"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.