The past 48 hours have been full of excitement. After all, what's more exciting than the unfolding saga of Shannon's GBM journey?! Yesterday Lois and I were at the Neuro-ophthalmologist's office for four hours, although it felt like longer. The office was in a nice mid-rise and had a fabulous view of Houston from all angles.The doctor was a force to be reckoned with. She was evaluating me while simultaneously teaching her students. At one point she asked her student a question and demanded the answer. When the student didn't answer, she said, "If you know the answer, tell me. If you don't know the answer, go find out." When the student hesitated, the doctor said, "If you don't know the answer, go right now, find out, and come back to tell me the answer!" I was so impressed with how quickly the student scurried out of the room that I started to wonder if this method would work with marketing graduate students. I can hear me now, "What does it mean that this statistic is non-significant? What does it tell us about our hypothesis? What other statistics could we use to bolster our stated findings? If you don't know, go figure it out!"[...]

Here we are again, another month, another scan, another checkup.

“I have known evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life [in hospital waiting rooms];” – Modification of The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.[...]

Since my last post, I've done a lot and yet there is really nothing to update. After I was told that I didn't need to platelet transfusion, I settled in and started taking care of business in Houston. There were many things to do around the house. Jason was supposed to come on Monday for my checkup and scan plus I continued to go over to give them more and more blood until I'm pretty sure they'd counted every platelet in there. On Monday morning the care team called and said, of course, they needed more blood AND since my platelets were not expected to come up enough for chemo by the following Wednesday, they wanted to put off the scan and check up for 2 more weeks. In my experience, they like to keep the scans on schedule with the chemo dosage and vice versa but don't like to go more than 8 weeks without a scan. These people are so predictable! What was not predictable is that when I called Jason to tell him my check up was canceled, he admitted that he was already on his way. He was trying to surprise me, which never works out for him. Apparently every time he tries to surprise me with something, I either go out and buy/plan/etc. the thing for myself or something else happens to mess up his surprise. I'm pretty sure he's suspicious that I paid off my care team to cancel my appointments just to thwart him once again. First off, I don't think my care team would take a bribe. Nor would they need the money. Secondly, I didn't know that he was already on his way. I didn't even suspect it because usually work takes precedent over just about everything else. If there's no emergency, he will work until the very last minute. Leaving in a non-emergency shows real growth in his workaholic-ism therapy![...]

Just a quick update on the platelets. Yesterday I went over and gave more blood for the platelet count and match procedure. I was told that the lab takes 2 hours to get results up and then it takes 2 hours to get the platelets ready, so I went back home to wait for the resident to call. After waiting about 5 hours, I finally had him paged. He said my platelets were stable and had actually increased 4 points, therefore, I do not need a transfusion at this time. Jason said I did well in my visualizing, Lois said the platelets like me and didn't want to be replaced. I think the platelets are introverts and were frightened by the idea of being forced into a mixer. Whatever the explanation, for now there is no transfusion planned. I will go in on Tuesday for more blood work, a scan, and some other random appointments. Wednesday we see Dr. No Naps for a check up and scan results. Look for some kind of update after that![...]

This journey over the past 2 years has been nothing if not interesting. Every trip to the doctor may result in twists and turns that we didn't see coming, things speeding up or slowing down, or completely new and uncharted territory. One thing that's been certain, this process has always given us plenty to learn about and keep us intellectually stimulated. [...]

It seems that the holiday break has been great for me. Not because I'm not working (because I have been), but because it's given me some time to just focus on my health behaviors. The holidays themselves were extremely low key. We didn't order Aidan's gifts early enough so he just got the last one yesterday. I love that he didn't seem to care at all, although (of course) he got his favorite thing in the world. A basketball. As if he doesn't have twelve. It's funny because my father-in-law talks about how he and his siblings had one toy to share and it was a ball. Jason had no energy for getting the tree out of the attic, so he got some laser lights and a small tree and set it all up inside. It looked like a disco up in here! I often like tacky and Jason knows that so I had to thank him for accommodating my appreciation for the fun things in life.[...]

We are back in Lubbock just in time to spend Christmas as a family. Perhaps just as significant for us, we got back in time to see Aidan's last basketball game before school holiday break! Most people who know us also know the important role basketball plays in our family. Particularly Aidan's love of basketball. I did find myself telling them on the ride home that I've been so busy with self care over the past couple of seasons, I'm not even feeling like a fan of college ball anymore. I'm sure that will change soon. All it takes is for UK to have a great season, for UK to get a new coach (who I like better), or for Aidan to be playing in college. I absolutely plan to see that in about 5 years![...]

I came to Houston over a week ago to meet some longtime friends from Lexington and to enjoy some warmer weather. Although I was bamboozled on the weather (it's been rather nippy here in Houston), my visit with friends was wonderful! Some friends from Lexington might remember my friend, Ming, who was an ESL student I worked with starting in 1998. I was able to help her learn a lot of English at first, but then we just became friends and would sit around and talk. I guess that helped as much as anything but I like to remind her that I really didn't teach her much. We mostly talked about culture, she taught me about Chinese cooking, and we enjoyed being together twice a week. Her kids were young and I would tease her that she was "raising American kids." Her boys are now grown and her oldest came with her for our visit. We walked long distances, went to Chinatown, shared funny stories from our times together, and she mothered me. By the time we had to say goodbye, she had introduced me to 3 Chinese health behaviors, which she insists I should incorporate into my path:[...]

If last week was the week of the tumor affected hearing, this week is the week of the tumor affected vision. I saw my regular optometrist and the results say I'm not totally blind. I'm unable to see in my left visual field approximately 25% less than I was able to see prior to the second surgery. She said that she is familiar with the prism glasses, however, she recommends that I wait another 3-6 months before looking further into that solution. That means no driving for 3-6 months unless somehow, miraculously, my vision suddenly returns. I did read online that some people have had that happen. One day they just wake up and the problem has corrected itself. I figure if I just plan for this to happen, it will. Maybe I should just plan on that for tomorrow. The good news is that my regular vision hasn't changed and I have the same prescription for glasses and contacts as before. So that's something to celebrate! It's the little things, after all.[...]

Most of you know that I had hearing aids prior to my diagnosis and that when I woke up from my first surgery, I could suddenly hear. You may remember the story of the crazy conversations and noise all around me when I awoke and how that may have been both the funniest and the worst part of the entire ordeal. I mean, who doesn't want to hear some random guy throwing up? Or some really dumb lady talking about mashed potatoes and oatmeal?[...]