Kevin Ortmann

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place.  On Wednesday February 28th Kevin went to work feeling fine, by noon he had a headache so bad that he couldn't stand it. Throughout the afternoon he started vomiting and the headache became unbearable. Towards later afternoon his speech was slurred at times. He went to Floyd Valley to be evaluated for what we thought was a migraine. Turns out the CAT scan showed a large "mass". He was transferred to Mercy to be evaluated by a neurosurgeon. We met with Dr. Johnson, Neurosurgeon in the ER at Mercy, it was decided that Kevin would be admitted and a MRI of the brain would completed in the morning. 

Thursday March 1st, the MRI confirmed that there was a large tumor that had shifted Kevin's brain and was causing the horrible headache. It was decided that surgery would be done that afternoon to remove the tumor. Surgery lasted about 4 hours, Dr. Johnson said that he was able to get the whole tumor, originally it was thought that the tumor was related to his testicular cancer from 3 1/2 years ago. It was determined during surgery that this was a completely different type of cancer that has no relation to his previous cancer and is one that only develops in the brain. The grade of the tumor to determine treatment and prognosis won't be back until Tuesday from pathology. Dr. Johnson said he ordered a MRI for the next morning to check for any other areas that looked concerning. Kevin was in recovery and would go to the ICU until he was ready to go the regular floor.

Friday March 2nd, Kevin went down for his MRI early. Dr. Johnson did rounds and informed us that the MRI showed that he had removed all the tumor and there isn't any sign of others at time. Unfortunately, Kevin suffered a stroke during the surgery. Over the next few days signs and symptoms began to show of the stroke that we had at first thought were just from anesthesia. Of course some of this could still be due to swelling, after all he did just have brain surgery.

 We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.  We will post updates or changes as they happen.