Merry Christmas!

 

We were expecting a few inches of snow this week, but the only "white" arrival was the " Elephant" on Saturday!  The forecast is for snow on Christmas day, but we will believe that when it happens! We can hope though.
The Frost family got home safely on Tuesday night and were glad to be back. (And we were glad to have them back.)
Brad went with Curt to look at a job that same day and felt good about being partially back in the work force and seeing some familiar faces.  He is still very tired and continues to take naps nearly every afternoon.  We are hoping that when we see Dr Nye next week (the neuro-oncologist) he will reduce the amount of anti-seizure meds.
Friday night brought Sarah and Travis to us for our hair appointments and for them to take our tickets for the Bronco game.  They left their kids with the two grandmothers, whom I imagine had a great time with them.

power ball ticket (2 years old)

Saturday brought our first real seasonal entertaining with the White Elephant party.  We made a huge pot of pasole and some guacamole and were ready.  Pam and John and Alex and Laura (his girlfriend) arrived first... (we decided it had been at least a couple of years since we had seen Alex), with John coming from Iowa.  Great seeing all of them!

Sunday was spent initially with Amie and Curt having their family Christmas celebration with Susan, Roger, Heather and Matt, and Eli and Ashley.  We had an amazing brunch with enough food for twice the number of guests.

Later, Carrie & Spencer, Sarah and Travis left for the Bronco game.  The weather was awesome and apparently so was the game.  Gabi and Corbin stayed with us and we caught up on some "crafting".


DIY doilie



Alex and Laura (BTW, those are Cheetos she's snacking on)




what the heck is that green stuff on their tongues?

stolen gift
 



Sophie's puzzle  book from Grandma Susan



 

("Santa Claus bring me truck")
 



At the Bronco game

 

craft project

















Now we are cooking!

Today, Sunday, marks the end of the first two weeks following surgery.  Dr Waziri said they would be the most difficult, but I was struggling to believe that anything would change until yesterday when I saw some improvement in Brad.  He wasn't nearly as sleepy, partly due to taking less narcotics. It's one day at a time. A curious week.....
 On Tuesday, he wanted to get a few things at the grocery store, so I flew home on my lunch hour and away we went to WalMart (his first outing since surgery). He had no trouble finding his way around the store, only with labels that he was unfamiliar with. We finished up and headed to the checkout when he glanced over at a woman entering the store and asked me, "Is that Ruth Barsch?" (Ruth was the wife of our boss when we got our first jobs the week of our wedding in 1969). Crazy that he remember her, but didn't know the word for pasta! The brain is a strange thing!

Thursday night I got home from work and Brad had not only cleaned up the kitchen, but wanted to make some dinner. Hooray! I asked what he was making and he said it was a pasta/chicken dish. He proceeded to cut up the chicken, some green peppers and onions and had the pasta cooking, but that was where he faltered, not remembering what was next. I made some suggestions, but nothing was satisfactory. Eventually I took over, added some roux and white wine and had it simmering when he came over to the stove, looked at what was cooking and said, "that's not what I had in mind". Never did come up with what exactly that was. He was frustrated.
Thursday morning Spencer, Gabi and Corbin went to California to see Nana (Nancy) and to attend the annual Santa Party which has been a tradition since Spencer and Sarah were little. They came to say goodbye the night before.  I miss them, but am glad they can spend time with Nana. Unfortunately, Great Grandma Doris is very ill, hospitalized and Nana has had to spend much of her time with her Mother.  They will come home Tuesday.  Carrie has decided that as much as she craves some "alone" time, she doesn't really like being alone! She has used this time to finish Christmas shopping, clean her house and get caught up on laundry!

Here's an excerpt from dinner Friday night...Gramma, "Boy, bridge was fun today except that we had to play with 7 instead of 8 (people). I had a hand with 8 hearts and the Ace, king of spades. I made a slam but didn't bid it. It sure seems like Saturday today. But I go get my head washed tomorrow and it needs it cuz it itches. The hostess today who is 97, (but plays bridge real good), brought some brownies and sparkling grape juice. I asked her if the brownies were "laced". She said she didn't think so and I told her it was too bad about all those people getting sick on brownies." Mercy!!!!!! I am grateful for dishes to load in the dishwasher and a full glass of wine!

Saturday Carrie and I shopped, hopefully finishing up with Christmas gifts.  We were invited to a cookie swap Saturday night and I thoroughly enjoyed getting out.  Such a wonderful group of young women! (Including of course, Meredith, Carrie and Amie).

Brad and I had a long conversation about how he really wants to get back to work.  I truly hope that he can do that, although I worry that he isn't ready yet.  And the fact that he still had trouble reading makes me apprehensive about  the workplace.

Sunday...I'm exhausted!  I spent five hours wrapping gifts (oh my aching back!)
with Grandma's assistance until her arthritis got the best of her and she had to quit!
I think it's good for her to do something.  This week she has unloaded the
dishwasher a couple of times, which I appreciate.

We went to WalMart to get groceries for Sunday dinner.  Such a trip going to the store with Brad!  He wanted to go along to get a couple of things (things which he had forgotten the names for), one being something we were out of that came in a red package.  Hmmmmmmm. Anyway, it turned out to be a package of au jus. We decided to have spaghetti and meatballs, for which he located the recipe on his own.  It took him quite awhile to read the recipe, but he did it and made the sauce and the meatballs without my help.  And it was delicious!

Grayson and Elijah

 The kids definitely missed their cousins with the Frosts in California and Rory with his Mom, but Grayson attached himself to Elijah and Sophie to Emma and they had their usual fun Sunday.

The crafty girls made this

 

 

"Have Patience"

 

Hard to believe that we are now 10 days out on Brad's surgery.  The brain is certainly a mysterious thing!  He's still sleeping a lot- at least two long naps a day with a few "chair naps" as well.  On Friday, we saw Dr. Waziri for the post-op appointment and had oodles of questions for him, and his answer was usually something involving patience.  He told Brad that he needed to "weather the storm" for the first two weeks, that they would be the hardest.  Much of his cognition problems are related to the number of anti-seizure and steroid drugs that he is on.  It will take time to adjust.  We were given referrals for radiation treatment in Ft Collins with Dr. Petit, and chemo/meds monitoring with Dr. Nye at University Hospital.  The radiation treatment (daily) will last 6 weeks, and he will take the oral chemo in conjunction with it.  He got his staples removed, which surprisingly didn't hurt at all.

One of the hardest things about this surgery is that he looks perfectly fine and actually says he feels physically okay, but has problems reading and finding words.  So, just to illustrate, Friday night he said he would like some of that food from that place where we get food sometimes.  I did the  twenty questions, "Is it Chinese, is it a grocery store, is it a fast-food place ? etc." until finally I asked if he could get us there if I drove, so off we went on our destination unknown!  We ended up at Noodles & Co, where we ordered something after we both stared at the pictures of the options.  I wonder what the young woman taking the order was thinking!  It all turned out to be just what he wanted, anyway!

 

Emma ready for her band concert

This week both Rory and Emma had their end of the semester band concerts (on the same night at 2 different places) and we were sorry we weren't able to attend...maybe next year.  Friday night Rory went to his school dance and I picked him up afterward. "It was amazing!"  He and three of his friends entertained by singing/playing instruments to songs from a popular teen band, One Direction.  Wish I could've been a fly on the wall to witness that!  Speaking of wishing I could've been there, Carrie shared one of  their conversations this week. It went something like this: Gabi: "a girl at school used a bad word today that started with the letter A".  Carrie:, (not asking WHAT word that might've been) "I'm glad you don't use bad words".  Gabi:( awhile later, displaying her renowned attitude, including major eye rolling is told to go to her room for disobeying) says, "Well, I guess I'll get off my ASS then!"  (Spencer is laughing while Carrie tries to discipline....)

Grayson

Meredith birthday (a watch for timing her runs and laps)

Carrie and Brad "chillaxing"



 

Corbin, Rock Star



 

 

Sunday morning Curt and his family came by so I could take their annual family Christmas picture, which Curt equates to getting a root canal, I'm sure.  Our friends, the Mastersons also dropped by for a visit. Sunday dinner rolled around and Meredith had requested that Brad make some green chili for her belated birthday celebration.  He agreed to do it, but unfortunately (for me) he didn't remember how!  He did make some guacamole , though, without assistance.  I felt very inadequate making something that he did so well! I doubt anyone went hungry though! Carrie bought a (10 lb.) carrot cake for the birthday girl, just in case. 

A.m.a.z.i.n.g.

The week has been scary and amazing all at once.  Wednesday morning, we were at University Hospital by 5:15am to get the MRI and then to proceed with surgery.  Dr. Waziri informed us that he would not give us any updates until the surgery was complete.  At first we thought that sounded a little insensitive, but he explained that he wanted to focus 100% of his attention on Brad.  That was reason enough for us all.  The surgery lasted 8 hours, just as we were told.  The time went by relatively quickly as Carrie had thought to bring a jigsaw puzzle, Heather stopped by with snacks and for a visit (super sweet of her, by the way), and ironically I was reunited with some friends from Greeley (Sherrie and Carrie) whose Mom, Irene Lauer, was having surgery at the same time. They sat and visited with us for quite awhile.  All and all, the time passed quickly and about 3:00 Dr Waziri popped out of nowhere, to say it was done.  About 45 minutes later, we were allowed to see Brad, 2 at a time.  This is where the "amazing" comes in....When we saw him, he looked basically like nothing had transpired, except for a bandage around his head.  His first words were, "I feel great!  I can't believe how much better I can see and how much more clearly I can think!"  Ok, that was NOT what we were expecting following a resection of his brain! 

pre-surgical markers

waiting room puzzle- done!

Day 1- post op

Day 3 -EEG still connected



First look at his incision

The first 24 hours went great.  Then he began having some language issues.
It was determined after a couple of CT scans and the EEG, that he was having mini seizures in the residual tumor tissue.  The tissue was "angry" at having its' blood source removed.  Dr. Waziri added another anti-seizure drug and within a few hours, he began improving...going from not knowing his birthday or what color the sky was , implementing some "words" that were a new language to being able to answer those questions appropriately.  He struggled with word finding and then on Saturday, he really started doing better.  We had to laugh though, when we asked him that morning if he'd had breakfast and if so what. He said he'd ordered it himself, but when it arrived, it wasn't what he had in mind.  He said he had some yellow beans, some green peas, and something else.  When we asked the CNA what he had ordered, she said that the tray was filled with some random breakfast choices- 2 bananas, 2 sausage links, 2 glasses of pepsi  (which he never drinks) and a cup of coffee. Luckily, we brought him some granola and milk from the hotel, which he said was what he REALLY wanted when he ordered....just couldn't find the words! 
On Saturday, Carrie and I drove home as she was missing her kids and vice versa.  They were SO excited to see her, and as a surprise, they (supervised by Dad, Spencer) had decorated the house for Christmas. He had also made a nice dinner for us all. So thoughtful! Curt and Amie stopped by the hospital that evening to visit Brad prior to celebrating Susans' retirement from her nursing career. And now for the grand finale of our week....he was discharged on Sunday and we made it home just in time for the Bronco game (although he slept through most of it).  The girls made us soup and bread for our Sunday dinner (don't think he's quite up to cooking yet!) and the kids decorated Christmas cookies for him. I cannot find the words to describe just how thankful I am with the outcome!  He was super excited to be able to sleep in his own bed (uninterrupted) last night.....sometimes the small things mean a lot!
Getting ready to post and want to say "Happy Birthday" to Meredith (41 today....yikes!) and also to welcome Emma to the wonderful world of womanhood!  P.S.  Most of it is pretty wonderful!

Much to be thankful for...

This week has been exhausting!  On Tuesday, we travelled back to see Dr. Waziri for "the plan" and he has given us little time to adjust to what will most likely be a life changing surgery for Brad.  He offered to do the surgery the following day, but Brad declined, so it will take place Wednesday (Nov. 28) morning.  The surgery will most likely take between 8 and 10 hours, so we have reserved a motel room across the street from the hospital.
Wednesday brought a follow-up appointment with his neurologist, Dr. Siegal, who was confident that we had made the right decision in seeking a second opinion in Denver.
After "doctoring", we began getting ready for Thanksgiving, with the pie making the start of our festivities!  Early Thanksgiving morning, we (along with 3500 others) assembled for the annual "Turkey Trot".  This year our entries included Meredith, Amie, Rory, Elijah, Sophie and Gabi.  The girls ran the 5K, while the kids participated (first time ever for Sophie and Gabi) in the 2K.  They all did great and Amie placed in her age group!

 

Afterwards, we enjoyed our usual amount of wonderful Thanksgiving foods.  We were happy to include Amie's Mom, Susan, this year.

Grayson reading

Gabi polishing off Aunt Mer's jello pear salad!

 

Saturday brought the playoff game between Platte Valley and Kent Denver in Denver.  Another trip down that highway!  I will be grateful when Brad can drive again!  The game was exciting, although the outcome was not the one we wanted.  The team played hard and the community involvement was spectacular.

Afterwards. we went to Dave & Busters (sports bar/arcade) where the kids had a great time.  Rory and Elijah called it "epic"!

Sunday arrived with more family time.  While the Bronco game was on, Carrie and Amie and I took the girls to the Christmas tree exhibit at the UCCC.  They were super excited that there was a horse drawn carriage and we took a ride around Lincoln Park.

Brad made some turkey rice soup and I made a Pinterest inspired herb/cheese bread and Meredith did a scrumptious chocolate peanut butter cake (not a crumb left).

It will probably be our last Sunday dinner together for awhile, but we hope it won't be long to resume the tradition!