Friends - Stu would prefer no more visitors today with a bunch of tests lined up for him to do before he can come home. If he ends up having to stay the night, he might be up for a visit. The goal is to get him home for a few days.
Thanks!!
Sandi
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Thanks for hanging out with me last night Dave and John. So glad you were there to hear all about my bodily functions! Dr Hervey-Jumper thinks that I can maybe check out this evening. I'm happy to be going home for awhile to rest up before the next surgery.
I'm now in L832
We will let you know when I get discharged.
Thanks for all the prayers and support everyone!
I'm now in L832
We will let you know when I get discharged.
Thanks for all the prayers and support everyone!
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Stu got a room!!
This just in! Stu has busted out of ICU!! His room is L834-2 He is up for guests. The address is 505 Parnassus San Francisco.
He is feeling strong, awake and is doing very well both physically and emotionally! He thrives on his friendships and cannot wait to be in your company!
He has an MRI scheduled for today, but we don't know when that will be.
We have no tests back, we have not seen the doctor, we don't have an official date that he is coming home. He passed his PT and OT tests that will allow him to come home soon though!
Thank you for your continued prayers and positivity and emails you send that have comforted us through all of this!! The battle isn't over yet, so keep it up!!
:)
Sandi & Stu
He is feeling strong, awake and is doing very well both physically and emotionally! He thrives on his friendships and cannot wait to be in your company!
He has an MRI scheduled for today, but we don't know when that will be.
We have no tests back, we have not seen the doctor, we don't have an official date that he is coming home. He passed his PT and OT tests that will allow him to come home soon though!
Thank you for your continued prayers and positivity and emails you send that have comforted us through all of this!! The battle isn't over yet, so keep it up!!
:)
Sandi & Stu
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Today when I saw my beautiful Stu laying still, strong and surprisingly not swollen I could feel a miracle in front of me. He did something today that was so beyond anything I can comprehend.
Can you imagine? Someone opens up your skull and puts sensors on you and tells you to read, listen and repeat and recognize information... I'm sorry, what? You can't be serious? Stu didn't flinch at the tests or the procedure. Both arms with iv's, more hair shaved that they really discussed, more blood draws that we thought would happen. I keep wondering how I would deal with any of it, if I were in his shoes (ok, really I mean brain, but you get the idea)??
But you know what? You all, with your imagery and your prayers and your mantras and your positivity made sure we had ourselves a bonafide miracle before us. Today is a gift and I will absorb it into my soul and ride the high of it as long as I can. Stu fought and today he won!! I cannot explain just how I feel our connection to one another, but early this morning I was feeling scared and I texted our East Coast Cousins, our Dutchies, Uncle Bob to start praying... I could feel it!!! Then around 6:20am I started to feel the West Coast prayers and support as you woke up, as Stu went to Pre Opp. We are lifted up by you. Thank you!!
Did I mention how very happy I am that he is out of that surgery? He looks so amazing you guys!! He is so beautiful and strong.
He is in ICU surprising the nurses with his "fight". He plans to take up residence for a few days in a better room as soon as the ICU team deem it realistic. Tonight they will keep watch over him and I will sleep. Tomorrow I will wake up early, you know to start praying early with the East Coast Crew, Uncle Bob and the Dutchies...
He will need to face many more MRI's and a biopsy in the near future. We need you to pray, believe, visualization, Expect A Miracle: That the tumor is gone, that Stu continues to recover with a force unlike anything these doctors have ever seen, that the biopsy reveals a cyst that is totally manageable and non cancerous . Spend your breaks, your coffee sips, your bathroom breaks (hey, I'm not picky about this process!), lunch breaks, walks, runs and evenings over dinner imagining that this thing is nothing more than a benign growth and all is well now in his head. See him healed completely!
Together we can support this great man, together with us... he will Stu!Fight!Win!!
Thank you for today.
Sandi
Can you imagine? Someone opens up your skull and puts sensors on you and tells you to read, listen and repeat and recognize information... I'm sorry, what? You can't be serious? Stu didn't flinch at the tests or the procedure. Both arms with iv's, more hair shaved that they really discussed, more blood draws that we thought would happen. I keep wondering how I would deal with any of it, if I were in his shoes (ok, really I mean brain, but you get the idea)??
But you know what? You all, with your imagery and your prayers and your mantras and your positivity made sure we had ourselves a bonafide miracle before us. Today is a gift and I will absorb it into my soul and ride the high of it as long as I can. Stu fought and today he won!! I cannot explain just how I feel our connection to one another, but early this morning I was feeling scared and I texted our East Coast Cousins, our Dutchies, Uncle Bob to start praying... I could feel it!!! Then around 6:20am I started to feel the West Coast prayers and support as you woke up, as Stu went to Pre Opp. We are lifted up by you. Thank you!!
Did I mention how very happy I am that he is out of that surgery? He looks so amazing you guys!! He is so beautiful and strong.
He is in ICU surprising the nurses with his "fight". He plans to take up residence for a few days in a better room as soon as the ICU team deem it realistic. Tonight they will keep watch over him and I will sleep. Tomorrow I will wake up early, you know to start praying early with the East Coast Crew, Uncle Bob and the Dutchies...
He will need to face many more MRI's and a biopsy in the near future. We need you to pray, believe, visualization, Expect A Miracle: That the tumor is gone, that Stu continues to recover with a force unlike anything these doctors have ever seen, that the biopsy reveals a cyst that is totally manageable and non cancerous . Spend your breaks, your coffee sips, your bathroom breaks (hey, I'm not picky about this process!), lunch breaks, walks, runs and evenings over dinner imagining that this thing is nothing more than a benign growth and all is well now in his head. See him healed completely!
Together we can support this great man, together with us... he will Stu!Fight!Win!!
Thank you for today.
Sandi
Post from Ken. 1:30pm on Tues 5/29. Sandi, Nat, Aunt Angie and I met with Dr. Hervey-Jumper. He said that Stu did great and the tumor was "well behaved" that wasn't connected to any vascular tissue which is good news. They removed almost all of the brain tumor (except for the parts that are right next to speech parts of the brain). They said it was most likely a Glioma (it's a whole family). He said it will take a few more days to get the pathology results to verify it's a Glioma and see what grade of tumor it is. Stu did so well that they may do the biopsy on the Pituitary tumor before he leaves later this week. We are hoping for that tumor to be a simple benign tumor. Stu will likely be watching the Warriors game this Thursday from the hospital and we're going to make the room up to be a Champions Room, because that's what he is.
StuFightWin!
StuFightWin!
Expect A Miracle
We just received an alert that "Patient is doing well. Procedure in Progress."
Stu is feeling so positive and thankful that the surgical team hasn't caught on that Ken took his place. What a brother!
Keep the prayers going. My mom use to do this little saying "Expect A Miracle" and then she'd write what the miracle was. It worked!
EXPECT A MIRACLE: Stu comes thru the surgeries before him and that he is completely healed.
Stu! Fight! Win!
Stu is feeling so positive and thankful that the surgical team hasn't caught on that Ken took his place. What a brother!
Keep the prayers going. My mom use to do this little saying "Expect A Miracle" and then she'd write what the miracle was. It worked!
EXPECT A MIRACLE: Stu comes thru the surgeries before him and that he is completely healed.
Stu! Fight! Win!
Monday, May 28, 2018
Wow! Such great support from friends and family. Super-charged with the Warriors going to the next round. (Would have been fun to have played Boston Celtics in the next round -- but there will be plenty of years for that to happen). Played my meditation tape from Alison. Ready for 6am wake-up. Sandi is ready for morning massage. What?!? (Love it)
Back in the fight!!
Here we are back in fight mode! Just sharing that we are in a temporary room and that Stu will go into pre-opp at 6am, but doesn't go in to surgery until 7:30am and he is the first on the list for the day! He will be in surgery for about 6 hours. He will be in ICU most of Tuesday night for observation and then at some point he'll get a room.
I will post updates when I can, but don't expect them immediately, as I will be listening to doctors that use really big words! :)
We are in good hands. He is strong and ready to fight this!!
Yesterday was so amazing! We feel so lifted up by you all. Thank you!
Keep up the prayers, affirmations of healing, positivity and love going!!
I will post updates when I can, but don't expect them immediately, as I will be listening to doctors that use really big words! :)
We are in good hands. He is strong and ready to fight this!!
Yesterday was so amazing! We feel so lifted up by you all. Thank you!
Keep up the prayers, affirmations of healing, positivity and love going!!
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts and loving prayers. Awesome times sharing old memories together.
Special thanks to everyone who helped, the "StuFightWin" shirts from the Watneys, music/pictures by the Blackies, pictures by Chojnackis, muncheries by many of you, Sugarbaby Sweetshop by Howzes, Wine from Lewis, food/baskets, brain cap and gifts by the Weidmanns, Wendy's tradeshow bag, etc. I know I missed a lot, but we appreciate all of them.
Special thanks to everyone who helped, the "StuFightWin" shirts from the Watneys, music/pictures by the Blackies, pictures by Chojnackis, muncheries by many of you, Sugarbaby Sweetshop by Howzes, Wine from Lewis, food/baskets, brain cap and gifts by the Weidmanns, Wendy's tradeshow bag, etc. I know I missed a lot, but we appreciate all of them.
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Come and visit us this Sunday 5/27
We know that you might not be in town over the long weekend, but if you are then we'd love to have you stop by with some fun memories or a good joke to share with Stu!
We are enjoying this time that he is at home with us very much, but he also needs to see his friends as you are so very valuable to him!!
We will have our open house from 10am to 5pm
Our address is 169 Giffin Road, Los Altos CA
Kids and spouses are welcome too!
Hugs!
We are enjoying this time that he is at home with us very much, but he also needs to see his friends as you are so very valuable to him!!
We will have our open house from 10am to 5pm
Our address is 169 Giffin Road, Los Altos CA
Kids and spouses are welcome too!
Hugs!
Friday, May 25, 2018
Sharing our news
Our feet have been swept out from under us and we need to share some news with you.
We are sorry if we haven't reached out to you personally, but we've been going at warp speed!!
About 9 days ago Stu noticed that he wasn't able to say a word or two when he wanted to. Nothing major, just sort of off for him. He mentioned it to me, and I questioned him a bit and found no fault in speech or memory.
Every day since he would come to me and say he was sorry for not being quite himself. I truly didn't notice any change whatsoever. I questioned him, tested him and found no error in memory or thought process. I started watching him a bit closer, but he was just normal Stu to me.
Then on Wednesday May 23rd in the afternoon Stu apologized again for being so "off". I thought he should just go in to the doctor and have them look him over. He made an appointment for that very afternoon. He went alone to the doctor. Later he texted me and asked me to speak to the doctor. The doctor let me know that they found a mass on the CT scan and that they were taking Stu to ER via ambulance!
Breathe.... breathe...
My thoughts are jumbled, but here they are -
I left the girls at home alone with all of the information that I had and went on my own to ER were Stu was being given an MRI. We called Stu's mom Natalie to come over to the ER.
The results came back from the MRI that there are actually 2 tumors: one in the Pituitary gland area of the brain and the other in the Frontal Lobe/Temporal Lobe area of the left side of his brain.
We met with the neurologist (Dr. Singel, El Camino Hospital ER) and together thought the best thing to do was send Stu to UCSF Medical Center.
Stu arrived at 12:40am on Thursday and has had a bunch of tests, high level MRI's and TEAM STU FORMED very fast around us! His mom jumped in and went to the doctor to hold her son's hand and ask all the right questions. His brothers stood sentry by his side all day long looking for help where they could, being productive, being amazing to not only Stu but to me and the kiddos as well (they are my brothers too, how lucky I am!!). Uncle Dave, Stephanie and Alyssa, my sisters and brother all reaching out fast!! So amazing, so helpful to have your love and support surrounding us while our heads are simply reeling with the news.
I stayed home to be there for the girls. The girls went to school all day, then we went to see our Stu. What a day! We have so many amazing people touching our lives every day, but on days like this BOY does the amazing really show!! In one single day we had so many hands helping, so many hearts hoping, prayers being spoken that I cannot name you all... but you know and thank you!!
Seeing Stu was so good! The girls had not seen him in nearly two days!! They needed their daddy!
I needed to see him. He looks great other than an iv. He is so positive and such a fighter!! He has so much to process. Stu had a few visitors: Mike, Bob, Kristy & Paul outside of the family, who helped make the day easier.
As of 5/24 Stu gets to come home tomorrow (which is today 5/25 - our anniversary, Stu's dad's birthday, Stu's brother's birthday) What a day. Stu and I both were able to sleep last night, which helped.
So here we are, today May 25th our 16th anniversary and my Stu is working hard to get out and take me to dinner! It's just like him to make a big event special for me.
We don't really know more, except at some point late tonight Stu will come home. Tomorrow we will take a family day. We will watch our Stella perform her last dance competition and praise her for her talents, then huddle at home. If anyone wants to hang out with Stu and see a Warriors game, just email us!
On Sunday we would like to invite you to come one, come all to our house from 10am to 5pm to hang out with Stu. Bring fun memories to share with Stu!!
The plan for next week is that Stu will go back to the hospital on Monday at some point, I will stay at the hospital with Stu Monday night and likely Tuesday night.
On Tuesday morning the amazing team of surgeons will perform an awake brain surgery, test his nerve centers, language and mobility and get everything out that they can for the 1 tumor that sits in the Temporal/Frontal Lobe area. Stu should only loose a little bit of hair here. They will take the tumor that they could get out to pathology and have tests run to find out what type of tumor it is, so we can form a game plan for how to fight this thing.
The nurses will call my cell every hour to give me brief updates as to an end time. The updates are not information about how it went and they are just estimates of the end time of surgery.
The way that the doctors will know approximately how the surgery went is based on how well Stu is doing when he immediately wakes up from surgery.
There will be some swelling, and that will impact nerve centers short term. Stu will remain in the hospital at UCSF thru Friday (at this point). I don't know the time of surgery, only that these are generally started early in the day as they can take all day. We estimate 7:30am to be the start time.
We are told by the psychologist on Stu's team that this is a relatively safe surgery for brain surgery.
The other tumor will need to be addressed differently, by a different team of specialists that deal with Pituitary gland tumors. We do not know when that will happen.
How is Stu? Well he is Stu!! He likes to be busy, productive, active and engaged. All this sitting around is boring. He is bright and uplifted by all of the overwhelming support that is flooding in, along with the jokes, the hugs, the prayers and positivity coming our way!! He is scared, flustered even, but he says mostly for me and the girls. He is a fighter, he is flying through test after test, and the doctors are amazing that he noticed being "off" at all! His first doctor had him count backwards from 100 by 7's!!! He rocked it, of course. What a smart man he is! He is focusing on the shrinking of these tumors. He is fighting them so hard.
Us girls are tough! We know we have you all in our corner, which helps. We love this man and we will do what we can to help him get through this. We are happy to have your help as well, but we don't always know what we need.
Here are a few things you can do at this point:
Our top priority is making this time for our girls the most amazing, busy time for them that we can. Not a sad time with lots of doctor visits and tumor "shop" talk.
You could take them for a few sleepovers when Natalie (his mom) and I need to both be at the hospital.
Meals sometimes (We currently have a plan in place for next week, we are all set for next week).
I'll get the girls schedule together and send out private requests for playdates this weekend.
I have a few requests that I would like you to please follow:
No adding anything related to this onto any type of social media (NO Facebook, No Instagram, No SnapChat Etc).
I might have forgot to add someone with my brain being so scrambled right now and I'm so sorry if I did!! We are ok with you sharing this information with those who know us.
Our kids need to follow their normal routine and texting me for constant updates keeps me way too busy. We hold you all so very dear to us if you are receiving this blog and we ask you to use it or email me.
We need your prayers and positivity every step of the way. Don't stop!! We feel your energy.
We will share we know here and read what you post.
If you need to email me or Stu please send it to: sandi_elefant@yahoo.com
Urgent matters only via text.
Respect the girls time with me: Only text between 9am and 2pm on week days, only for emergencies. Email otherwise.
You are welcome to send the girls notes if you'd like to. Please no flowers as they cause allergies for us:
Stella and Jaida Elefant
169 Giffin Road,
Los Altos Ca 94022
The girls know everything and are dealing with this. Please try not to whisper behind their backs, they will hear you. Please try to not make the constant conversations about this in front of the girls. Talk about happy memories too.
Stu will likely be up for visitors on Wednesday if you wish to stop by. He is at UCSF at 505 Pernasuss Ave, SF CA I don't know his room number yet. I will post it when I do know.
That's all for now everyone! Sandi & Stu
We are sorry if we haven't reached out to you personally, but we've been going at warp speed!!
About 9 days ago Stu noticed that he wasn't able to say a word or two when he wanted to. Nothing major, just sort of off for him. He mentioned it to me, and I questioned him a bit and found no fault in speech or memory.
Every day since he would come to me and say he was sorry for not being quite himself. I truly didn't notice any change whatsoever. I questioned him, tested him and found no error in memory or thought process. I started watching him a bit closer, but he was just normal Stu to me.
Then on Wednesday May 23rd in the afternoon Stu apologized again for being so "off". I thought he should just go in to the doctor and have them look him over. He made an appointment for that very afternoon. He went alone to the doctor. Later he texted me and asked me to speak to the doctor. The doctor let me know that they found a mass on the CT scan and that they were taking Stu to ER via ambulance!
Breathe.... breathe...
My thoughts are jumbled, but here they are -
I left the girls at home alone with all of the information that I had and went on my own to ER were Stu was being given an MRI. We called Stu's mom Natalie to come over to the ER.
The results came back from the MRI that there are actually 2 tumors: one in the Pituitary gland area of the brain and the other in the Frontal Lobe/Temporal Lobe area of the left side of his brain.
We met with the neurologist (Dr. Singel, El Camino Hospital ER) and together thought the best thing to do was send Stu to UCSF Medical Center.
Stu arrived at 12:40am on Thursday and has had a bunch of tests, high level MRI's and TEAM STU FORMED very fast around us! His mom jumped in and went to the doctor to hold her son's hand and ask all the right questions. His brothers stood sentry by his side all day long looking for help where they could, being productive, being amazing to not only Stu but to me and the kiddos as well (they are my brothers too, how lucky I am!!). Uncle Dave, Stephanie and Alyssa, my sisters and brother all reaching out fast!! So amazing, so helpful to have your love and support surrounding us while our heads are simply reeling with the news.
I stayed home to be there for the girls. The girls went to school all day, then we went to see our Stu. What a day! We have so many amazing people touching our lives every day, but on days like this BOY does the amazing really show!! In one single day we had so many hands helping, so many hearts hoping, prayers being spoken that I cannot name you all... but you know and thank you!!
Seeing Stu was so good! The girls had not seen him in nearly two days!! They needed their daddy!
I needed to see him. He looks great other than an iv. He is so positive and such a fighter!! He has so much to process. Stu had a few visitors: Mike, Bob, Kristy & Paul outside of the family, who helped make the day easier.
As of 5/24 Stu gets to come home tomorrow (which is today 5/25 - our anniversary, Stu's dad's birthday, Stu's brother's birthday) What a day. Stu and I both were able to sleep last night, which helped.
So here we are, today May 25th our 16th anniversary and my Stu is working hard to get out and take me to dinner! It's just like him to make a big event special for me.
We don't really know more, except at some point late tonight Stu will come home. Tomorrow we will take a family day. We will watch our Stella perform her last dance competition and praise her for her talents, then huddle at home. If anyone wants to hang out with Stu and see a Warriors game, just email us!
On Sunday we would like to invite you to come one, come all to our house from 10am to 5pm to hang out with Stu. Bring fun memories to share with Stu!!
The plan for next week is that Stu will go back to the hospital on Monday at some point, I will stay at the hospital with Stu Monday night and likely Tuesday night.
On Tuesday morning the amazing team of surgeons will perform an awake brain surgery, test his nerve centers, language and mobility and get everything out that they can for the 1 tumor that sits in the Temporal/Frontal Lobe area. Stu should only loose a little bit of hair here. They will take the tumor that they could get out to pathology and have tests run to find out what type of tumor it is, so we can form a game plan for how to fight this thing.
The nurses will call my cell every hour to give me brief updates as to an end time. The updates are not information about how it went and they are just estimates of the end time of surgery.
The way that the doctors will know approximately how the surgery went is based on how well Stu is doing when he immediately wakes up from surgery.
There will be some swelling, and that will impact nerve centers short term. Stu will remain in the hospital at UCSF thru Friday (at this point). I don't know the time of surgery, only that these are generally started early in the day as they can take all day. We estimate 7:30am to be the start time.
We are told by the psychologist on Stu's team that this is a relatively safe surgery for brain surgery.
The other tumor will need to be addressed differently, by a different team of specialists that deal with Pituitary gland tumors. We do not know when that will happen.
How is Stu? Well he is Stu!! He likes to be busy, productive, active and engaged. All this sitting around is boring. He is bright and uplifted by all of the overwhelming support that is flooding in, along with the jokes, the hugs, the prayers and positivity coming our way!! He is scared, flustered even, but he says mostly for me and the girls. He is a fighter, he is flying through test after test, and the doctors are amazing that he noticed being "off" at all! His first doctor had him count backwards from 100 by 7's!!! He rocked it, of course. What a smart man he is! He is focusing on the shrinking of these tumors. He is fighting them so hard.
Us girls are tough! We know we have you all in our corner, which helps. We love this man and we will do what we can to help him get through this. We are happy to have your help as well, but we don't always know what we need.
Here are a few things you can do at this point:
Our top priority is making this time for our girls the most amazing, busy time for them that we can. Not a sad time with lots of doctor visits and tumor "shop" talk.
You could take them for a few sleepovers when Natalie (his mom) and I need to both be at the hospital.
Meals sometimes (We currently have a plan in place for next week, we are all set for next week).
I'll get the girls schedule together and send out private requests for playdates this weekend.
I have a few requests that I would like you to please follow:
No adding anything related to this onto any type of social media (NO Facebook, No Instagram, No SnapChat Etc).
I might have forgot to add someone with my brain being so scrambled right now and I'm so sorry if I did!! We are ok with you sharing this information with those who know us.
Our kids need to follow their normal routine and texting me for constant updates keeps me way too busy. We hold you all so very dear to us if you are receiving this blog and we ask you to use it or email me.
We need your prayers and positivity every step of the way. Don't stop!! We feel your energy.
We will share we know here and read what you post.
If you need to email me or Stu please send it to: sandi_elefant@yahoo.com
Urgent matters only via text.
Respect the girls time with me: Only text between 9am and 2pm on week days, only for emergencies. Email otherwise.
You are welcome to send the girls notes if you'd like to. Please no flowers as they cause allergies for us:
Stella and Jaida Elefant
169 Giffin Road,
Los Altos Ca 94022
The girls know everything and are dealing with this. Please try not to whisper behind their backs, they will hear you. Please try to not make the constant conversations about this in front of the girls. Talk about happy memories too.
Stu will likely be up for visitors on Wednesday if you wish to stop by. He is at UCSF at 505 Pernasuss Ave, SF CA I don't know his room number yet. I will post it when I do know.
That's all for now everyone! Sandi & Stu
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