Dragon Fly pic sent to me from my sister, Jen
I have started this blog entry several times already today but then find myself moving to something else. It has been a week like no other ever in my life. I came home from a cruise with my Mom and sisters on Sunday night, January 19, knowing I had a busy week ahead, looking forward to getting back into the groove of all that I had going on in my life. I was excited to just have Maggie, Kate and Baby Joe all day on Monday. Then, Monday night came and Joe and I headed up to Park City to clean the condo and when we got to Park City, two things happened. First off, I had a feeling, really premonition, that something big was coming my way. Second off, I had a pretty good headache. Headaches are rare for me. Joe ran over and got me some ibuprofen. Then, Tuesday morning, I awoke with a headache- never happens. I had a lot to do that day so I just kept taking more tylenol or ibuprofen to deal with it. When I went to bed that night, I was certain that all I needed was just a good night’s sleep. At around 4:00 A.M., Joe got Alex up and they put consecrated oil on my head and gave me a blessing. We then got into the car trying to decide which emergency room to go to. My records are at IHC but Joe passed right by the freeway entrance. I didn’t know if he was being absent minded or if this was deliberate. It was deliberate, and we were going to St. Mark’s Emergency Room and that decision started off a chain of miracles. That’s a story for another blog day. At the emergency room, they asked me questions about what I’d been doing lately, where’d I been and we talked about me being in Aruba, Panama and Costa Rica. The ER doctor thought that maybe I had an air bubble in my sinuses, that I had been at sea level and had traveled back to Utah, then ran up to Park City, thus changing elevation. Joe and I looked at each other with relief hoping this was the answer. That was not to be the case. They took a CT scan of my scull and came back to tell us that I had a large mass on the right side of my brain. I looked at Joe and his eyes filled with tears. It was harder to watch him receive that news than to hear the news myself. There is no easy way to give someone that news. The doctor was visible moved. I really appreciated her empathy. She asked me how I had been walking around with that in my brain. I told her that I had been doing zumba on the ship while it was swaying to and fro and thought I was looking pretty coordinated. Joe and I have a picture of my brain w/ tumor on our phones and we keep looking at it. How was it possible to function with this mass in there? Really, I have such incredible respect for the human body and the brain. The neurosurgeon did tell us that the brain is very resilient. It’s true. My brother-in-law, Pete (amazing doctor at St. Mark’s) came down immediately and that made Joe and I feel so much better. I said to Pete “Is this it for me? and he said that the tumor was treatable. That was great news to hear. They then did a CT scan of my upper body and it looked clean so the plan was to get the tumor out as soon as possible. I am writing this 5 days later and can’t believe what has taken place. I am emotionally weary. I will continue tomorrow…
Costa Rican Rain Forest w/ Jen, Erin and Joanie
No comments yet.