Just... Thank You

From Kelly: 

Where do we even begin to say thank you to this community for the support we've been given. We feel so blessed.

Ever since my seizure 2 weeks ago this community has rallied around my family and supported them. I've been stymied trying to express it perfectly, so I couldn't get anything out. So I decided I'm going to leave the emotional blog for another day and in this note I will just say “thank you”. Most importantly, thank you for taking care of my family.

We have been showered with thoughtful cards, wonderful food, amazing help at home and flowers you've sent! More on this in my next post – but here's a picture of some of them so there's something to look at.

And for now, here is the quick medical update:

I came home from the hospital and quickly started feeling almost normal. The most notable symptom is my right arm. I went from having about 20% use of my right arm to 80% by midweek and now it all moves, but doesn't work quite correctly. I can't type and can't rely on being able to hold onto things with my right hand- I don't pick up anything glass with it! I found an online dictation program that's helping me do some things, but it's hard.

In general, I feel back to normal. My main medical issues are side effects from the medications. The steroids that are giving me my hand back are making me a little hyper (ooh- that's something Kelly needs!!) And they have been bothering my sleep, so I am timing them carefully, so that's a little better.  I have some days where I'm just exhausted from lack of sleep. The other side effect of the steroids is being hungry all the time!

The anti-seizure medicine seems to be doing well and is not bothering me much.  I'm a tiny bit unstable on my feet because of it but nothing that's a problem.

The appointments to start figuring out what's going on and what to do start Tuesday.

We amazingly have a “second opinion” appointment at Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston on Tuesday (3/15) before we even get our first opinion appointment!

On Wednesday we will be at UVM Medical Center for our first real meeting with the neurological oncologist to look to look over the results of the biopsy and the pathology report and start to make a plan of action.

And I have another appointment on Thursday, so this week is pretty booked already!

We will actually be leaving on Monday to get down to Massachusetts and stay with Barry's brother David and sister-in-law Meredith, then will head into Boston in the morning on the T. Hopefully, we can make lemonade from one of these lemons by getting to see Aliza before we head home.

By Thursday evening we will probably have some news of the plan of attack.