6:30am in the Twin Cities....

We're packing our bags and heading out for the 16 hour drive home.  After a not so restful night with a bunch of drunk, rowdy, not to mention fighting, hotel neighbours we're looking forward to getting home.

Rilley can't wait to see everyone, especially the girls!

Rilley is out of hospital and resting comfortably at the hotel

Rilley's poses with his neurosurgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Pluhar during his discharge from the Veterinary Medical Center. 

Rilley has amazed everyone, even the professionals at the Veterinary Medical Center at the University of Minnesota.  Less than 24 hours after his surgery he was discharged to us and is now resting comfortably at the hotel.

Rilley resting comfortably back at the hotel.  Don't let the scar fool you, he is pretty much back to normal.

We've even been given the go-ahead to begin the long trek back to Georgetown tomorrow.  So the girls will be able to see him before they go back to school!

Looking at the post-op MRI it is amazing to see how Rilley's brain had reclaimed the space taken up by the tumour.  The University will be providing us with copies of the images and we will post a comparison once those arrive back home.  Despite the fact that the tumour had begun to attach itself to Rilley's brain tissue, the experts agree that the tumour is completely gone.

Incidentally, on our way to pick Rilley up this morning, we were discussing that we had arrived in Minneapolis just in the nick of time.  Even though a meningioma is considered a slow growing tumour, had it been left in Rilley's head for any longer his life with us would have been cut much shorter than we had expected.  But now we know he is tumour free and ready to enjoy his life for the foreseeable future.

We are very excited to have him back with us and are looking forward to getting home.  We will post more about details about what are the next steps will be in the days to come.  Not to worry, this blog will continue with updates as he receives his bi-weekly vaccines and throughout his 3, 6 and 12 month visits back with Dr. Pluhar and beyond!  Yes, we will be doing the 32 hour, round trip trek three more times!  Despite the awesome work being done here and what looks to be fantastic results for Rilley, I am really not looking forward to those trips.  Does anyone know any nice people who would donate their private jet and/or local condo?  ;^)

The Morning After....

Dr. Pluhar just called to give us the morning update on Rilley.  He's been taken off of fluids and has had his catheter removed.  She told us that he is doing really, really well this morning.  So well, in fact, that he is trying his best to dig his way out of his cage!  Obviously, this is great news for us, but unfortunately jeopardizes any chance of Sara going to the Mall of America (America's largest mall), and to a lesser extent, of us having a quiet dinner tonight as I'm sure Rilley is ready to eat as much solid food as he can get his jaws on!

We will be meeting with Dr. Pluhar this morning to discuss all of his follow up care.  We spoke with Rilley's veterinarian back home, Dr. Ewing, and she is willing to administer the bi-weekly vaccine shots once they start arriving in two weeks.

We are both ecstatic at how well Rilley is doing!

Rilley's Evening Update

We received a call from Dr. Pluhar this evening with an updated on Rilley's recovery.  Apparently he is doing very well.  He's even been out for a short walk.  This is absolutely amazing!  To think that within the first day of having such major surgery to his brain he was up and about!  Obviously not with the same vigour as we have come to expect from him, but it is doubtful that a person would be out of bed and going for a walk the same day.  He is also already showing signs of being the same dog he was prior to today.  Apparently, when Dr. Pluhar got up to leave from a visit with him he started to whimper.  This left the medical staff wondering if he was in pain or just sad.  To check, Dr. Pluhar went to get him his stuffed Winnie (the Pooh) and once it was given to him, he settled down.

So as this evening draws to a close, it appears that today was a great success.  We have an appointment with Dr. Pluhar at the University tomorrow to discuss the results of his post-op MRI.

Rilley is in ICU

We just saw Rilley as he was being wheeled from the MRI over to intensive care. Aside from the stitches along the top of his head, he looks pretty good for someone that has had his head worked on! The word on the post operative MRI is that it was "fantastic". Until we get further details we can only assume that the surgeons were able to remove all of the tumour cells. (Or at the very least any that may be remaining are easily treated with the vaccines to come.) We will know more once we've had a chance to sit down and speak with Dr. Pluhar.

Rilley as he was wheeled from the post operative MRI and into the Intensive Care Unit. The intubation tube was removed immediately upon arrival in ICU. Notice his tongue sticking out, it is certainly bigger than you would think!

Surgery Update - Post Op

Dr. Pluhar just finished Rilley's surgery and stepped out to give us an update. She let us know that the surgery went really well, however it wasn't a simple as originally thought. Even though we've been calling Rilley's meningioma a "brain tumour", it technically is not.

It is a tumour of the brain lining called the meninges and a grade 1 meningioma simply pushes the brain tissue out of the way as it grows. Don't misunderstand, because the brain cavity is a sealed camber, any invading tissue will put increased pressure on the brain itself and as it grows larger it will begin to cause brain cells become damaged.

What was discovered during surgery today was that the meningioma was deeper into Rilley's brain had begun to attach itself brain to his brain cells. It is still classified as a meningioma, but will most likely be a grade 2 or 3 tumour and as the numbers suggest a more severe one at that. What this all means is that the surgical team could not simply go in and lift it out. They had to be careful to remove as much of the tumour cells as possible.

Rilley has now been taken to the MRI suite to have a scan in order to check if the surgeons were successful in removing all of his tumour cells. Fortunately, his specific tumour responds well to the contrast agent that they use and any remaining tumour cells will glow a bright white on the scan. If there is a small amount of remaining tumour cells, Dr. Pluhar is not concerned as the vaccine that Dr. Ohlfests team will produce enables Rilley's immune system to attack the remaining cells and kill them off.

We will get a chance to see Rilley as they wheel him from MRI to the Intensive Care Unit and the blog will be updated once we hear what the MRI shows.

Roy and Sara.

The Big Day has Finally Arrived

Morning has broken over Minneapolis, Minnesota.  With Rilley spending last night at the University, Dr. Pluhar had let us get an extra hour sleep and had us arrive around 8am. Upon arriving, she brought Rilley up front so that we could take him for his morning walk.  He seemed happy to get out of the veterinary hospital, so we took a few pictures with him before he gets his new hairdo...a shaved head.  (Poor little boy.)

Rilley out for his morning walk around the grounds of the University of Minnesota just before his surgery.

As we were walking back in, we noticed that he was moving slower.  Initially we assumed this was because he didn't really want to go back in, especially knowing what was to come.  Would you be in a hurry to have someone cut into your head????  However, Dr. Pluhar pointed out to us that he had been given Morphine and as the next half hour it really became evident!  Off to sleepyland for Rilley!

The Daily Planet crew arrived around the same time and started preparing themselves for their presence in the operating room.  Which also included getting into their scrubs!

Daily Planet Director of Photography, Jay Kemp posing in his scrubs.  We think he may be considering a career change based on the outfit alone! 

Around 9 am the anasethiologist came to take Rilley in order to prepare him for surgery. We said goodbye and now we wait....updates to follow.  (Luckily the University has public Wifi!)