Gayle's surgery was a success. Dr. Sisti was able to remove the vast majority of the tumor. At the same time, he preserved the facial nerve, and partially saved some of the Cochlear nerve.
As a result, Gayle will be free of the numbness and facial weakness she has been experiencing for months and the tumor will never threaten Gayle's life again. The size of the tumor left behind will not need surgery and if it did grow, which is unlikely, they could radiate it.
Preservation of the facial nerve means that, hopefully, the only long term effect Gayle will have is the loss of hearing on the affected side. But, because Sisti preserved some of the Cochlear nerve, Gayle will retain a little of her hearing and might benefit from improvement in hearing aid technology sometime in the future.
At 5:15 today, I was able to get in to visit Gayle. She was out of it, nauseous, in some pain, but expressive. It was quite an effort for her to open her eyes which she forced herself to do when she heard my voice. She looked at me and made me switch sides of her bed. In a silent somewhat pained way she asked me to talk. She reacted to my news of Tom and Bess and Ralph hanging all day with a partial smile. Then, I tried to tell her about all the people calling,texting,and writing on Facebook and she definitely smiled again. Big relief.
