A Good Day

It wasn't a perfect day but there were a few rays of light.

The day started around 7am on the old sleeper chair. I think it was the empty IV bag alarming that woke us. Last night we sat up and made two lists. The first, a list of questions to ask the surgeon and the oncologist. The second a to do list of tasks to complete before our departure on Saturday. Oh yea, she's going home Saturday! I stayed up till about 2am reading cancer web pages and writing this blog (this one will be short).***Right now mom is in the hall walking with Lexi and I just heard her tell Lexi, "OK come on, let's step it up." She's really getting around good.*** Today I spent most of the day getting together all the needed paperwork to get up to Stanford, fielding phone calls, and generally walking around like a total zombie. My one job for the day was to get all of her records faxed up to Stanford. By the end of the day, after doctor visits, and all the other daily distractions I finally got it off. Now I can go home. Tonight I will go home and sleep and tomorrow go to a very badly needed bachelor party. It will be great to get this of my mind even if only for a few minutes at a time.

The oncologist came in today and had a very lengthy and patient discussion with mom, Jake, and I. I told Lexi she might not want to be in the room for this but that it was her decision. She decided to forego the M.D. version and take the tempered brother version later. I think this was a good choice. However, the conversation did go well and was a little encouraging. I am still trying to keep things realistic but I think that there certainly some things we can have some hope in. We talked about traditional treatment methods which is what would be given if it were just done here. We also talked about Stanford and she feels as though there is certainly a chance that they could have something to offer. The biggest thing is to wait and see what Stanford has to say and when and if we go ahead with chemo and radiation how the cancer reacts to it.

For now we are in the gathering of intelligence phase. There is no decision that can be made at this point. Mom must heal from surgery before any treatments can be administered. We will take all the information we have received here and all that we will receive from Stanford and sort it all and make an informed decision at that point. Unfortunately this is one of those decision that nobody can make but mom. Time will tell and we should have a determined course of action within the next couple weeks. Mom was very optimistic when discussing anything in the future. I think we all feel as though the first phase of this is over. Time to go home and focus on step two.

Someone emailed me a great idea which I discussed with mom. Get your tissues. What a great idea would it be if she were to make a series of video recordings for all of the important days that will come along in Lexi's life. A video for prom, her first love, graduation, her wedding day. One for when she has her first child, and any other big events. If she can't be here for these events how great would it be if there were a video that mom could share her thoughts. Of course we hope that we can watch these when she passes and 70, 80, whenever. This isn't fun to think about but what a great idea. Mom liked the idea. Of course it was extremely difficult to discuss but she thought it was a great idea.

Over all it was a pretty great day and I think mom's spirits were lifted by the idea of heading home and having real (albeit hospital) food. Right now she has been up walking around the room cleaning up. How typical. She is so restless sitting in the bed. She is a busy bee.

Well it's time for me to finally go home and say goodbye to the hospital for a while. I'll pick this up after the weekend.

To all who have called, written, sent flowers, stopped by, and cared for her, thank you so much. It's been a long week and I'm glad it's over.