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Duke Football 2013 Discussion Thread

Helton getting left off is absurd. 2x LB of the Week. Leads ACC in tackles

Not even HM. I wonder if people just forgot about him?
 
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Duke needs to do this immediately
 
**URGENT!!** Brandon Connette



:cry: Keep his mom, the family, and him in your prayers. Finals week, too. Hope he's on the way home, if not there already.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hope everything is alright.


Merged the threads.
 
Latest on Brandon's mother, from his uncle on Facebook:

Shared Friday night:
Norman Way

The latest on my sister, Nancy Connette: As I mentioned at some point before, the tumor was much more than anticipated in my sister Nancy (Way) Connette. There is question of her mobility and vision when she does come around. The doctors have chosen today to allow her to be in a resting/sleeping state to allow better healing. We don't know what tomorrow will look like but we are sure that God is in control. Speaking of God, I am so blessed by the many brothers and sisters in the Lord that have stood in the gap praying so fervently. There have been prayer vigils at a couple of churches, prayer in the hospital and a large group prayer in the hospital parking lot. Many have asked what you can do. PLEASE PRAY! Please don't just say you will pray. If you would, pause now and ask our Lord for His will to be done. It's not just for Nancy but so that we all grow in faith. Besides, He loves to hear His children call on His name! Specifically, I pray that His will would be for healing, sustain for her body and retention of her mobility and vision. If you are led, please share this post that we would have many others praying for her. The hope for Nancy's restoration is all in Jesus hands.

There have been many of you that haven't seen Nancy in over 25 years that have offered your support. THANK YOU on behalf of my sis and her family. If you didn't know, Nancy has been happily married to Allen Connette and they have seven awesome kids. The oldest girl is married, two boys in college and four boys at home. They are an example of God's handy work in a marriage and family. With all the distractions, Nancy is a rock! She is wise, calming, soft spoken, deliberate in her actions and words, speaks kindly at all times, patient and just as beautiful as she was growing up. She's a Proverbs 31 kinda girl. I could go on but you get the picture. God has used her mightily and is even doing so through this season. Allen and I were talking tonight and we are reminded how things of this world are so unimportant. Our CHRISTmas has been put in a better perspective. The real gifts can't be bought. As soon as you get a chance, give your spouse, kids or friend a real hug and let them know how much they are loved. And so to my Sister......I Love you Nancy!

This evening:
Made it to California to see Nancy. Not a lot has changed. It is very serious. Currently she has some movement but we're not sure how much is intentional. There has been a small stroke which isn't necessarily unexpected but slows the process down.
I am blessed with the out pouring of love and prayers.
I am especially blessed with Allen. I much appreciate his devotion and love for my sister.
Hopefully there will be some more and hopefully positive news for tomorrow. Until then, please continue to pray. The Lord lives us to call on His name and the family is thankful. — with Brandon Connette and 4 others.

Friends of the family in Corona have set up a Take Them A Meal page for them. Does anybody here live in the Corona/Riverside County area? I'd be more than happy to send a contribution to go towards something.
 
CaringBridge post from Brandon's dad. Jeez this escalated quickly..........

I am going to try and make this as quick as I can. My beautiful wife has been through so much in the last 5 days. This all started, from what we can tell, roughly 3 years ago when Nancy had trouble regulating her hormones. We chalked it up to pre-menopause. In just this past year she started having symptoms of excessive thirst, along with swelling and bloating. Diabetes right? No. Nancy could drink two liters of water and an hour and a half later, be diagnosed as dehydrated. This past May, she started complaining her eyesight was not what it used to be. Again we shrugged it off as, "Well thats what happens as you get older." Her symptoms continued to persist and progress with no relief. Tests came back negative for everything the doctors tested her for. Several doctors told her it was "all in her head"...if only they knew how right they were. About 2 weeks ago, Nancy awoke and told me her sight was getting worse, like tunnel vision. The optometrist examined her and said there might be swelling behind her eyes and gave her drops. After a week of drops Nancy felt like her sight was still getting worse so she went back to the optometrist. He confirmed her sight was worse and recommended she go to the ER. We went to the ER that same day and within a few hours they sent her to an ophthalmologist. After a 3 hour examination, he recommended an MRI stating, "I believe you have a brain tumor". I quickly dismissed that notion because, well... because this is Nancy and stuff like that only happens to other people. So the next day we went for the MRI and met with the doctor that same afternoon and heard those dreaded words. There was a pituitary lesion that is putting pressure on her optic nerve.

"What is a pituitary lesion?" I asked, "its a brain tumor". There it was right in front of us on the screen. The doctor quickly let us know that pituitary tumors are very rarely cancerous, also these tumors are removed in out patient surgery through the nose and sinus cavity without disrupting the cranial cavity. OK, good news. And once its removed, no more hormone craziness, no more unquenchable thirst, and no more loss of sight. So we scheduled a consultation with the neurosurgeon for this past Thursday, the 13th. Katie, our daughter, accompanied us. We met Dr. Steiner, and he brought up her MRI image on the screen and proceeded to tell us this looks like a dangerous tumor and questioned Nancy about her sight loss and its progression. After hearing Nancy explain she is losing sight daily, Dr. Steiner recommended she be admitted to the hospital immediately and that he would try to get an same day OR for emergency open head brain surgery. Not what I was expecting to hear. I mean we were there to schedule out patient surgery. I questioned Dr. Steiner on his credentials and to make a long story short he was the most confident Dr. I have ever encountered. He explained that I get second opinions, but that 8 out of 10 neurosurgeons would not touch this tumor. The tumor is located at the base of the brain at the optic nerves, the pituitary gland, and both the major arteries that supply all the blood to the brain, and of course the base of both lobes of the brain. He boldly stated that he was one of an extremely small club that perform this type of surgery, and that most neurosurgeons would refer Nancy to him. Dr. Steiner pointed out that the tumor was pressed against both lobes of the brains, in the middle of the pituitary gland stalk (the stalk connects the pituitary gland to the brain) and is wrapped around the optic nerves. He explained the risks...aneurysm, stroke, and of course death. He was confident in his abilities and stated his percentage of any of these happening was less that 1%. After discussing it and we came to the realization that 1) Nancy was losing her sight and 2) the tumor needed to be removed. So, the sooner the better.

Nancy was admitted and wasn't in the room more than 20 minutes when a team came into the room and informed us an OR had opened up and she would be going to surgery in less than 2 hours. By that time the rest of our kids made it to the hospital (Brandon in NC at Duke and Simon in San Jose arrived several hours after surgery began) and our family had an emotionally charged time with Mom. I said my good-byes in pre-op and cried uncontrollably as they rolled her off to surgery approximately 4pm Thursday, December 13th. Many friends came that night from work and church and we sat waiting. Brandon and Simon finally made it and I felt some relief that my entire family was there. Around 10:30pm, I saw Dr. Steiner come around the corner and I quickly went to hear some good news. I will never forget his first words, "The tumor was far worse than I thought" My brain raced and I think I went partially into shock as I heard him say things like the tumor was interwoven into both optic nerves, as well as growing into the stalk of the pituitary gland. He explained he could only core out the tumor like an orange, leaving the rind. He believed he only got 60 to 80 percent of the tumor. Now the bad news, there was a "feeder tube" coming off one of the main arteries that Dr. Steiner said must be severed. It was a rich supply of blood to the tumor. Upon cutting the artery, Nancy almost bled out to the point of death, losing 3-4 pts of blood (our bodies only hold 6 pts). Her right lobe was without blood for 10 minutes and Dr. Steiner was very concerned for paralysis on Nancy's left side. He had to put a clamp on the artery, get blood back into Nancy and bring her back to life. This cocky, confident surgeon had that white look on his face with a look of OH SH>>>>>T.

He turned and walked away telling me he would be back after looking at her post op CT scan. Upon returning some 10 minutes later he finally had something good to say to me......it looks like her brain has a good blood flow through both lobes but stroke is likely due to the loss of blood. That first day was full of tears and shock as we realized this was so much bigger than any of us imagined. And that this was going to take so much longer to fight. In closing it is a relief to feel Gods arms around us and the support from friends and Gods people is too much to put into words.
 
I feel completely invasive knowing intimate details like that of some other families life in a literal life and death situation. I'm not reading that.
 
Topher said:
I feel completely invasive knowing intimate details like that of some other families life in a literal life and death situation. I'm not reading that.
Understood. Entirely your prerogative.

Worth noting that it's been the family's choice all along to share the extent of what they have thus far.
 
I'll say this as a user of caringbridge when my father was dying: it's typically geared to friends, family and coworkers rather than football fans and gastroenterology junkies.

May be more appropriate to post the outcome, when it occurs, and leave the details to those that want to visit the caringbridge site.
 
aiw said:
I'll say this as a user of caringbridge when my father was dying: it's typically geared to friends, family and coworkers rather than football fans and gastroenterology junkies.

May be more appropriate to post the outcome, when it occurs, and leave the details to those that want to visit the caringbridge site.
Yeah, I'd probably murder my family on my deathbed if I found out they were sharing my woes with the internet at large.
 
Didn't mean for it to become an issue. If it is, mods please feel free to edit/delete accordingly.
 
No need to delete. I think it's nice to know there's a link to the site in case people want to visit it.

Others may disagree with the way Topher and I feel about it, anyway. I am not for censoring.
 
Understand that Florida is major step up in prestige and $, but not sure that will prove to be a great move for him as Muschamp and staff are probably a year away from getting shitcanned.
 

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