Robert Lederer

Dear Family and Friends,

As you may know by now, Carpages has ended and is no longer working.  We were given a message during December, but with everything going on I missed the window to collect all my information from the site.  They were able to save and send me most of the posts, but I lost our story portion of the site. I will try to recreate as much as I can as some of you are new to our story and lives.  I want to thank all of you who have supported us and been there for us these past ten years, we could not have done it without you and your love!

 

The week of March 3, 2008 my husband, Robert was 38 years old was experiencing severe headaches and at times he had difficulty retrieving words.  I thought he was just mad at me because I had invited both our families to come for St. Patrick’s Day and he was not looking forward to all the commotion. I also had considered that he was feeling depressed because he had mentioned to me during one of his headaches that he felt hopeless.  After he had resisted going to the doctor he gave in Monday, March 10 and was sent home with a prescription for migraines.  He assured me he was feeling better and said he would drive us home.  As we neared the Kroger I had apparently fallen asleep and woke up to Robert swerving the car back onto the road.  He could not tell me what had happened.  While waiting for the prescription he experienced a concussive headache after which he did not remember anything.  I drove home and he took the medicine and went to bed.  I was very concerned with his condition and behavior, but he became very angry and wanted me to leave him alone.  On March 11thI got him up and asked him how he was feeling, he was unable to respond to me and I told him we were going to go the ER.  After a trip to Woodland ER, ride to St. Joe’s in Ann Arbor in an ambulance and a CT scan, we were told that he had a tumor in his brain.  He was then scheduled for surgery on Friday, March 14th. His condition became worse on Wednesday and Thursday, he was unable to communicate or remember personal information. The tumor was removed on Friday the 14thand we were given a preliminary diagnosis of a glioblastoma grade 4.  On March 17ththe phone call came and confirmed that it was a glioblastoma multiforme and told that the normal life expectancy was 11 months.  This was very scary to us and we did not know how to handle this with Max -4 and Iza -6, but we were determined to say positive and survive this.  He did a round of radiation and was part of a trial of chemotherapy for 1 year.  We continued with MRIs for every three months and as the years pasted we moved to every 6 months.  As the years past we still very aware of what could be, but also, we were thankful for every day we were given.  I posted updates on Carepages and were blessed with a ton of support from family and friends.  With every visit to the oncologist, Dr. Stella he commented at how well Robert was doing and that his continued health was remarkable.  Again, we are blessed and so thankful for all we have!