Saturday, September 25, 2010

The "there-really-is-no-update" Update

I’ve told y’all before and I’ll tell y’all again: Joseph and I could not possible be more different.
  • I am easy going, he is crazy.
  • I am quiet and think before I speak, he has no filter. None.
  • I listen to country while he listens to crap rap.
  • I give everyone the benefit of the doubt, he is confident that he has everyone figured out in the first 2 minutes of meeting them.
  • I am patient and always optimistic, he is impatient and admittedly a pessimist.

 …okay, perhaps I have us confused.

Yesterday was supposed to be our BIG day. I have been hanging my hat on this special day because it was supposed to be the day that we find out:

  1. How much room they have to work with (if they go in and do surgery) before altering his speech/vision.
  2. What the plan is going to be: a. cut “it” out or b. watch “it” and retest in 6 months.
  3. Find out what “it” is.

 Yeah, that was what was supposed to happen. It didn’t.

The pessimist (yours truly) feels we are no closer than we were 3 weeks ago to knowing anything. The eternal optimist (J Mad) says I’m wrong.
  
Half empty, half full…
  
They had to do another functional MRI due to the fact that their software was broken. It got fixed this week and yesterday they redid (is that a word?) the MRI as well as the functional MRI. My poor man was in that tube for 3 hours! It took a long time because they had all sorts of people in there watching and learning since they don’t do many of these. One of the employees of the company that manufactures the software was even there. So while I think it’s terrible that they would do that to my man, he thinks it’s just great that others got to learn from his experience. Hmm, we really are different.

I digress.

While we are excited that we were able to get that done we are frustrated I am frustrated that Joseph was still unable to meet with the neurosurgeon. The doctor that he was supposed to meet with had a scheduling conflict so was unable to meet with J and is planning on doing a tele-conference with him next week. It is a bummer that they have to do it over the phone, but that is the only option since J will be in NYC for the next month. UGH. So frustrating.

At dinner last night, J was telling me all the positive ways to look at this. A.) The MRI showed that there had been no growth in the last 2 weeks. So whatever “it” is, is slow growing. B.) The functional MRI says that “it” isn’t near anything important. There are big words that J uses to explain this to me, but when he does all I hear is Charlie Brown’s teacher saying, “Whaaa-wha-whaaa-wha-wha-wha.” The two year old explanation I got (because that is about all I have the brain capacity for!) was that, “this would be like going and picking an apple off a tree.”

Had I known being a neurosurgeon was so simple, perhaps I would have been one. I can pick apples off trees.

And that, my friends, is the story. J will leave tomorrow for a month and I have no idea what will happen when he gets home. And I am really sad about it all. Really sad. I’m frustrated we have no answers and I’m sad that my man is going to NYC. It’s hard here without him. On all of us.

BUT, we are thankful that we can call him, Sykpe and that, God willing, he will be home in a month.

All we have is today anyway, right? And today we are blessed.

4 comments:

Michele said...

Oh, friend. how hard to wait, again. Praying for you guys, still.
thanks for the update on the status of the update. I'll stay tuned.

Nathan said...

Your family is and will continue to be in our prayers. Thanks for the update and the honesty.

Nate and Lauren

Cloughamily said...

I love you, friend! I'm glad you are keeping up that wonderful sense of humor of yours. We are praying for you all.

Erinn (and Ron)

Sincerely Anna said...

Keeping you both in prayer...geez, a month?? Thanks for the update and I agree, your sense of humor is great. I laughed about the Charlie Brown reference and the apple picking.