July 28, 2011 (Thursday)
Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone -
About a year ago to the present, Laurie and I were planning our autumn vacation to Scotland. Part of this trip was covering what is known as the "Road to the Isles". This is along the western coast of Scotland running in the Arisaig to Mallaig area. There are various small ports in this region providing ferry service to the islands of Muck Eigg, Rum and Canna....hence the touristy name of our route. I will detour from this story for a while as I want to first pass along the news of Laurie's "Road to Recovery".
The surgery that Laurie had on July 24th involved removing about 90% of a sizeable lesion in the left frontal area of her brain. I learned this while talking to one the attending surgeons who was fortuitously standing behind me this morning in line for a morning coffee. When asked, he said that it is likely that the tumor had started to develop a long time ago. There was calcification in the area that indicated the lesion had been growing for quite some time. However, until about July 22nd or so, it had remained virtually undetectable. The initial indication that "Laurie was not Laurie" was seen by her colleagues attending the 2011 Canadian Botanical Association Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Laurie had a meeting with her GP on July 13th and although she told the doctor that she was more tired than usual, there was no hint at anything that should be examined. The OR doctor said that it was a very serious operation as the lesion was very close to the speech area. The treatment to follow will be either radiation, chemotherapy or in his opinion, both are likely to be involved. The next important step is to review the pathology report that I hope is going to be out this week. The oddsmakers have this as being released next week though. After we talked for a while, the surgeon thanked me for buying him coffee and I thanked him for helping to save Laurie's life.
Yesterday, Laurie's left eye had reopened although the discolouration around it was quite evident. Her left temple was, and is, still extremely swollen and is starting to display new colours of orange and yellow. She is taking pills for pain and for reducing any existing swelling of brain tissue. Stronger pain control strategies are in place should the ones she is on do not completely work. She is good at taking the pills which come her way about four times a day. She is eating most of everything that comes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We now complete a food order each evening for the next day's meals. Yesterday she put together a breakfast and a lunch plan as I read off the selections and she made the decisions. By comparison, the dinner choice was a long drawn out affair. The main course was either chicken or beef. So, my question to her was "OK, would you like chicken or beef?" She just could not decide which to have....chicken or beef? Chicken or beef? After about a dozen repeats of these options I told her to pretend that she was completing the Census form and to just pick one of the options. She gazed up at me and said "Beef". So, she is eating as well as could be and she is continuing to drink lots of juice and water.
The timing to release these fluids is getting somewhat better. If she could travel at the speed of Usain Bolt then perhaps she would always make the toilet on time. Her batting average is getting better though which makes her quite pleased. Yesterday she spent the entire day in the NOA. We did ramble through the neighbourhood after dinner to see what was going on and to get her legs moving. Her gait needs much improvement and she either uses a walker or is guided by me to maintain balance. The gait is such that the front of her right foot hits the ground before the heel. This alone creates the real possibility of taking a header into something concrete. "Heal first...heal first" is my constant reminder. Today there was some improvement but not a lot. As well, there is some pigeon toe happening which she did not have previously.
Yesterday was a long day for us. She did report to the staff that she felt better but except for the left eye being open I could not really tell if she really was. Progress in these situations can be glacial and Laurie is outwardly thinking positively. I stayed until just after 21:00 before making the trip back home. Being quite knackered I made some email replies and turned in by 23:00.
I reached the hospital before 09:00 this morning. Yesterday's arrival at 09:30 found me having to park in another time zone. Of course, that was the day I was bringing in her larger bag with assorted items and sundries. You can never find a sherpa when you want one. So, having beaten the vehicular arriving visitors, I had a nice choice of parking spots to select from. I took the one in the shade.
I wanted to see what Laurie's breakfasts were like so I was heading up the stairs two at a time to the second floor. I peeked into her curtain wall room #15 and was simply amazed. She looked like she had aged 30 years. As I stared at the figure in the bed from about 5 meters distance, the nurse said "Mark, your wife was moved to room #14 this morning". Hi carumba ! I knew something was amiss here. So, off next store where Laurie was sitting up and reviewing the remains of her breakfast (bran with raisons, bit of boiled egg, brown toast with jam (crusts left behind), juice and coffee). It wasn't so much the tray of food that really caught my attention however. During his visit to see Laurie, the head doctor who did the surgery decided that it was head bandage removal day. By the looks of it, I firmly believe that one of the attending surgeons last Sunday was Mary Shelley. Poor Laurie. There is a scar of maybe 35 cm forming the shape of half a square across the top and down the left side of her head. This was a serious effort by the surgeons to gain access to the lesion and surrounding area. Now, they no longer put a suture through (so this really does eliminate the possibility of Mary being there) to bind the two halves of the scalp back together. Instead, some guy at the Arrow Stapling Company came up with a novel way to increase sales...yes, a stapling gun for surgeons. Having never known or seen this before I was somewhat taken aback and wondering why Laurie was not holding her head and screaming. Now, if you are a bit squeamish you may want to skip the next paragraph.
I counted the staples. They are made of stainless steel and very nicely polished. There are 38 of them. They each measure, and the surgeon at coffee informed me of this, just over 0.5. cm across. Having a degree in mathematics I worked out that this is about 20 cm of actual staple material showing across her small head. I did not ask the doctor about the depth of the staples as I was trying to eat my muffin and drink a coffee. Apparently, because I asked about this too, the staples are usually easily removed by a nurse about ten days after they were put in. If they are left for much longer then there is the possibility that tissue starts to really cling on to the staple which is a bad thing...for everyone involved. Knowing Laurie she will likely grimace when her time comes (between August 2nd and the 4th) but not say anything out loud. Me? I would be screaming and shaking just thinking about this happening to me. Unless I was completely under, or in a head lock administered by a very large male nurse, they would have no chance of pulling the out of my head (and I mean zero chance, statistically speaking).
Today was pretty busy for Laurie. She had the usual visits from the nurse "How you doin' love?", from the food server "I hope that you enjoy this love", from the physiologist "Let's go for a walk Laurie love" and from an occupational therapist as well as a speech therapist. It was like Grand Central Station in room 14 of the NOA. I guess what struck me the most was the difficulty that Laurie has in her ability to remember basic things. This may be a result of her memory loss or from an inability to "get the words" out even though she knows the answer to the question. For instance, she was given a picture drawing of a scene and she had to tell the therapist what she saw. Laurie mentioned a few things that were correct but then added something about the Canadian Tire store. I guess that these therapists have heard lots of things in their work but she did look at me with a slight smile. A question that I thought Laurie would absolutely nail was "How many animals can you name?". My first thought was "Ms. Therapist, how much time do you have here with Laurie today?". Laurie's knowledge of wildlife and the animal kingdom is darn good so I thought bonus marks were definitely at hand. Laurie began with "antelope". I knew it. Not only was she going to enumerate every animal, past and present, she was going to do alphabetically! Extra marks for sure. Her next animal was "beast". Umm. Not so sure about this one. There was the beast in her head until 90% got taken out last Sunday but I wonder what she was thinking. Then she stopped. She knew no more animals. I almost cried.
The tests that she did today are to help establish the rehabilitation program that will likely require. This program is quite separate from dealing with the remaining lesion still in her brain. So, I think we will need to have a big calendar to manage upcoming appointments.
The big news from today is that Laurie may be coming home tomorrow. Some debate is being held to determine when she should be released from the hospital. The surgeon had the paper work ready for her to go home today ! The nurse said "no way". The therapists told me that they feel Laurie might be transferred to a rehabilitation area for the next one to two weeks. So, pick a number of days please and let us know. Laurie coming home today was an impossibility. There is virtually no food in the refrigerator as I have been quite creative in feeding myself over the last few days. Currently, there is about 5 ml of expiry dated orange juice, some margarine, various condiments that were last opened in the Neolithic era, some beer and some more beer. Maybe some milk too behind the beer. As well, there is a mountain of laundry that Tenzing Norguay and Edmond Hillary would find quite a challenge to surmount. Needless to say, the house is not Laurie come-home-ready. I pleaded my case with the nurse and the hospital capitulated to my proposition of buying half the food from the grocery store tonight and stocking the house up. This would allow me to stay with Laurie until she is able to heal better or until the next ice age rolls in.
So, tomorrow is another day. This is the motto that we have been living by recently. It is hopefully a better day for Laurie. Her road to recovery will continue step by step and thought by thought. I know that your thoughts are with her along the way.
Back to Scotland. We found passage on small crafts running to Eigg and to Rum and spend one day one each of these. Also in this area are various venues where the 1983 film (yes, it was that long ago), that the movie "Local Hero" was filmed. This is a top ten movie for us with the wonderful scenery, well written story-line and the beautiful sound track from Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame. Near the village of Morar there is a beach at Camusdarch where the long beach that played an elemental role in the movie is found. As it was September, we had the beach practically to ourselves. Even the beach dweller Ben had moved along. As we were walking along, I could swear that I was hearing the theme song from Local Hero. Maybe it was because of those three pints of real ale from the night before or the funny wind coming in off the bay. Wrong and wrong. Laurie had recorded the song on her Blackberry and had started the music. What a feeling. It was perfect. Me - I have trouble turning on the BB so how she was able to set this up was beyond me. But, it is no real wonder really. Looking back, here was the girl in grade 12 at Banting High School in Alliston Ontario who in 1978 won the General Proficiency awards in French, Latin and of all things, computer science. Bet you did not know that.
Good night from Oxford Station -
Mark
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