Anybody Else Thinking Baseball?

 

ANYBODY ELSE THINKING BASEBALL?

We’re pleased to report that things are returning to normal at home.  The scar (36 stitches) is shown for the first and last time here.  Less than two weeks ago, Patti’s noggin’ was opened by Dr. Chandler.  She doesn’t really wear the hat much, but it’s a pain to wash and dry her hair so it’s available.  Doesn’t she look great!

Over the weekend we had several visitors and all left with the same opinion.  She looks and behaves exactly like they remember and the trauma of surgery and the beginning of treatment has not diminished her one bit.  There are flowers galore and food and cards.  But the patient looks like the healthiest of us all so let’s get used to that.

Today we’ll be taking a van from the Savvy Snoot south to Griffin, GA where our beloved Aunt Nell Watt has a fabulous antebellum weekend home.  She’s downsizing (age 87) and wants us to have an old sofa that came from my great-grandparents home on Prince Ave. in Athens.  It will work great at Erymwold.  Patti won’t be lifting, but I suspect some direction will be provided…..

END OF WEEK ONE

Patti is sleeping well and eating plenty.  She still takes an occasional pain med, but most of her pills are routine stuff except the anti-seizure medicine.  Yesterday, Kiley took her to get her ‘mask’ fitted for radiation treatment.  This will be used to direct the lasers or whatever for our daily visits which now start 4/1/13.  April Fool’s Day.  Hmmmm…..

If anyone reading this is hungry, please stop by.  So many generous people have provided so much beautiful food.  Lenten promises are put on hold until this good stuff is gone.  If someone knows who sent the 55 gallon drum of chicken noodle soup, please let me know.  It arrived anonymously and will be enjoyed starting at lunch today.

Yesterday was another landmark day for our family.  Thanks to some creativity and a lot of generosity from my siblings I was able to purchase Erymwold, the country home my grandparents built in 1939.  We’ll run the house and 20 acres while brother Peter takes over the lake property, the woods and the horse barn and pasture.  Some of the other pastures will be sold.  Patti and I are now the third generation to call the place home.  I lived there starting in 1968 after my grandparents had gone to heaven.  Patti and I have already repainted her inside and out, redone the floors and started moving in furniture.  If spring ever arrives, we’ll be spending weekends there for a long, long time.  No plans to move from Atlanta, but as we’ve already seen…. Things change.

The Treatment (3/20/2013)

This morning everyone but MC went to meet the Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Fred Schwaibold who has a clinic at the new Piedmont Health Center on Howell Mill Road.  The Dr. is a tall, thin prematurely gray fella with a direct manor.  Tomorrow, Patti goes back to be fitted for a ‘mask’ which will be used to direct the lasers and radiation.  We will go every day for the next 30 weekdays at the same time of day to receive the radiation treatment.  This all begins next Tuesday the 26th.  These treatments will only last 30 minutes including all set up and paperwork.

Eventually, Patti will start taking Temodar as chemotherapy.  This will be a simple daily pill which may cause some nausea, but we’ll get a prescription to mitigate that, too.  We will have another MRI at the end of the 30 days and then more every 2-3 months.  We have not discussed treatment further down the road.

The radiation is likely to cause fatigue and we need to be alert to blood clots.  But for the most part this seems rather painless.   There may be some hair loss near where the radiation is targeted, which is front left.

Patti is feeling pretty well though she doesn’t talk about the illness directly very much.  It’s just a big ole elephant taking up all the oxygen and all the room in the house.  Everyone is still getting used to it.  We all talk to Mary Catherine daily and Thomas is around almost every day.  Kiley is doing lots of work scheduling and gathering prescriptions, etc.  She likes that stuff.

Of course Patti wants to see and hear from everyone who loves her.  My suggestion is that you text her or email her to see if she wants to talk.  This will help her filter some of the calls that may not be necessary at this time.  Pth52@bellsouth.net.  Please understand that she may not respond to every message, but she will see them all.

How we got here (3/18/2013)

Starting about March 6th, 2013, Patti started having headaches.  Not the killer headaches that might send you to bed, but the nuisance type that you soldier through.  On the morning of the 8th, Patti tried to do a bank transaction over the phone (Mary Catherine was headed to Spring Break and needed some…).  She could not get the words or the numbers to come out.  We were in the bedroom and it was sorta scary.

We called Dr. Teresa Clarke, Patti’s primary care doctor and she sent us to Piedmont Emergency.  We were in ER for about eight hours as tests and CT Scans and MRI’s were run.  There was a neurologist on call who identified a ‘mass’ on the brain.  The nature of the shadow would not be known without surgery.  Piedmont had recently brought in Dr. Howard Chandler to open a Brain Tumor Center and we would wait at Piedmont until Monday awaiting his return from out-of-town and observing for seizures, etc.  We really did not need to be there.

On Monday PM, Dr. Chandler came to see us, relayed the diagnosis (but not the nature of the tumor) and we scheduled surgery for Thursday the 14th.  We went home and enjoyed a visit from Patti’s brother Tim who drove up from Tampa.

Surgery Thursday was successful in removing the tumor, but the nature of the beast was still not known.  Patti recovered overnight in the Intensive Care Unit and was sent to a regular room Friday afternoon.  The surgeon and oncologist came on Saturday late morning.

Patti has an aggressive Glioblastoma Multiform or GBM Tumor.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glioblastoma_multiforme

The normal course of treatment is radiology and chemotherapy with regular MRI’s to follow the comings and goings of the cancer.  Miracles happen and we will need a big one.

Starting about March 6th, 2013, Patti started having headaches. Not the killer headaches that might send you to bed, but the nuisance type that you soldier through. On the morning of the 8th, Patti tried to do a bank transaction over the phone (Mary Catherine was headed to Spring Break and needed some…). She could not get the words or the numbers to come out. We were in the bedroom and it was sorta scary.

We called Dr. Teresa Clarke, Patti’s primary care doctor and she sent us to Piedmont Emergency. We were in ER for about eight hours as tests and CT Scans and MRI’s were run. There was a neurologist on call who identified a ‘mass’ on the brain. The nature of the shadow would not be known without surgery. Piedmont had recently brought in Dr. Howard Chandler to open a Brain Tumor Center and we would wait at Piedmont until Monday awaiting his return from out-of-town and observing for seizures, etc. We really did not need to be there.

On Monday PM, Dr. Chandler came to see us, relayed the diagnosis (but not the nature of the tumor) and we scheduled surgery for Thursday the 14th. We went home and enjoyed a visit from Patti’s brother Tim who drove up from Tampa.

Surgery Thursday was successful in removing the tumor, but the nature of the beast was still not known. Patti recovered overnight in the Intensive Care Unit and was sent to a regular room Friday afternoon. The surgeon and oncologist came on Saturday late morning.
Patti has an aggressive Glioblastoma Multiform or GBM Tumor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glioblastoma_multiforme

The normal course of treatment is radiology and chemotherapy with regular MRI’s to follow the comings and goings of the cancer. Miracles happen and we will need a big one.