(a.k.a., Weblog, "An online journal or diary that is frequently updated.")
The most recent updates are at the top...
Winter, 2008
Nick is doing GREAT!
He's recovered to the point of swimming faster than he did before his accident, dropping time and competing with the rest of his team.
Congratulations to Nick and his family on a fantastic recovery!
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
Great news! The gamma knife radiation treatment yesterday went beautifully. It was a long day, but Nick recovered well,
was able to have some ice cream last night, and went home this morning. The turban he had to wear to protect where the
head gear was attached to his skull is off. He'll need to stay quiet for the new few days while the risk for swelling
from the treatment is greatest, but assuming all goes well he will be able to return to school next week. He'll need to
stay on his anti-seizure medication for a while longer, but there is hope that he can stop that sometime soon.
Therapy sessions continue alsol, and he's making amazing progress thanks to his hard work.
He is able to swim with an adult companion, as long as he doesn't dive in the water, so he'll be at the pool periodically
and is looking forward to rejoining his squad later this year. Everyone's prayers are truly appreciated as Nick continues
to recover.
Monday, April 9th, 2007
Nick continues to make fantastic progress. He's working really hard in his therapy sessions as well as at home doing his therapy
"homework". He is able to get around without his walker most of the time, and his other skills are returning as well.
This photo was taken at Age Group State when he was on-deck to cheer for his relay team:
Here's one of Nick and his team Get Well card:
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
Nick was on deck to watch his buddies swim the freestyle relay at Age Group State last weekend,
and it was great having him there. He has been at school 4 days this week, wowing his advanced
math buddies with how fast he's able to say the answers to math problems on their speed tests.
He is also continuing to work hard with his therapy, and is slowly starting to see his skills return.
The most exciting news, however, is that he has an appointment for gamma knife radiation of the
arterio-venous malformation. May 1 he will spend 9 hours with a team of laser experts, radiology
experts, and anesthesiologists as they target the abnormal blood vessels with gamma radiation to
cause them to close down. Some swelling is expected after the treatment so he'll spend the night
in the hospital. It will take 3 years for the full benefit of the treatment to take effect as the
blood vessel scar process takes place, but the hope is to prevent any future bleeding. For more
information on this advanced treatment, CLICK HERE.
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
Nicole said that the doctors weren't able to get close enough to the center of the AVM to do the embolization,
so he's back home. It was a long morning with a disappointing outcome, but it was better to play it safe than
risk the material getting into healthy arteries. They are going to meet again tomorrow and talk about their next options.
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
Nick has been doing great. He's been back at school with a full-time aide to make sure he doesn't fall,
has been to see some basketball games, and is continuing with therapy. His classmates are thrilled to
have him back at school with them.
However, it's now time to do something about the tangle of abnormal blood vessels in his brain that
are the cause of the bleeding. Nick has what's called an arteriovenous malformation, where there
is a tangle of high-pressure arteries that are directly connected to the low-pressure veins without
the usual capillaries to reduce the pressure on the veins, which therefore are prone to bleeding.
Wednesday he will undergo a procedure at Methodist hospital called "Embolization Brain AVM with Onyx".
This is done under general anesthesia, and involves threading a tiny tube through his blood vessels up
to where the arteriovenous malformation is located. The doctor will then squirt a medication called
Onyx (ethylene vinyl alcohol co-ppolymer dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide, for those who like chemistry)
at the center of the AVM to close it off. The Onyx forms a soft, spongy blockade that his doctors hope
will permanently plug the blood vessels that caused the bleeding in Nick's brain. It was decided to do
this procedure instead of gamma knife radiation because Onyx embolization works faster to close off the abnormality.
Nick will need to spend the rest of the week in the ICU while they monitor his response to treatment.
Onyx embolization is a relatively new treatment, so we don't know if additional treatments will be needed
in the future, but it's exciting to think that Nick may soon have less risk of another bleed.
We are thankful for medical advances that Nick's doctors can use to help him. We are thankful for all
the prayers and support shown by our community. We'll keep you posted on how well things go tomorrow.
It would be wonderful to have Nick out of the hospital in time to go to the Natatorium to cheer for his
swim buddies at State!
Here are some pictures of Nick at school:
Friday, March 9th, 2007
Well, Nick's home and has been spotted in the pool with Mom this week. Seems he's
really enjoying being in the water. Here's a picture of Nick and Nicole at a basketball game last Saturday:
Thursday, March 1st, 2007
Nick's coming home tomorrow! He visited his school, Sommer Elementary, last Tuesday,
and is excited about being home and getting back to school. He's still working
extremely hard in therapy and hoping he can get back in the water soon. His
classmates and teachers were so happy to see him visit, and Sommer has an aide lined
up for him who has three sons, including a 4th grader at Sommer.
It's truly awe-inspiring to see how much progress Nick has made, and it will be great to have him back home.
Saturday, February 24th, 2007 (#2)
Nick is coming to Crawfordsville today to watch his brother play basketball.
Tomorrow he will have another pass from the hospital to attend his church and see
a movie with swim buddy Luke. He's getting lots of fun visitors at Methodist!
Saturday, February 24th, 2007 (#1)
Here are some pictures that Nicole took with her cell phone during Nick's physical therapy:
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Nick got to go bowling today with his mom and a bunch of his therapists!
Had a great time, and is really looking forward to an outing back to Crawfordsville
this weekend to watch Gus play basketball. He's making great progress on the
rehab unit at Methodist, working with a slew of speech, occupational, and physical
therapists. His vision has improved so much that he no longer needs glasses, and
his handwriting is making great improvement. He's able to walk with the help of
some braces, and his arm strength and coordination is really coming along.
He found out today that his 200 free relay team has a state cut, so now he has
another goal - swim at age group state in 3 weeks! Go Nick!
Here's a picture of Nick with swim-buddy Luke Spencer:
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
Great news - Nick has been transferred to the inpatient rehab unit at Methodist
Hospital! He's up on the 7th floor, and is really excited to be able to start
working even harder at getting all his skills back. His days are full of physical
therapy (twice daily), occupational therapy (twice daily), and speech therapy.
He was seen by the eye doctor, got some reading glasses and is able to see to read
now as well. They are keeping him so busy that he wouldn't be able to have visitors
until late afternoon, but he'd love to have visitors anytime between 4-8 pm. So,
while his buddies are loafing at home having snow days, he's working hard to get
caught up, and would love to have visitors if you can get to Indianapolis.
Sunday, February 11th, 2007
Nick is out of the ICU! Saturday was an interesting day. While his
brother and his swim buddies were competing at the conference meet in Lafayette,
Nick had another CT scan showing that things are continuing to improve. After
getting a good report, the shunt was pulled out (without anesthesia - ouch!) so
he's almost completely untethered from monitoring equipment. He was then moved
out of the ICU, initially to a room with a patient who was too noisy for comfort,
but then to a quieter section of Riley, and is very happy to be settled into a
regular room. This week he started speech therapy, occupational therapy and
two-a-days with physical therapy. Sometime soon they hope to move him to the
rehab unit at Methodist so he can undergo even more intensive therapy. There's
even talk of being able to return to school sometime in the next few weeks!
Gamma knife radiation of the arteriovenous malformation will need to wait for
several more weeks. At this point it's great for Nick to be able to move around
more, using his walker to do some laps in the hallway, and to start working on
regaining those skills that we normally take for granted.
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
Still waiting for a room on the 4th floor, so he's still in ICU and not able to have visitors.
However, he has had some physical therapy, even up and walking in the hallway with shoes on!
Occupational therapy is also working with him, and he starts speech therapy today.
Today he was able to feed himself for the first time since he's been in the hospital.
His intracranial pressure is doing great, and they plan to take the tube out next week.
They may or may not place a permanent shunt. The latest scan shows that the blood clot is
continuing to shrink, and his brain is adjusting beautifully to the reduced size of the clot.
The doctors were able to determine that the original cause of the bleeding is an arterior-venous
malformation as suspected. Because of it's location so close to the brainstem they plan to use
gamma knife radiation to treat the malformation and hopefully prevent it from bleeding again.
("Beam it out, Scotty!"). Nick may spend some time in the rehab unit at Methodist before and/or
after the gamma knife treatment.
Cards brighten Nick's day, especially if they have a joke included.
Please keep them coming!
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
Good news all around. Nick will be moved out of ICU as soon as they can find a bed for him on the 4th floor.
His arterial line has been removed and his appetite continues to improve. They hope to place a permanent
shunt sometime soon so he can get rid of the tube that he thought at first were his swim goggles.
Still no decision on how to treat the area of blood vessels that caused the original bleeding,
but Nick is looking forward to being in out of the ICU so he can visit with Gus and other visitors.
Monday, February 5th, 2007
Nick continues to show steady improvement. His heart rate and blood pressure are better, and he's eating well. They are hoping that he will be out of the ICU soon. Nicole saw the website yesterday, thinks it's "awesome" and is thrilled to have a way to let people know how Nick is doing.
Her parents are here and will be able to take Gus to the Conference meet this weekend. Again, the family sends their thanks to everyone who offered to help so that Gus would be able to swim.
Satuday, February 3nd, 2007
Nick had another quiet night. The neurosurgeon is anticipating that he'll need to stay in the ICU for at least another 2 days. The area of bleeding is shrinking, and they are trying to decide among several options for what to do once they get a better look at the blood vessels that caused the bleed.
Yesterday they had a Colts party in the foyer, and Nick had several gifts delivered to him, including a Peyton Manning shirt and team photo.
The cards and notes from friends brighten Nick's day, and the family sends their heartfelt thanks to those keeping Nick in their prayers.
Here's a picture of Nick - smiling as always!
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
After some rough nights earlier this week, he's had two good nights. Still in the ICU, still has a low heart rate and periods of apnea lasting 25-30 seconds, but otherwise doing OK. He's able to eat, get up to use the commode, and argue with his nurses and parents - always a good sign!
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Nick has been moved back to Intensive Care and is having a little trouble with his heart rate and blood pressure, but he’s being monitored closely. The source of the bleeding has proven to be more difficult to identify than originally expected, but his doctors are ready to perform surgery again if that’s what is needed.
Nicole is asking for everyone’s prayers, and to be supportive of Gus. Sarah will be delivering the club’s get well cards tomorrow and I’m sure it will be appreciated. Thanks to everyone who participated.
Please continue to keep Nick and his family in your thoughts.
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
It turns out that Nick’s fall on Thursday, while not itself too severe, aggravated a previously unknown problem. An experienced neurosurgical team at Riley operated on him Thursday night to relieve some of the pressure around his brain and things went very well. He’s still doing well, the bleeding area is stable, and the focus now is on identifying the source of the problem. Chances are his doctor will wait another day or two before continuing the testing.
He’s been sedated pretty heavily while this is going on, but he’s been moved out of intensive care and there’s hope today that he may be allowed to wake up enough to at least talk to his brother Gus by phone. As of this morning, he’s eating jello and staying awake longer than a few minutes at a time.
The team will be making get well cards for Nick on Monday during practice; if anyone would like to donate anything for Nicole (bottled water, snacks…) please bring it to Monday’s practice.
Please keep the Maxwells in your thoughts.
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
I’ve just learned that our own Nick Maxwell had a serious fall today and was Life-Lined to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. I’ll share more information about Nick’s condition as I get it, but in the meantime please keep Nick and his family in your thoughts.
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