Day 5-All Things Good

Good evening everyone,

A quick note about Eric. He is still progressing in a positive directions. He is walking around more, using his right hand more and doing more for himself. This is such great news for all of us. He also had the drain removed today, it hurt a bit but he is doing much better tonight. His spirits are also much better today and he is almost ready to do his own blog again, he said he would like to write on Thursday.

Thanks again for all the support we are thankful for everything.

Love and God Bless,
Hallie

Day 4-Another Good Day!!

Just a quick note to let everybody know that Eric was able to move out of ICU today, he ate real food, enjoyed ice cream and walked the halls. He has improved so much each day, getting stronger mind body and spirit. We continue to pray for a speedy recovery and we look forward to going home some day this week.

Thank you again for all your prayers,
God Bless,
Hallie

Day 3-Prayers are Answered!!!!

God has been watching over us the last few days and today he answered many prayers. Eric is off the ventilator and doing well. Movement in his right side is returning and he is awake!!!!! He even laughed and made us laugh today. Same old Eric!!!! So today good news!!!

Please continue to pray for Eric's speedy recovery and the strength for him to continue his fight with the positive attitude that has made all of us look at life a bit differently.

Thank you and God Bless,

Hallie

Compliations-Day 2

Well today was another day full of surprises! First we arrived at the hospital thinking great today he will get the tube out and breathe on his own. Then the lung Dr. came in and said no such luck Eric has pneumonia!!!! Great just what he needed. So they gave him some medication and will do another x-ray in the morning. Well Eric is doing much better in all other areas! Yea! He can respond to yes and no questions, move his left side with no problems and can move his right leg and foot and squeeze his right hand with a little grip. Although he can move his right arm if he gets upset with something they are doing to him. I know he is ready to be back to normal so hopefully tomorrow will be a better x-ray day for him. He shook his head no when we said he only needed to have the tube for 1 more day and he shook his head no that he was not going to be a good patient anymore. So hopefully Monday he will get the tube out or I think it may be a long day! Finally in regards to Eric he has very little pain and has not needed any pain medicine so this is also a good sign that things are going well in regards to the brain surgery.

I also wanted to thank Chaplin Steve and his wife for stopping by to pray with Eric and the family. It was very moving and it was after the prayer that he started to move his right side. As we all know prayer can be very powerful! So please keep us in your prayers.

Thank you all for all your support and God Bless,

Hallie

Complications-Update Day 1

Dear Family & Friends,

I wanted to give you the current info on Eric. As of now he is moving his left side with no problems, the right side still needs some work but it looks like it will be fine. The tube will be coming out tomorrow and he will be awake if all goes as planed tonight. He was responsive to myself and his family squeezing our hands, he even waved goodbye tonight. The CAT scan came back looking fine and I am not sure if they will be doing it again. I know not on Sunday but maybe on Monday the Dr will order another CAT scan. So things are looking good right now and we will just keep praying!

Thank you for all your support we are lucky to have such a wonderful support group.
Hallie

Update About Complications

Dear Friends and Family,

I wanted to let everyone know about Eric's current situation. Unfortunately yesterday was a tough day for him and he was in a lot of pain. So the Dr's made sure that he was medicated and not feeling any pain, this made him very sleepy and not very responsive. Around 8pm last night the nurse came to check on him and his right side was not moving and he was not talking. The rushed him into the CAT scan and saw blood. He had a small leak from something and there was a clot. So at 10pm they took him back to surgery and removed the blood and clot. They are not sure what caused the leak but the surgeon said he was cautiously optimistic that everything would be fine. So far today his has movement in his left foot and hand, his right foot reacts to touch and his right hand is still not working. He is sedated and has a tube for breathing to keep his blood pressure down and his the CAT scan comes back ok today they will ween him from the tube and wake him up. I know this is a surprise for everyone but Eric is a fighter and I know he will pull out of this just fine. Please continue the prayers and I will try to update as often as possible I know he has a lot of people who care about him and we both want everyone to know whats going on with his current fight.

Thank you for all your prayers,

Hallie

Official Update

Family and Friends,

Thank you for being with us today and keeping us in your prayers, all the prayers helped as Eric is recovering well, talking and seems as he will continue to be the Eric we all know and love. The surgery took 5 hours and was intense as the Dr. put it. They had to go a bit deeper than before and remove a tumor that was bigger than the 1st one. The Dr. said that he thinks that he was able to get about 90-95% of the tumor. Even though this is not as exciting as 100% we are happy just the same. Eric will get another MRI by Friday and we will know more than. As for now he will be at the City of Hope recovering and I sure by the end of tomorrow making jokes and giving the nurses a hard time. I will try and update a little each day so that everyone can stay informed.

Again thank you all for everything! Prayers, support, offers of help we are so thankful to know such wonderful people. Everyone should be as blessed as we are!

Love and God Bless,
The Botkn's

Update

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update.....Eric is in ICU recovering and doing well. He is in a bit of pain and resting. I will give a complete update later this evening. Thank you for all your prayers and please keep praying!

God Bless,
Hallie

Third Times a Charm!

Whew! Life is funny. I wanted to take a moment and bring everyone up to speed. Almost exactly one year ago I was having headaches, pretty funny how that could occur again one year later. Anyway, over this month I was starting to have some things occur that were new to my current health. We all get headaches through our regular busy lives it was hard to beleive that it was happening again. I have also had amazing sinus problems over my life so that must be the challenge for me, not my brain cancer. Now forward to the night before the trip to Florida, I started having dizziness and loss of balance which kind of concerned me but hey, I'm traveling over the US, that must be my anxiety creator. Well my sinus problems increased over the amazing family moments and on Monday, two days into our vacation, I spend the day with the Emergency Room Staff due to my incredible head pain. While they were awsome individuals, all of us know that they are unbelievable for immediate action and decisions for patients, exactly opposite of brain cancer which was myself. The project ended with some exceptional communication between my current doctors and the staff in Florida to determine that another look should be done immediately. So as soon as we returned it as back to the City of Hope. I spoke at length today with my neurosurgeon who I really respect and the decision to do another surgery is the best answer. Having another surgery in a similar location could have a few more challenges for me, but I really believe that this is God's plan. While I don't know my future, all I know how to do is to work to overcome challenges. I know that Hallie will post an update for everyone as my surgery is scheduled for very early on Wednesday morning. The neurosurgeon believes that this second attempt it will take about seven hours to due because it is a more intense procedure.

Lastly after spending a day at the hospital (in Florida) and then being overwhelmed by all this new stress and unknowns we went to another Disney park to have some great family time and while standing in the park a plane posted these words. "God Loves U". There I was standing crying in the park. How stupid I felt to cry. What are the odds that after all my issues, challenges and stresses that someone I will never know or even be able to thank posted something so important. Well I just wanted to share with everyone a thanks for taking care of me and my family. Also a great thanks to all that have taken a moment and asked God to help me. You never know what you are going to accomplish in life and who you might affect, but to have people that you have never met asking God to give me and my family help is just something I can't even describe.

Specific surgery information:

City of Hope (Duarte, CA)

Wednesday, 29th- 6am or so

6 hour surgery or so

2-5 days in hospital based on Eric and his recovery

Thanks again to everyone and God Bless you all.

Well How About This!

Well good morning everyone. I just wanted to take a moment and tell everyone a wonderful and fantastic hello. I am taking a little moment and having a great little vacation in Florida at the Disney parks. The most important part of this unbelievable trip is that I have had able to spend some time with my mom, my sister and my amazing neice having no vacations before as well as my own awsome Hallie and Hunter. A pretty awsome level of fun that was great for us all to spend some time together and get to see what everyone is really about, in addition to us almost being mostly free. It has been really nice for me to spend many moments holding, hugging and kissing everyone.

Well I just wanted to take a moment and give my big news. After meeting with possibly two great doctors who have been keeping me at my best, we discussed what I am going to do about returning to work. The short answer is that after 10.462 years of serving the City of Riverside Fire Department the time has come for me to retire. It's a pretty amazing story how I got hired with the City and became part of another family, after all it only took about 5 years to get onto any fire department. I started at about 25 years old and went every where that I was able to get my car or by airplane to try to get my opportunity. California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado and took many trips. I mostly didnt know how this application process worked and how it was totally different than getting other jobs and having just one meeting. There was a mental test, a physical test, an oral and then if you did fantastic you got to another oral with the Chief. Most often you were number 57 out of 4,500 which was awsome, but they were hiring number 1 -12. Yea! Nothing but money on the airline flights got to be your memory of that department. And then it was my local Riverside City who offered me an amazing opportunity. Well, The doctors and I discussed many things as I thought this was totally silly to leave that place that I really enjoy, my dream and taking moments helping people I thought why quit I just got to be a certified driver. The doctors found my concern funny and shared some things about my type of brain cancer. I have to share what was the thing that was going to be the toughest thing for me. The biggest fun dream for most of us is to be the one holding the nozzle at a great fire and since I have never pushed myself to that 110% since going off on the workers comp. no one knew how my brain would handle that system. Now knowing that if in this most amazing fun time God would have called me home , which is alright with me even though strange for others, I would have been alright, but knowing how my fire department would send people to help and rescue me which could be harmful or dangerous to them and that would be something that I could never allow to happen. So I believed that this was the best thing for me. On October 30th, 2008 will be my offical ast day. My last day with my best brothers and sisters, the well decisive captains in charge of us all, and the whole City of Riverside who has made this overwhelming thing run so completely smoothly to you I say thank you. I know that if all of these people were somewhere else as retail, mechanics are just parents would be those that are the ones who as knows as leaders, yet instead we all joined together and to the things that are important. While I feel silly after seeing all the others who placed a wonderful statement about how they have reached a time to leave and allow their moments to come to the others they are leaving behind, I still don't feel ready to go. I still wanted to be the one who laughed with my family, helped the families and pulled the nozzle off first. While I know that my situation is different than all those previous retirements I know that this is the best place for me. I know that God has something to do or complete so I won't get that moment to write that same wonderful statement of all those I would be priveledged to follow.