Thursday, August 27, 2015

It's gettin' It's gettin' It's gettin kinda hectic

Summer was great, but too short. imac went to Philmont Scout ranch and backpacked 72 miles. Butter went on his first mission trip with church. I took two weeks off to hang with the family. It was back to school on August tenth.Ridiculous because last time I checked August 10 was part of summer. The kids are settling in to tenth and seventh grades, band practice and swim practice, homework and school supplies. I've attended two high school football games already in order to watch the halftime show of course. iMac plays flute in the marching band. I rely heavily on friend MK to cue me when to clap or ooh and ah about the football. I understood football once, when I was in 7th grade at the now defunct Byrnes School. My class was all girls even though the school was co-ed. We were the smart class, although I didn't realize it at the time. The football was fun that year because there were no stellar athletes in that little class of girls and it was just plain fun. Since then I've forgotten all the rules.

August 8th Melanoma Man drove the boys home from a week away. I flew home, as the original plan had them arriving back on a different day. We went to church the morning of August 9th. Before church MM wasn't feeling well. He asked me questions about pulmonary emboli, thought he might call the on call physician. Outwardly his color was good, his oxygen saturation good, respiratory rate normal.  Just before the sermon at church he got up and walked out of church. The boys and I followed a few moments later. I drove the boys home and not finding Melanoma Man there, I called him on his cell phone. He was at the emergency room, already triaged and in the back. He looked good when I arrived, just said he felt "woozy, odd." He was discharged a few hours later, no pulmonary embolism.

August 25th he left for Moffitt. He faced a full day of labs, CT scans, MRI, Neurosurgeon and Oncologist visits starting early on the 26th. His appointment with Neurosurgery to review his MRI was at 2:45. At 3:30 he sent a text that said: "Keep Calm."

He called from the car around 5. "One tumor growing in his brain. It's one millimeter." he said. I shouldn't have said it, but I did, " One centimeter, not millimeter." At this point I know to wait to see the report because Melanoma Man's verbal report and the radiologists actual report rarely coincide. Options given: Do nothing, craniotomy and surgical removal of the whole tumor, small incision into the skull and laser surgery. He opted for the laser. Friday morning he showed me the report, which included four other brain tumors also growing, but not quite so fast. Now the waiting and for me the knowing that the drugs cannot permeate his blood/brain barrier anymore. The magic of the previous stereotactic brain radiation on the blood/brain barrier has worn off, as we knew it would. 

The headaches have started. Christmas carols too. He can't get Christmas carols out of his head. And we wait each day to find out what the surgery date will be. We know he'll have to travel to Moffitt again this week for another MRI and probably to get fitted for a frame or a mask that he will wear during surgery.  We know that surgery will likely be next week, but not which day. We had a good weekend. Sometimes it's nice to have these few days  just suspended in  time, before the plan is put in place and sometimes it's maddening. We continue to put things on the calendar as if we are not going to Tampa for brain surgery. Tonight as I write he is at the BoyScout meeting. Today he worked on plans for the library booksale. Today for me there was work which wasn't quite busy enough to distract me. 

So there it is. They're back.

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