrong .. DID NOT go wrong. The tumor was removed and here we sit on Friday ... recovering ... and planning the next steps.
So, our current game plan is this: Help Maria get her strength back and continue recovery, see the radiation oncologist on June 2nd for the Gamma Knife Radiation procedure (they use targeted radiation to clean up the area where the tumor was .. to be safe that they have removed the cancer .. and to radiate another small cancer deposit on the opposite side of her head, see her normal oncologist for the plan on future chemo and further tests, and also work with the pulmonary specialist to get rid of this cough that Maria has been experiencing for several months (that cough has GOT TO GO!).
The targeted radiation is said to be effective 95% of the time in truly eliminating the cancer cells. So, we are feeling pretty confident about that process and then we can just focus on keeping this cancer in its place.
Now .. how is Maria feeling today .. right now. Well, I'm looking at my beautiful wife, sitting in her hospital bed, trying to get comfortable and get more rest. She's got this bandage on her head that comes off tomorrow, and will have a new scar for her impressive surgery scar collection, covered in a "fish" blanket from her nephew Charlie, lying close to two stuffed animals (one from Grace, her niece and godchild, and the other from Mary, another niece) ... and I still see who you all know --- beautiful, warm, tough, irresistible, unstoppable, loving, kind ... totally AWESOME ... Maria. She's a little more battered and bruised, but she is not one to give up or give in .. to anything.
She will again be posting to her blog shortly ... but I wanted to at least put something up here for those that follow her journey. Her journey has taken another turn. The battle against cancer has been raised a notch. Well .. cancer .. I'm not sure you have enough game to match up with my Maria!
As I look at her sleeping now ... I just say -- I love you Maria Francesca DiNatale Madden - you are one of a kind!
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