Hey guys! I just wanted to let everyone know that I am at home now, and am doing well. I get really tired quick and easy but I guess that’s expected and my body is just healing. I wanted to give everyone a perspective on things now, from MY point of view. on January 8th, I remember being at work. I was working on a network map and drawing schematics all day. If you don’t know what this is, it’s basically tiny lines running parallel to one another. While I felt fine at work, at the end of the day I kinda started feeling funny and dizzy. I sent Amanda an IM and told her to call Dr. Shertz and let him know what’s up. He was on vacation, so she called Dr. Harron. He didn’t return her call quick so she told me just to go to her work and she’d meet me there. I remember driving most of the way. About half way on the drive home, I don’t 
remember much. I vaguely remember getting to the ER at Franklin Memorial, and I have NO clue how I got there. The next thing I know, I woke up (it was the next day) and I was strapped to a bed, with tubes down my throat and IVs in my arms and was in ICU. Now keep in mind, I don’t get IVs since I have a port. Amanda had told me that I stopped breathing and LifeGuard 10 had flown me to Roanoke. She told me what happened. I don’t remember much of that day but I remember her telling me what happened. I have NO recollection of the night I had the seizure and was flown. In fact, I don’t remember ANYTHING from my hospital stay. Amanda told me about the people who came to see me. If you came to see me in the hospital, I am sorry but I do not remember it, and I am sure I seemed flakey while you were there. I don’t remember crashing while I was in the hospital either, but Amanda and Tiffany said I lost vision and feeling in my body. I just remember waking up and everyone telling me my second brain surgery was finished. It’s amazing what your body can shut out for you to not remember. That being said, I feel much better.
During my seizure, I dislocated my right shoulder and tore the rotator cuff in it. I go to Roanoke Orthopedic next week to chat with the surgeon there about it. He’s told me that he would have to take my shoulder apart and rebuild it. Let me tell you, I am excited aout that! It hurts really bad at times though, especially of a morning when I wake up.
I did go see Dr. Harron on Wednesday and he took the 38 staples out of my head. That didn’t hurt like I thought it would. After we left there, we went to Dr. Buck to get my head cast fitted for my radiation. They hope to start that next week. They’re not targeting any tumor to kill, but IU wants to do radiation in the tumor bed since it came back so aggressive. I’m all for it.
Friday, I went to see Dr. Shertz. He said right now, we need to focus on radiation so nothing comes back in my noggin. Again I’m in total agreement with that. He also cancelled the head part of my CT scan on Tuesday, since it’s so close to surgery. I do get a full body CT on Tuesday though to see what the rest of my tumors are doing. Hopefully still shrinking. He did do blood work to see where my tumor markers were, and also to get my Dilantin level. If my dilantin level gets low enough, it puts me at a very high risk for more seizures. I am on medicine for that now though. The bad part of it, is that I cannot drive until June. That sucks!
So in a nutshell, all of my doctors appointments this week went good. Next week will be a busy week since I will probably start radiation, on top of everything else I have going on. On a lighter note, for those who DID come see me in the hospital, thank you. For those who called, texted, left comments on here, etc, thank you. It means a lot to me that so many of you care about me. For everyone at my work who made food for Amanda and I, it was GREAT and THANK YOU!! I don’t think I let Amanda get much of it, since I am on steroids and stay hungry. Thank you though, it’s awesome. We will keep you posted with when I start radiation, and what the doctor says next week.
Also on a side note, I’ve updated the “medical team” part of this website. I am also constantly adding stuff, so make sure you check back often as I am trying to build this site up with not only my journey through this cancer battle, but also so others can use it as a resource to help them get through cancer and battle their own journey.
Thanks for reading my long post, and keeping up with me through my blog. You all ROCK! Thanks for all of the prayers and concerns as well. I am going to leave you with an excellent video that Amanda showed me. I really like it. Please watch it because it took me forever to get it to post in the blog. I hope everyone has a good weekened!
LiveStrong!
