It was actually a fairly peaceful week and a half on the medical front and I was able to work 23 hours (most so far since the surgery last July) for my employer, the week of Feb 4 and about 20 hours the week of Feb 11. I also made significant progress in getting our personal tax information ready to turn over to the accountant. YEAH!
We got specific feedback from the Block Integrative Cancer Care Center about potential interactions of their recommended vitamins and supplements with the strong antibiotics I’m on until February 21. We adjusted the regimen accordingly. I was actually feeling more and more tired as the week began and as the vitamins and supplements resumed, I was feeling much better. I guess the handful of pills actually works (shoot!).
We also had a mini-milestone occur—my first doctor’s visit in six months by myself. I had an appointment with the radiation oncologist to review the recent MRI. Susanne had a lot on her plate that day and I indicated that I would be fine with driving myself to the appointment. It was a struggle for her to detach from being there, but she ultimately agreed. I still wore my “I Love My Wife” button. She normally wears her corresponding “I Love My Husband” button. We have gotten pretty well known around the hospital by wearing these. Many of the staff asked after her and sent their greetings. The radiation/oncologist showed me the recent MRI scan and compared it with the previous. He was very pleased to show me that there was no visible tumor matter in evidence. He did detect a slight degree of problem with maintaining balance when he asked me to walk toe-to-toe. He was not overly concerned and it has since improved.
Susanne continues to diligently nurse the incision, per the surgeon’s instructions, and we returned to the surgeon’s office on February 13th to have the incision checked and some of the stitches and all of the staples removed. The staples were particularly irksome as they were located at exactly the right location to be in the way if I happened to bump my head on the car door frame….OUCH!! I barely noticed the stitches and I took no pain killers since the morning of the third day after the surgery.
Dr. Sloan explained that the condition of my scalp was somewhat fragile due to the radiation treatments and multiple surgeries. He indicated that performing, what he called a wound revision was very unusual. In the 13 months he’s been at this hospital doing brain surgeries full time, he has done 3 wound revisions…2 of them mine!! Overall he was pleased with how the wound was healing. The one down-side for me is no snorkeling on our upcoming trip to Florida with our mothers from Feb 16 to 23. Unfortunately, the surgeon indicated that I should not do that!! No sun on and no pool water or sea water in the incisions. Oh well…I’m sure we’ll have a great time anyway. One nice side benefit from the appointment was that my son David had an appointment at the same time, so we got to spend time together and get new photos of him and his family.
We also went to the Gathering Place for two excellent programs:
- Dr Stephen Post spoke about his book “Why Good Things Happen to Good People”. He is a Professor of Bioethics & Family Medicine in the School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University and is also President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (IRUL) - Altruism, Compassion, Service. His talk was very poignant and the audience participation was marvelous. I was able to share about my spiritual journey with cancer, which the presenter really appreciated.
- Movie Night was Kevin Kostner’s "Field of Dreams" followed by a discussion on how the movie’s themes apply to our journeys with cancer and caregiving. I found that the movie contained a very powerful metaphor for me of my journey. What I shared was that just as the main character of the movie was following his spiritual inspiration, despite many nay-sayers, I was doing the same thing on my path.
I was also able to share about my spiritual/medical journey at Toastmasters as I presented a prepared speech with the objective to persuade with power. I called the speech “Participant or Passenger”. It was really fun to do.
Another event that took place this week was that Susanne did a presentation and book signing at Joseph Beth Booksellers. That was also fun.
3 comments:
Yay!! I'm so glad.
The rest of the story….
We are definitely in a transition phase of trying to figure out when Craig can easily be independent and when I still need to be very involved. It was good to practice detachment and not go to the radiology appointment. However, as Craig’s head caregiver, being at the surgeon’s office made sense. We are still watching carefully for a reoccurrence of the infection.
The connection with Dr. Stephen Post is a great one…we’ve already shared information about our professional work on character qualities with him.
I’m clearly significantly back to work as well. This week I finished up the rough draft of a book for companies that is a practical tool to help employees check out how they are doing personally with character choices, improve all their interactions with others, and really dedicate themselves to giving great customer service. I have a few friends and colleagues reviewing it at the moment.
It was also a thrill this week to have an interview air on WCPN radio (the local National Public Radio affiliate) about our book A Perfectly Funny Marriage: A Humorous View of Creating a Successful Marriage. The initial interview was about 30 minutes taped, but it was edited down to about 4 minutes for broadcast. You can listen to it on the radio web site: http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/news/9816/.
The presentation at the book signing went well too. We had about 11 attendees who participated in a mini-workshop on relationships and I signed and sold a number of books. The handout is at http://www.claricomm.com/JBHandout.pdf.
I'm glad to see the nutritional side of the treatment is helping too. :-) Your Florida trip sounds great -- I can't even IMAGINE wanting to snorkel Your level of activity certainly is inspirational. Thanks for keeping us up to date.
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