Our New Journey

On June 9th, 2011, my husband was feeling ill. He said that he was dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital for fluids. I mentioned to the nurses that I was concerned because he had seemed a little different over the past week. After a few tests, it was revealed that a tumor had taken up residence in his brain. A biopsy soon followed. As the surgeon talked about the results of the biopsy, the dreadful word "cancer" was born into our lives, changing it forever.

Through this blog, I shared the early years of this journey.

Several years later, I'm elated to report that he is doing very well, back to work and life. Seeing him now, you would never know that he has been through such a battle.

Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers.

-Gilly

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Several Steps Closer...

Thomas Edison said, "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

Today Joe was not able to get his head scanned today. He did do better than he had done last week. I definitely think that the steps we added (hypnosis and changing anti-anxiety meds) certainly helped. He didn't get to the state of absolute panic that he had been in before. However, the scan still did not happen.

He worked at it for an hour. Although the scan did not happen today, he is a lot closer than he was this morning. They let us take the mask home today and practice.

So that is what he is doing right now. He is practicing on the bed. We've propped up his head and made a make-shift tunnel. We don't have everything there is to replicate the situation, but we are doing what we can. The mask has been shaped to be a bit more open, and we have decided that it is his "battle buddy." He has named it Jason after the actual battle buddy that he had while in the Army.

In this situation, it is easy to have a defeated feeling. However, I am choosing to look at it the way Edison looked at much of his attempts before finding success, not as a failure, rather simply as a step toward a solution.

When possible, I like to take a "do what I can do towards the situation" attitude. When the path in-front of you is complete darkness, it's impossible to see your way without special equipment. However if you know the direction, you can carefully take a step. Even one, small step is progress. You can then gather yourself before taking another step, literally putting one foot in-front of the other. Positive is positive, no matter how small the amount.

Today, Joe progressed many steps towards completing the scan, and that is what is important.

Tomorrow is another day, and he will give it another try. Wether or not the scan gets done, he will have several more steps in the positive direction of his goal.

1 comment:

  1. That is a wonderful attitude to take... good for both of you.

    ReplyDelete