I’ve never given this sort of update before so I apologize in advance if it seems disjointed or disorganized. I suspect you’ll give me grace. :)
I’ve always had a weird relationship to caffeine. I like it but I’m very sensitive to it. Many of my friends have fun stories of me being hyped up on coffee, but the Vietnamese coffee on Monday, July 3rd will always take first place.
The short version of the story is that after a fabulous July 3rd with my friends that included a triple espresso Vietnamese coffee, pool time, and a block party, I decided to go home before the Addison KaBoom Town fireworks started and traffic got bad. Plus, I didn’t feel good. Headache, quieter than normal, etc.
As I left Dana’s house, I had a seizure and drove into and through her neighbor’s house. I only remember pulling away from Dana’s house. The next memory I have is being in the ambulance being asked a lot of questions I couldn’t answer, most of which I still don’t remember. The paramedics and police worked together to contact Dana and Krista who met me up at the Trauma Center at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
A CT Scan revealed a malignant glioblastoma, which is stage 4 brain cancer. Very aggressive, not curable, relentless. On Thursday, I had a tangerine sized tumor removed from above my right ear. Typical life expectancy is about 14-18 months. Feel free to shut the screen for a bit and give yourself time to process that statement. Throw up, scream, cry, drink some water, stress eat, take a couple of shots of vodka, pray, all of the above.
I’m home now. Resting and healing my #supersexy incision on my head until we meet with the neuro-oncology team to determine what course of treatment might give me more life expectancy. I’m 47 years old and I still have things I want to do. :)
I have smart and passionate friends with exceptional organizational skills so it’s easy to rest and heal while they handle all the details. They’re also so sweet with me when I stumble over words, can’t walk in a straight line, or keep saying that I feel excessively hungover.
They're also excellent list makers and question organizers.
We’re working on compiling a list of needs, both short and long term.
Some of those needs will include opportunities to donate funds, time, do internet research, etc. Updates will be posted here.
I know you might have a skill or gift to bless me with and I look forward to exploring those. Or you might have experience with walking a loved one through their final milestones of life and have suggestions on “Must Do” or “Don’t Bother.”
To put it into an IT Project perspective, it’s like doing a post-Mortem. Do you see what I did there? Jokes are still funny.
This is a traumatic situation and I’m sensitive to everyone having their own way of processing their grief and the situation. So as you feel comfortable, come read updates here. If you need to step away and take a break, please do that. No hard feelings will ever come from me.
Please make it a point to find joy every day and please share that with me. Beauty doesn’t stop happening in situations like this. Laughter doesn’t stop. Life doesn’t stop. And in my case, all of the intense feelings of joy, laughter, and peace are amplified and it is an amazing place to be. Your laughter and stories fill my soul. Let's continue to be life filling for each other.
I plan to use this site for the mundane, frustrating, pleas for help, recommendations, etc. It might end up being a weird stream of disorganized mental thoughts. Or I might publish a detailed timeline of milestones with dependency tasks. ;) Or I might go Full Tilt IT Manager and delegate tasks out to random people. The possibilities are really endless. ;)
For today, I ask that you take some time to absorb what you've read and reach out to me when you feel comfortable. Please know that I often have my phone on Do Not Disturb and answer texts in batches. Remember, I'm a drunk/hungover toddler so my attention span is short and my energy comes in bursts.
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