Keep on trucking!!!

Mitch is just amazing!!! He still has some swelling in his head and it does cause him a headache but we still haven't seen any seizures and he swears he is in no pain and he is sleeping much better at night! We are just thrilled!!!! He did receive a package in the mail today from the hospital and it had at least 50 cards in it! He would like me to thank you all for the cards and all the wonderful messages he received for his birthday, He feels pretty special!! He didn't get them all looked at yet but I told him to just take his time and open a few each day, makes your birthday last longer, thank you all so much for making him so happy, we appreciated it so much!!!!!!  We hope to start therapy in a week or two, just want to make sure the swelling is gone so he can handle being up more! He has had some great visitors and he looks forward to more!!! Thanks so much for all the good food you all have brought, no dieting here:)! Thanks so much for all the prayers, we appreciate them! If you could say a prayer for some of my Kansas cousins, we are heading out their tonight as my sweet Aunt Evelyn Henry passed away! Never fun to see everyone at a time like this but I am so thankful I am able to go and tell her goodbye! Thank you all so much, you guys are all amazing!!! Theresa

Home!

we got home at 2 pm yesterday and enjoy dinner with Joel, Tiff and kiddos! Thanks Tiff for dinner it was awesome! Mitch has had a great first night and day home! He has slept quite a bit and when he is awake, he has a smile on his face! I just love seeing that!!! I am trying to to get to excited but we haven't seen his arm do one of its seizures and that is fabulous!!! We are just praying that we never see one of them again!!! He has had some company and he really enjoys visiting with anyone so he doesn't have to talk to me:)!!!  He did do a shower and I hardly helped at all he is just doing great! Well it is 5 pm so I think I will go get outta my pjs:)!!! I am pretty lazy:)!!! Thanks so much for the continued prayers and please do stop and visit if you are in the area!!!! Love you all,  Theresa

Keep on truckin!!!!

Well my rockstar is wanting out of here real bad!  He has had an awesome day....hoping that he hasn't overdone it!  He has been up several times walking the halls and each time he is more steady than the last! He has had a very good appetite and pretty much eats whatever he wants. He took a shower, with the help of  Dave and I , and he just looks so much better.  He does have quite a bit of swelling in his head and face and they told us to expect that to go down his face each day and his eyes may be almost swelled shut but it should absorb itself and he has had no fever at all today.  They also told us that we should go home tomorrow and I think we can handle that!  This place is wonderful and I love the expert help we get but there is no place like home to heal. He will go back to therapy, at home, in a week or two and we aren't really sure how long that will last but we know they will LOVE to have him back.  The Royals have kept this stay very interesting for us and all the nurses have heard about the birthday shout out to Mitch and some of them were even watching it and said to their family "Hey I know that man"! Mitch is Loving the winning streak they are on! Dave and I plan to go back to the house tonight, THANK YOU SO MUCH ERMA, JEFF, JOAN AND KYLER for letting us use your homes, that helped us out tremendously!  God is good and so far we have seen 0 arm seizures in 2 days. We know that we won't know anything for a long time and this is how it started the last time but we are very hopeful that they have left the country!  We said goodbye to my Mom, Mary, Malia and Magz today! Thank you so much for spending the weekend with us, even if you were here to play ball, it sure made it go fast. Thanks to Keith, Kristy and Kayla for coming by for a quick visit, it was so nice to see you.  So the plan for now is to get out of here tomorrow afternoon and go home and heal!  Thanks to you all for all the support and prayers, WOW you all are awesome!!!! Love ya, David, Theresa and Mitchell

Much better!

Just a quick update now to thank you for prayers! I came back to hospital at 6 this morning and he was much more alert, talkative and no fever! Dave said he slept good, Just praying now the Fever stays away and he can have a good day! His nurse thought he would get moved to the floor today if they had a room for him! Mitch wants outta here real bad, I'm in no hurry to get him home......yet! I will update later but wanted you to know he seems much better this morning! He just got done eating an egg, bacon and cheese buiscut and he thought it tasted good! The surgery team was just in and said they are moving Mitch to the floor and if he can get up and walk he can go home tomorrow, I told them we are in no hurry yet, Thank you Jesus!!!! Love you all, Theresa

Quiet Birthday!

The birthday boy was pretty quiet today! They got him up and he was able to sit in a chair for 30 minutes but that was all he could handle! He went for a MRI and we haven't heard anything from that so they said that is good otherwise they would have took him straight to surgery! He Hasn't ate much but doesn't really have an appetite yet, and he is running a 100.2 temp and they don't get concerned unless it is over 100.5 so I am praying that it goes back down instead of creeping up! Dave kicked me outta the hospital tonight and he stayed, so I will try to get so sleep and head back over early! If his temp goes down he should get moved to the floor tomorrow, they also said if he can get up and move around he may be able to go home Monday but I'm not real thrilled with taking him home unless he is getting up and down a lot better than what he is right now! Mom stayed with Mitch for a while today so Dave and I could go watch Maggie play ball, good game Maggie and thanks Granny, and we were sad to find out we missed our cousin Keith, please come back Keith!! We had some visitors from Iowa today, thank Kevin , Crystal, Hailey, Caitlyn and Aiden for coming to sing Mitch Happy Birthday! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day! We are praying tomorrow will be a better day and that this is just a bump in the road! Thanks so much for the continued prayers we really do appreciate all of them! I'm so ready for my baby to feel better!!!! Love you all Theresa

Back in our room!

Our Rockstar is back in his room! They took him at 9:30 and he got back to the room at 6:30! They took a pretty good piece of brain out and now the waiting game to see if seizures come back! They said just surgery could make him have some seizures but we are really hoping they are DONE!! When we got back to the room they were concerned because he couldn't move his left arm or leg at all, they called the Dr and ordered a MRI to make sure there is no bleeding but he did finally start to move and seems to be back to normal! They are still going to do the MRI just to be on the safe side. He is also pretty nauseated and sick to his stomach, so they are pumping him up with alot of zofran! We got his meds down him and are praying that they stay down. Mary, Malia, Maggie, Mom and Dave got here at 11:30, i was very glad to see them. Bri Hunter brought some birthday cupcakes and Jill made some scotcheroos, Yummy Puff, Tyler Davis, and Jessica also came and spent some time with us during and after surgery and Lori Stoll came and brought us some cookies and fruit! Thank you all so much for the food and visiting with us during surgery it really helped to pass the time. Thanks so much for all the kind words, messages and prayers, you will never know how much we cherish all you have done for us! Love you all David, Theresa and Mitchell

My rockstar is heading to surgery! He had a pretty yucky night and seized most of the night! We are so ready to get this over and praying he will feel better! Thank you all for all the support , we really appreciate it! I will update when I can! Love you all so much!!! Mitch and Theresa

We are set for tomorrow!!

Well Mitch had his mapping test, mapping CT scan, EKG, blood work, ultrasound to make sure there was no blood clots in his legs, since he isn't up walking and urine test and I think that is it and everything is a go for tomorrow around 1 pm. The mapping test was pretty interesting, he started having seizures about a half hour into it and they had to stop 4 times and give him medicine to come out of it, it ending up taking 3 hours to do! Dr Bandy, who is with Dr Lanigar, did the test and he is very confident that they have for sure found the focal point this time and there is no motor functions that should be in the way of this. The piece of brain they will take is approximately 2 inches by 1 1/2 inch and 1-1 1/2 inches deep, alittle bigger than last time. Dr Lanigar came in after it was over and said he is so happy we are doing this and he really thinks Mitch will do great and feel like a new man, that is why we are doing this!!!! He also said they had called him Sunday night when Mitch started seizing and they couldn't get him out of it, and he could watch him from home and Mitch seizure lasted 3 hours. He said he was concerned but wasn't cause he could see Mitch and tell that he wasn't having any trouble. He presumes that Mitch has these kind of seizures a lot and we just don' know cause he isn't hooked up to the machine. I just know he is a trooper and I am so proud of how well he handles everything that is thrown his way, He is definitely my hero. He received quite a few cards again today and he really enjoyed reading them, some were from people we didn't know but knew us from people we do know, how cool is that?? Thank you all so much for all the cards, prayers, messages and support. We really couldn't do this without you all!!!! We are praying that this will all be over soon and we will be home to recuperate! Love you all, Theresa and Mitch

Royal brain!

Well, Mitch is officially on the surgery books for Friday!! Dr. Tanaka thought she would be ready for him at 1 pm so I think 2:)!!!! It will be a long day for him with no eating or drinking but we will do, I will do it with him!!! She brought in a diagram of Mitch's brain, with the grid and circled where all the seizures are coming from, it looks like a pretty big area to me! There are 36 leads in his head and they will remove 15 of them!! We are soooo excited, she really has us pumped that this is it! So with any luck at all, Mitch will get exactly what he wants for his birthday, he doesn't want money, a car, drinks, cake, clothes or a steak, all he wants is to get rid of these damn seizures!! We don't Sleep much here at all, I spend my time praying!! We had some awesome visitors that brought us food, thanks so much Boston Dickerson for tacos for lunch and thanks Erma Mattson for Olive Garden for dinner, We are stuffed! Thanks for all the cards he got today, he did get quiet a few! Again his 26th birthday is Saturday so if you would like to send him a card the address is: Mitchell Schmitz University of MIssouri Hospital NSICU Rm T7227 1 Hospital Dr. Columbia, Missouri 65211 I had his wrong room number on before but he still got some cards so they said it really didn't matter but this is his official room number:)! Feel free to just leave a message on here or Facebook, he will read them all! The support we have got is phenomenal. Thank you all so much for helping us through this most difficult time, we are blessed to know you all!! The Royals have been doing their part also, keep up the awesome work and get back in first place! Mitch just said if they win tonight they will be tied, how amazing is that?? Thanks again and lets do this!! Love ya, Mitch and Theresa

My Star!

Mitch is AMAZING, he has went two days without pain medicine! He swears he doesn't hurt so that is great!! Things change so fast here and I'm sure that has a lot to do with having Four team of Doctors following you! Dr. Tanaka came in with a smile on her face this afternoon and said, "Are you ready to get this done." Of course Mitch said yes and I was more like, "do you have all seizures that you need, are you sure where they are coming from, because I can tell you right now, he will NEVER do this again!" She totally understood and said very confidently that he has had MANY seizures and they are all coming from the same area of the brain, so they will do the mapping of the brain to make sure none of his motor functions are in the way and then surgery is back on for Friday! It will be late morning but that was fine with us, let's get it done! She was really more excited that the famous arm seizures he has, have been found and she knows where they are coming from And she will get rid of them for him, I just know my baby is on his way to feeling better than he has in 15 years!! He also was lucky enough to get to be a part of a newspaper article in the Columbia tribune which will come out on Saturday, his birthday! They came to do an article on nurses and all the nurses picked Mitch to be their patient! He is kinda spoiled here in the NSICU, we remember A lot of them from before and for some reason they all remember us! So that was pretty exciting too! Thanks to Erma Mattson for coming to visit and thank Shannon Luke for taking me outta the hospital to do some laundry, make a Walmart trip and grab some dinner!! We appreciate all the encouraging messages, prays and Mitch did get a card in the mail today, thanks so much Joyce Miller for the neat card, I'm impressed you got it here on flag day, and everyone really enjoyed the red, white and blue stars!! Love you all So much!! Theresa and Mitch

Feeling Better!

Mitch has had a better day today! He is still tired but he claims he has no pain and he hasn't had any type of pain medicine since last night! He is such a trooper and I am so proud of him and I just pray he is not trying to be too tough! All Doctors rounded today and Dr. Tanaka was pleased with his head and thinks it looks real good! The neuro ICU team came and they are pleased with how well he is doing and they are even wanting him to get up in a chair, so we are waiting for that! Dr. Lanigar's team was in but he wasn't able to come today and they told us Mitch is doing exactly what they want him to, he has had 7 pretty good seizures they have captured so far and many small ones. The big one seems to be coming from the same area and now they need to figure out how deep they are, with that being said we have took it that we will probably be here another week just to make sure they have all the documentation that they need. Mitch was pretty bummed but I am fine with that cause Mitch says this is it, he isn't doing any of this again and frankly I don't blame him! It is exhausting watching him have to go through all this! Yesterday was very hard to watch Dave, Mark, Tiff, Gia and Quincy leave here without us, we just miss them all so much. Thanks to Vince and Joan Wilmes for coming in and bringing Dave, Tiff and I lunch, it was awesome and also thanks for great cousins Montana and Boston Dickerson for coming in and seeing Mitch! Mitch didn't feel the best and they wanted to bring him lunch but Mitch just wasn't up for it! You guys get your behinds back over here, he is doing much better and we really enjoy the visit! Then last night we had one of Mitch's high school teacher and her husband, Jared and Bri Hunter, came and seen us and they have moved here now so hopefully they will drop in again:)! My Aunt Liz brought us lunch today on her way back home and brought us a couple bags of goodies from the VanNordstrand's, thank you guys so much, I feel like all I do is eat, eat, eat!!! So for now it is a waiting game and they want him to continue to have seizures so they can capture them. We appreciate all the messages, support and prayers you have giving us, you will never know how much we appreciate them all!!!! Love you all, Theresa and Mitch

Mitchell wants outta here!

Well Mitch hasn't let us down at all! He had a pretty sleepy day yesterday, he is in more pain than I would like to see him in but they said they really expected that. Mark, Joel, Gia and Quincy got here around 3 yesterday, it was so wonderful to have us all here! Max and Jennifer Dunlap brought us in pizza and cookies and Andy and Sara Hull sent a bag of goodies so we just stayed here in the room and ate, thank you guys so very much for doing that, it is so wonderful to have support from everyone, no dieting going on here!! Mark, Joel, Tiff and kids left about 8 and Dave took off about 8:30 so Mitch and I just were resting and going to try to get some sleep since neither of us slept much the night before. Wouldn't you know it about 9, while his nurse was getting all his vitals, Mitch starting having some pretty big seizures. His heart rate got dangerously high and he quivered alittle by 9:15, the Doctor on call showed up and she was very concerned. The monitering team had called her cause they could tell from the moniter and video, they watch of him all day and night, that he wasn't coming out of it. By 10 he had all the ativan he could have to stop the seizures and he was still seizing. I called Dave and told him to come back over, thank you Dave, and the Doctor on call had called Mitch's Dr and he really wasn't that shocked, he really feels like this is Mitch's normal! He probably does this every night, but because of the grid on his brain and the surgery it may have been alittle worse but really he doesn't think much! The on call Dr. also told us that she can tell exactly where the seizures are coming from so, We all have our fingers crossed that they will decide that Mitch needs to have surgery very soon, but who knows! This Momma is so ready for this to be over, I'm pretty sure my pacemaker is working overtime! They did tell us that Mitch did have a few spells during the day yesterday but really the night time is the very worse for him. They will have to do the grid testing to make sure none of his motor functions are coming from the same area as the seizures. We are praying very hard that there will be no other functions there cause we really don't want him to lose any of the function he has in his arm or leg. So I guess you could say that Mitch is doing exactly what we want so they can get him all fixed up! He had an ok night and we are anixously waiting for all the teams of Doctors this morning to see there thoughts on this. Thanks so much everyone for all the love, support, food and prayers we sure need them all!!!!! I will try to update again after all teams of Doctors are in. One other thing, we just found out that our cell phones won't receive calls here, we can call out but not receive, so if you would like to visit with us or Mitch please just text us and we will call you, my cell is 660-582-7064!!! Thanks again for everything, Love you all, Theresa

Hanging tough

Well night one is in the books and Mitch didn't let them down. Mitch hurts alot more this time than before, his incision is much bigger and he has really had a headache and hurts more. They are trying many different pain medicines so you would think it would make him sleepy but not so much! He went for a CAT scan at 4 am, this was to make sure the grid is placed in the correct place, and when he got back they gave him some more pain meds and he is kinda resting now. As soon as they find out if the grid is correct then they will hook him up to the machine to show the seizure activity! About 10 pm last night he started having his famous arm seizures, these are pretty rare and his nurse hadn't seen them before! Although it seems weird to pray for seizures this is what we need to pinpoint where the heck they are coming from! We are just praying that all of the different kinds he is having is coming from the same area and that it is going to be in a place that won't affect any other motor functions! If the seizures show up, like they think they will, there is a big possibility that he could have surgery Wednesday or Thursday! This would put us home much sooner than we thought but we just need to make sure that all the different kinds of seizures are caught before he has the next surgery, I don't know if Mitch will do this again and I can't say that I blame him. Thanks so much for all your continued prayers, we really appreciate the support and you all helping us get through this! If you would like to send him a card his address is University of Missouri Hospital Mitchell Schmitz NSICU Room 27 1 Hospital Dr Columbia, Missouri 65211 If you want just leave him a message on here and he will check it! His birthday is next Saturday the 18th so with your help, I am hoping to flood him with lots of birthday and get well wishes! Thanks again, we have one tough boy, Love you all, Theresa

ALL DONE!!!

We got a message at 8:30 saying surgery had started. We aren't sure if that meant they had started at 7:30 and updated at 8:30 or they had started at 8:30. We then got a message at 12:50 saying surgery would be done soon. We then met with Dr. Tanaka at 1:30. She said the surgery went as expected, there was lots of scar tissue from his previous surgeries, which she knew there was going to be. She said the incision is pretty big, they cut starting at the top center of his head all the way to the back and up and around his ear. She said his other incision had been open a lot and she needed to be more in the middle on top of his head anyway so she thought it would be best to just make a new one. She said there are less leads this time than there was last time. Last time he had 70 leads and this time there are 38 leads coming from the grid. They are grouped into 5 sets so there are only 4 leads coming out of his head. She said they will do a CAT scan tomorrow to make sure they placed the grid in the correct place and everything looks good. She said due to scheduling issues he is taken off the schedule next Friday for surgery. She said if they see as much activity as they did last time the surgery could be bumped up sooner than Friday, we were shocked as we thought she only did surgeries on Friday's so we ask her and she said she likes to only do them on Friday's but will make certain exceptions. If they don't see enough activity over the weekend but get enough next week he can be put back on the schedule for next Friday and they will have to make that decision by Thursday if that's the case, otherwise it will be the following week. He is currently in recovery, she said he had woke up a little bit but he will be there for about 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. We have decided that we are praying for him to show lots of activity over the weekend so he can get this done and hopefully get out of here! We know he is having seizures so the more he can have now the better. To pass the time today during surgery we ate, played cards, walked and did LOTS of visiting with Aunt Liz. Thanks so much for stopping on your way back to Conception to keep us entertained, and of course the homemade chocolate chip cookies, they were amazing, were meaning we've already about ate the whole batch!!! Also thanks to Randy and Sharon Luke for stopping, it was great to see you guys! Of course we had many snap chats from Gia, Quincy and many others! And or course many good laughs from Granny Kate!!! Something about hearing aids and cinnamon rolls!! Again thanks for all the prayers! Keep them coming, praying for lots of activity over the weekend!!!! Thanks Sister Tiff

Let the Waiting BEGIN!

We arrived at the hospital at 5:00 this morning, we got checked in and they took Mitch back right away to prep for surgery. We waited for them to get him ready and then we got to see him. We didn't get to see him until a little after 6:00 and Momma Bear was a little worried that her little baby told them not to let her come back! :) The prep Nurse told us surgery was expected to last 4 to 5 hours. We spoke with Dr. Tanaka's assistant Dr. Ab and he assured us that Mitch was in good hands. We told him to take as long as they needed, we were in no hurry. He said that this was their biggest surgery today so they wouldn't be in a hurry. The anesthesiologist came in and recognized Mitch right away, he said, "I think I remember you from last time." "Haven't you done this before?" We were surprised that he remembered Mitch, we do not remember him and I'm not sure why, cause he had some good stories this morning and gave us all a few laughs! He also assured us that we didn't need to worry about anything, that they would take good care of Mitch. He said he was going to worry more about the 3 of us (pointing to Dad, Mom and Myself) than he would Mitch. So reassuring that he has such wonderful Doctors taking care of him. They took Mitch down to surgery around 6:45 and told us, it was best to get something to eat right away, so we headed to the cafeteria for some breakfast. By the time we made it back upstairs around 7:30 he was in the operating room. There is a TV screen that we watch for updates and we will update you as we are updated, we didn't get many updates last time so we are likely not to get many this time. Thanks for all the prayers and support we have received, we can't thank everyone enough for all they have done for us! LOVE, Big Sister

One more week!

Well it is all getting real....one week from today and Mitch will have the grid placed on his brain and the monitors will start showing them where all these darn seizures are coming from...we hope! Mitch and I along with my awesome Uncle and Aunt, Jim and Molly, went to Columbia yesterday and he got his blood work done that they needed and he already has two bracelets on that we can't remove before surgery. Something about his blood has some antibody in it now that they needed to get blood here for his surgery! I have been trying to get everything in shape here at the house so that it won't miss me for a few weeks:)!! haha thanks so much to Tiffany and my nieces Jessie and Jill for helping me get some much needed cleaning done. It's really hard for me to get my mind set ready for this again. What all I will need, What I just want to take and what I can really do without for a few weeks! At least I have time to gather some stuff and get stuff done, cause I will never forget the mess I left 15 years ago when I left my home in a split second and was gone for many months without coming home! Thanks you all for all the kind words and continued prayers you give us, we really couldn't get through this without you all. Thanks so very much Jim and Molly for riding with us and getting our lunch yesterday, We really appreciated and enjoyed the visit with you guys so much. Love you all, Theresa