Surgery is Tomorrow: Monday the 15th

Toward the end of last week, Scott experienced an increase in pressure and pain.  He really has a high tolerance for pain so when I was calling the on-call surgeon at 2:00am Thursday night to figure out how to relieve his pain, I knew that surgery would be moved up.  Scott spent all day Friday at MSK getting pre-surgical testing and medical clearance for surgery tomorrow.   He will have one more blood test on Monday morning before surgery to be sure his Liver Function Tests have not creeped too high over the weekend because since going off the liver rejection meds, his LFTs have been slowly moving in the wrong direction.  He has been put on steroids again to relieve pressure and pain from cerebral fluid and this might also help the LFTs stay in a good enough range for him to have surgery.

I have to admit that I'm feeling a little angry about all of this.  Couldn't we have just a little break where he felt good, stayed off steroids, and life wasn't so crazy?!  The last thing that Scott, the kids, and I want to do during the last week of school is have Scott spend a few days in the hospital with his 7th surgery related to brain cancer.  This is our reality.  We don't know what tomorrow will bring - good or bad.  We live in the moment, try to enjoy every day, and handle the roller coaster of emotions the best we can.  

Say lots of prayers for a successful surgery on Monday that will relieve the pressure and pain in Scott's head so that he can feel comfortable without steroids.  Pray that his LFTs come down and stay down without the need for other meds.  Pray for continued healing from the brain damage caused by tumor and treatment.  

The graphic below was a result of a survey of brain tumor caregivers who were asked their top 3 priorities for their loved one, other than living longer, and it is pretty much how I feel too:

Surgery starts mid-day on Monday but I will post sometime during the day but it won't be early in the morning.  Thanks in advance for the prayers!

xoxo,

Julie