The Whole Story: Part Five Taking Opportunities as They're Given



Just because my world was revolving around brain surgery doesn't mean it was the same for everyone else. Wednesday, April 19th, was my new pre-op. It went much like the previous one, but after it we got news that my Grandpa was being put on hospice care. I was not feeling great and I was quite overwhelmed by all that was going on in my life so a long drive up north seemed like one thing too many, and besides, they said he had six weeks so I thought I could wait till after the surgery. However, my husband is the opposite of a procrastinator! I think his brain operates on, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing now!” So, Thursday we went up to Anacortes to see Grandpa and say goodbye.  That was hard. It was extra important to my husband because he said Grandpa was the closest to a father figure that he had in his life. I didn’t want to go, deep in my heart. I didn’t want to see him like that, weak, on machines, my grandma trying to coax life back into him, spoon feeding him coffee. He told us both, “I love you” multiple times. It was hard, but I’m glad I went because despite them telling us he had six weeks, he passed away that Saturday night. I'm so glad that each of his grandkids were able to see him that week, my brother even driving all the way across the state to do so.

    That Monday I had brain surgery, a story for another blog post. I was in the hospital until Friday. The next week our family held my grandfather's graveside service. Because it was such a long drive we needed to have friends come in to sit with me so my family could attend the service. It was sad not being able to be there to say goodbye together, but I'm glad my husband and all my children were able to go. Without our friends' very generous help that couldn't have happened at all. I'm very grateful I was able to attend the memorial hosted later in the summer.

Here's The Thing: We don't get to pick life's timings. Sometimes we even need to go against our gut and do the thing we don't want to do. I didn't want to visit my grandfather that Thursday, but I'll be forever grateful I did.

The Whole Story:

Part One - The Call That Changes Your Life
Part Two - When "Wait and See" Wouldn't Sound so Bad
Part Three - Reflecting on My (Almost) Presurgery Week
Part Four - Living in the unknown
Part Five - Taking Opportunities as They're Given
Part Six - The Big Event
Part Seven - How Many of you are There?
Part Eight - Beginning the Journey of Recovery
Part Nine - The Unimaginable
Part Ten - I guess that's better?
Part Eleven - A Day in the ICU
Part Twelve - Long Haul ICU
Part Thirteen - Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
Part Fourteen - A Soft Discharge
Part Fifteen - The End of the Chapter

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections on Having a Brain Tumor

Image
  Picture     So how does one live with a brain tumor?  Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out.  My doctor seems to think that it shouldn't be a big deal.  He's like, "See you next year!" and here I am trying to understand what that looks like.  I have this thing in my brain, embedded in my Cerebellum to the point that my surgeon cannot safely remove it. It *may* be affecting my vision, nausea, balance, etc., but really, we can't know for sure.  I guess the reality is that I should just go about my business, continuing life to the best of my ability, until I bump up against the tumor.  That might look like an appointment with an MRI to check its status, like I had a couple of weeks ago, or it might be symptoms that make me question whether the tumor is affecting things. I have no way of knowing when or if that might happen, except for a scheduled appointment of course, so I have to figure out a way of living life that takes that into account.       The
Read more

Guest Post: How are you doing?

Image
  How are you doing?   TLDR; I’m fine… I’m good   I have been more aware lately when asked how I am doing. I often dislike that question as I know the expected answer is supposed to be something along the lines of, I am fine.   That is far from the correct answer, and it bothers me equally answering falsely as much as it bothers me when someone is asking me how I am doing and not actually caring how I am doing.   I believe that most people do not do this intentionally, just that it has become so habitual that it is part of who they are.   I challenge you to either stop using that introductory phrase, or to immediately follow up with an affirmation that you really do care how someone is doing. Let them know that you have a few minutes and really do want to hear how they are doing, and how you can at least pray for them. If stopping to hear how someone is doing is out of your comfort zone, why not try being honest when you are having a really crappy day, week, month and briefly let
Read more

The Call That Changes Your Life

Image
We see it in movies and TV shows, but we always hope it will never happen to us. The phone rings and it's someone unexpected, a police officer, a relative, a doctor. They give us news we weren't expecting, and from that moment on our lives are forever different. And it's not just our future that's different. We begin to define our past as "before"and "after" this life changing news.  I got the call last Monday, February 27th, 2023. Ironically, it came just two days after the anniversary of another one of those calls, the one letting me know that my brother had died unexpectedly at the age of 40, two years ago. This time it wasn't my Mom calling, it was the ARNP from my neurologist's office. She was calling me at 5:30 at night the next business day after I had had a brain MRI. Right away I knew this wasn't going to be another, "Everything looks fine, we don't know why you're in pain all the time," call. That n
Read more