Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
Our daughter, Hanna started the Go Fund Me account and although visits there are very appreciated, I am not real comfortable posting there. I was raised that you don't ask for; or expect anything for free. Thanks to Hanna for sharing and to All of You who helped. We would have never made it through the last 8 months and no income from Mike without that help. Most of all, thanks to God for being with us the whole way. We still have a long road but we got this!
Since this is a new site, I will briefly tell Mike's story. Most of you will know it well already. Mike had a seizure on the 4th of July, 2016 while we were on a camping trip. He had never been sick and was perfect right up until it happened. After that whole horror story, we found out the next day at the hospital that he had a brain tumor. Our life was changed forever on that day.
Mike has since had surgery and had the tumor removed. He spent a grueling 27 days in the hospital. He suffered left side weakness (paralization)and has gotten full use of his leg and about 30% of his arm back. The bad thing is that he is left handed so learning to live with a different hand is tough. He is still in therapy for his arm and left side and it is our prayer that when this is all over he will have much more strength.
He has finished 6 weeks of radiation. The last few weeks of that was tough. He made it though and the MRI shows that it was sucessful in relieving all the swelling around the area where the tumor was located. His chemotherapy is three different drugs given over a month and in 6 cycles. The cycles are a month on and a month off. This will last for a year. That is probably the biggest reason for starting this site. This is a long fight and I am not real good with "staying in touch" when so much is on me. I wear all the hats now. I have even added the nurse hat so I do good to stay in touch with my own children who are right here with me! LOL! Not quite that bad but there really is no free time. So......when I have the chance, I will update the site.
Mike has gone through his first cycle. A cycle consist of 6 pills all at once on day 1. One week later (Tuesdays), an IV treatment in his port that they put in surgically a few weeks ago. One week later he starts a series of 34 pills over 14 days.The cycle ends with a final IV treatment. First time around is not really a true indication of how a person will do because the drug is not in the system good. He did really good though on everything except the 14 day pills. By day 6 he was not well. Weak, loss of appetite, sleep all the time. It was sad for me.
Anyway, he is in the off month now and doing pretty good. The whole thing has definetly slowed him down but I know that this too shall pass. I have to stay positive. The lord never gives us more than we can handle and I know I am strong. I have been through trials and troubles and I will weather this one too! He gets his first Social Security Disability check this week! Although it is more like a week's pay than a month's; it is definetly going to help. So many people have done so many wonderful things for us and I am humbled by the whole experience. I will never take anything in life for granted again. Please keep praying.
Love, Cindy
For the full story on Mike's Tumor visit:
https://www.gofundme.com/michaelbraddy 
