Progress Report: March 19

Dear Friends:

Thanks so much to everyone for cards, calls, food, and good thoughts. I am overwhelmed with the friendship and support I have received. It has been wonderful to have tasty, healthy food delivered every day. You have all been such terrific friends, it has helped brighten my days and regain my confidence in my strength and ability to recuperate and fight this nasty thing.

I am feeling better every day and I have not taken a headache pain pill for two days. My headache is pretty much gone. I have not appreciated not having a headache until I got the horrendous one that followed the surgery. It was truly awful.

I had a medical check-up with my internist to make sure I was in good health before starting cancer treatnment. I met with Dr Wu, my radiologist, who explained the drill that was ahead of me and will meet with Dr Chadha, my oncologist, tomorrow for the same information.

On Tuesday next week, the staples on my scalp get removed which will be a huge relief. The next day we are going to Houston. We have a consultation/second opinion Thursday on the proposed treatment with a specialist at M.D. Anderson. The plan is to start the treatment on Monday March 30. I will go in to the South Austin facility every day for seven weeks with a break on the weekend.

My family has been wonderful. My daughter, son-in-law, and grand daughter are here this weekend and return next weekend, my two grandsons have come by a lot, and my son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons come in next weekend. Robert is going to Houston tomorrow to celebrate the medical graduation of his son Karl. It is very exciting and I am really sorry to be missing it.

Everything is now in the works and I am hoping this phase of radio/chemo is successful. At this point, I just have to go to appointments and let things happen.

Please feel free to call. I would love to hear from you. If you leave a voice mail, I will call you back. I get tired easily, but I would love to reconnect with the world and know what is going on and what everyone is doing.

I am way behind on my e-mails. I have not checked them for three weeks. I think I have 400 unread and will try to tackle them this weekend. If I have not answered, please bear with me. I will get there.

I send you all my thanks and very best wishes.

Love,

Michele

I am on line!

Thank you everyone for all your good thoughts, cards, flowers and wishes. Your support has meant a lot to me me and I really appreciate it. Knowing how many friends I have and how good you all are to me has helped me recover.

I am going to rest this week and try to get some strength. The following week my stiches come out and I start seven-weeks of chemotherapy along with radiation.

While the volume of phone calls makes me feel wonderful, it is hard to keep up with. Please give me a week of rest and in the meantime, post notes or send me e-mails.

Love to you all,

Michele

First Night Home: 13 hrs of Deep Sleep!

Michele really made the most of her first night home - went to sleep at 9pm, and woke up at 10am! Wow! I guess she really needed that! Her pain level is manageable and she is relatively comfortable, albeit a bit shakey on her feet still. A walker is being brought in, and since she's spending most of the time downstairs now, that should be a big help.

The main kitchen re-modelling work has been completed and the lady of the house declares her new kitchen "wonderful!" She's apparently getting pampered by her grandson Keith today, and is looking forward to a quiet dinner and a movie tonight.

The road ahead: More doctor visits and consultations are on the plate for next week, but the general consensus is that Michele will start a 6 week course of oral chemotherapy, and half way through that, she'll also start radiation therapy. Both types of treatments are expected to be a drain on her energy levels, so Michele was advised to build up her strength and energy reserves slowly over the next couple of weeks.

She hasn't seen this blog for a couple of days,...but tomorrow, she plans to look at her laptop. So, you friends out there....don't forget to leave her a note here. Her email inbox is probably busting at the seams....so please give her some time to get to yours, if you've written one to her. - Mae

Cat Mountain At Last!

Thursday, March 12th: After what seemed to Robert like a ton of paper work, Michele left St. David's this afternoon and is relieved to be in her own home. I talked to her a bit...she's tired but is sounding more like her old self. A good night's sleep is ahead...a new daily routine to be sorted out, and visits from the kids to look forward to.... - Mae

Michele Going Home Tomorrow!

8:40pm Wednesday: Doc told Michele she can go home when she wants to! So, she and all the colorful vegetation in her room will depart St. David's sometime tomorrow afternoon. Robert's carefully laid plans for an orderly move were scrambled and the kitchen remodelling kicked into super fast forward mode. Thanks to a lot of help from a lot of friends, though, everything is ready for her return home - Robert

Michele had a lot of activity today, and feels very tired. She's looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight, and to longer, undisturbed rest periods when she gets home. After this weekend, Michelle and her family will be planning their "routine" for the coming weeks. They send many thanks for the countless offers of help, and they assure their friends that they will be taking them up on them! Please just give them a bit of time to settle down and make sense of how best to do this. Send cards and notes to her home. She reads all of them, and will get around to responding. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers...

Michele will soon be strong enough to tell us all what she needs, when she needs it, exactly how she wants it done, for how long.....etc. I can't wait! - Mae

Up and About

3pm,Wednesday: Michele continues to make excellent progress in all areas.

The staff says that it's time for some serious walking. I thought you were supposed to get bed rest in a hospital. (Old school treatment discarded decades ago.) Michele is walkin' with a walker for 5-10 minutes each hour. Much slower than normal, but with increasing speed each hour. If she keeps improving as she has today, they may take away the walker tomorrow.

Of course, she does have the biggest shiner that I have ever seen on a woman, and the doctor says that she is going to be carrying traces of that for a little while....

Robert

I snapped a picture of Michele setting off on her promenade avec one of her strapping young grandsons....Mae

Monkeys and Shiners

Wednesday, 11th: Oh, yestereday, we forgot to mention that Michele had quite a bit of very annoying, and often painful swelling on the left side of her face and around her left eye. All normal, we were assured...just post-op fluid looking for somewhere to pool before getting re-absorbed. This afternoon, the swelling is almost gone. Now she just looks like she's recovering from a barroom brawl, and is sporting an impressive shiner. It's a bit yellow today...I'm sure it'll go through the lovely green and purple stages. I would love to follow its progress photographically, but I don't dare. So, I'm posting a much less interesting, "squishy" picture instead. She'll probably hate it, and I'll have to take it off, so enjoy it while you can!

A Short Stroll Down the Hall

5:30pm, Tuesday 10th, found Michele taking a short, but very steady walk down the hall, sitting up in a chair for a while, and then taking a much anticipated shower. Dined on chicken enchiladas, pico de gallo and guacamole (I guess hospital food has come a long way...) and sipped on some wine. She's had visits from members of her medical team. It has not been an easy afternoon, but Michele is on her way to regaining her strength....

She read this blog and all the comments...please keep posting!

Mae

Michele "GRADUATED" out of ICU!

2:00pm, Tuesday the 10th

Michele is now dozing comfortably in a private room on a regular floor. Except, of course, this is a very unusual room given the amount of greenery and flowers!!! There is simply no more surface area available to put more flowers vases...so, hold that urge, you folks out there! No more flowers in the hospital.... :-)

She still gets tired very quickly, and she's not returning phone calls or using her computer....Please leave messages here...

It's nice to see her in a regular room away from all the wires, and monitors and blips and beeps and all that stuff. Various docs came to check in n her before she left the ICU, and they're all pleased with her progress. The post-surgery MRI showed no visible signs of the tumor! Yippie!

So, all is proceeding according to schedule and her post-hospital course of therapy is being planned.

Mae

Michele Resting after MRI

11:30am - Tuesday 10th

All's well! Michele's in deep, restful sleep. She's had her post-op MRI done this morning, and slept through most of it (and if you can sleep through an MRI, you can sleep through anything!!).

She's expected to go to a regular floor later today....

Mae & Robert

Michele Awake & Doing Well

6am Tuesday about 18 hours

Michele slept most of the night. She woke up a couple of times with a bad headache, but that was quickly controlled with pain meds. After midnight the pain level has decreased significantly. She actually started asking about breakfast at 11pm, and whenever she'd wake up until it was finally served at 6am - WOW! A whole English muffin and a Starbucks Decaf! Can any who knows Michele believe that she wanted to eat breakfast? And at 6am?

For whomever gave her the red hand made blankety: She has grown as attached to it as Linus is in the "Peanuts" strip. It is just the right size for our little lady and the color is completely coordinated with her robe and gown. She asked for it at every time she woke up. Sometimes even before asking about breakfast.

Mae & Robert

Surgery Over. Michele doing well!

Surgery over - it lasted about three hours. Michele did superbly well through the whole thing! The docs were able to remove the tumor, and do not expect there to be significant damage to the surrounding areas as a result of the surgery. She was actually talking to the doctors during surgery (!) they were monitoring her speech and understanding, in both English and French, mind you! She apparently kept them on their toes...Anyway, she was alert and quite lucid after surgery, but in quite a bit of pain, which was quickly knocked out by some strong drugs. She is now in ICU where she will be through the night. She is sleeping and (oh, ever so sweetly) snoring like a baby. We're hoping she'll be in a regular room tomorrow, and home by the weekend.

Please remember: There's a "No Visitors" request on for the rest of the week. Check this site for news. We'll try to keep it as up to date as we can... Michele knows that all of you want to reach out to her....keep her in your thoughts and prayers...

Surgery Almost Done!!!

Great news! We were just told that Michele chatted through the surgery is doing well...almost done....that awful thing is outtathere!

Hello there, and thanks for checking up on Michele...

As many of you already know, Michele was diagnosed with a left temporal lobe brain tumor just last week. It was a sudden thing, and she's had no previous symptoms before last week's onset of severe headaches and some speech "confusion." Needless to say, all necessary scans, XRays, MRIs, etc were done and today, Monday, March 9th, Michele is having surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible.

Michele sends heartfelt thanks to everyone for the deluge of flowers, well-wishes, concern and love that she's received over this past week. There have been hundreds of emails, and phone calls and many, many visitors. Michele's family and close friends will be focused on caring for her in during the recovery period. It is a stressfull time for all. Since it will be impossible to return every phone call and every email, updates about her progress will continue to be posted here...so please check back often.

The surgery started around noon and is expected to last three hours. She will be in the ICU overnight and the surgeons anticipate she can go to a regular floor tomorrow, and hopefully get home by the end of the week.

What Michele would LOVE from you..... Instead of emails, or more flowers (she has more than she can handle already!), please send her cards, photos, and notes by snail mail at her home: 4105 Cat Mountain Dr., Austin, TX. 78731

Please....we know it's hard, but ......the family requests that there be no more visitors at the hospital this week. Michele needs rest and quiet. Here family is around, and promise to reach out when they need help.

Thank you everyone for the love and concern! Check this site often!!