Maureen Antflick

Welcome to our CaringBridge website for Maureen Antflick. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
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 A few months ago, while have a sinus  scan, Maureen (my mom),  found out there was a humongous brain tumor.  (Completely unrelated to her sinus issue.) my sister in law Stacey calls it an incidentaLoma.  After months of MRIs, CAT scans, x-rays, appointments with surgeons, neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuro-otologist, eye-doctors ophthalmologists, they discovered a meningioma that was almost five cm at the back of her brain. She decided rather than wait for the inevitable deficits to start such as tripping, falling, dizzy spells, headaches, loss of hearing - possibly vision, speech impediments, she opted to have the surgery to have it removed.

We were told that in all probability she would have the surgery and be up and walking and awake the next day, spend a week in the hospital then go to rehab to deal with any neurological issues that cropped up from the surgery.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. :(

After a 12-hour surgery, they only got 60% of the tumor and she didn't wake up for 3 days.  They realized there was something wrong. Maureen wasn't able to talk, couldn't use her right side, couldn't open her left eye.  We were unsure if she was recognizing her family and friends.

After a few weeks, she got a little bit better and we were hopeful when the doctors moved her from the ICU into a regular room. She began to eat and after 2 days they sent her off to rehab where we all hoped for the best.

Sadly, she got progressively worse in rehab - and became almost unrecognizable in two days. They rushed her back to Cedars, had an MRI and put her in intensive car.

Within two days they realized she had fluid in her brain so they installed a drain in her right side. And it started to drain and she seemed like she was getting a little bit better but still not talking and not fully awake and not fully recognizing people. 

The doctors discovered blood clots and the installed an IVC filter to head off any new blood clots.

When she still failed to improve significantly, the doctors were baffled and decided to put a drain in the other side.

After that surgery - she immediately had a bout of recognition for a brief period of time - and then got cloudy again.

The doctors realized the first drain wasn't necessary any more so they removed it. And now they are just playing with the settings on the second drain before deciding whether or not they're going to put a shunt in her brain to automatically drain the fluid.

As of this writing, she's been in the hospital for six weeks.