State of the Me

Time for another State of the Me.

My brother is doing really well. They moved him out of the ICU today and into a regular room. They took the bandages off his head also, and his incision is a three-sided square that starts at his right temple, goes up and across, over his ear, and then back down on the back side of his ear. Big nasty stitches but it actually looks pretty good. In fact, he looks remarkably good, considering he had brain surgery a week ago.

They've started physical therapy, getting him up and walking and working with his hands - for some reason, both his hands are really swollen and hard to use. That's more a product of all the IVs and fluids they've been pumping into him than anything to do with brain function. They said he could go home as soon as they feel he's mobile and independent enough, which could be as early as Friday.

We saw the oncologist today, who was very optimistic and made both me and my dad feel really hopeful that we're not going to lose my brother to this. As they told us before, they'll do radiation and probably chemo. But first they have to do a PET scan, which will help them see if there are any other "hot spots" of cancer cells anywhere else. They're pretty certain this was all caused by an untreated lesion on his forearm but can't say for sure. My brother took the news well - they told him the lab results yesterday. I feel like such a coward for not telling him myself when he asked, even though that's what the docs and social worker told me to do.

So, we're not out of the woods yet, but I am feeling much, much better about the situation than I was a week ago. Tomorrow is my grandmother's funeral, and I will be glad to be done with that. My other brother visited the hospital on Monday and I'm glad he's finally done that. I remember when my mom was sick, he hardly ever visited. I think he's just really uncomfortable in hospitals. I know it meant a lot to our brother for him to visit.

My brother's best friend flew in from Long Beach. He got in Sunday morning and left Monday night. He's getting married this weekend and my brother was supposed to be the best man. I feel bad that he has to miss it. I'm glad his friend came out because I think it really cheered my brother up.

I went and got a manicure with my cousin H3 on Saturday afternoon, and then we had dinner & drinks with my cousin H1 and her family. It was a nice break and I really appreciated them making me get out of the hospital and not think about it for a while. I was also able to get to my doctor yesterday afternoon and she prescribed me some Xanax for when things start to feel overwhelming. She also gave me an Ambien prescription to help me sleep, but it has to be pre-authorized by my insurance, so I didn't pick it up because it would've cost over $100 without my insurance. I'll try Tylenol PM and see if that helps.

In other news, today is Mr. Fantastic's and my anniversary. Eight years. It kind of snuck up on us, what with everything going on, so we didn't really do anything special to celebrate. Mr. F did get me a card and a bouquet of flowers and we're going to try and do something in the next week or two like get a couples massage or something.