We Talk Brain Tumours

Naomi, much love to your poor litle fella, hope his recovery is swift & full, those spasms sound awful, my middle child had cholic......those were a testing few months I can tell you!

Zandandu thanks regarding my daughter, who knows the amount of sport she has done, she may have broken it more than once!  I am sure we will get there, in the grand scheme of things it isn't really that important, the only thing it stops her from doing is typing with all of her fingers - but this generation do not seem to anyway, unlike us oldies who were taught to touch type on a manual typewriter (really showing and feeling my age!).

Tonight Tony and I are off out, a rate occassion indeed.  We are meeting up with old friends, Mike was Tony's best friend and the best man at our wedding.  We holiday'd with them before kids and spent many hours together when our children were first born.  We drifted apart about 12 years ago - when they got heavily into religion, not that I have anything against anyones beliefs but when they try to tell you that you are going to hell because you don't go to church, thats overstepping the boundaries of friendship for me.  There was also a certain amount of awkwardness in that Mike lost his job when Helen was expecting their first child, so Tony's Dad gave him a job at his propery maintainence company.  After 4 years and learning everything he could, he just told Alan he was leaving and set up on his own.  Anyway, Mikes Dad recently passed away after a short battle with Pancreatic Cancer and we met at the funeral, it was like we had never been apart and we reminisced about all the good times we had together (there were many of those). 

There are times when you realise how short & fragile life is and that good friends are hard to come by.  They are still devoted to their church, but they seem to have mellowed about converting everyone they meet now.  So, we are off to see their son's drum tutor and his band play, its a charity 'gig' with food called Rock Till Ya Drop.  I am actually really looking forward to getting dressed up and going out, apart from the fact that Helen is still a size 6 and is in very good shape, well so am I, the shape just happens to be a potato!

Of course as I don't drink, I will be a cheap date as usual, except I dont drive, so poor old Tony who likes a beer or three (not often being a martial artist) can't drink either as he will be driving, everyone say awwwwwwwww.  Lara is going to a sleepover at her best friends (like she does every weekend it seems) and we will be leaving the boys to cook their own pizza's tonight ....... glad I will be out for that!

I hope everyone has as good a Saturday night as they can, missing a few people, Martyn & Pete in particular....hoping no news is good news in that regard.

Love & Strength to all who want or need it xxx

Hello all, I heard my name spoken in vain.  And thanks to Cathi, who's email prompted me into life again.

Well, there's not much here in the shape of good news.  Things are rather somber as we've had a few friends/distant family in the family who have died recently and of course our thoughts wander...

Ali remains comfortable, but she's noticeably sleepier now and often distant when she's awake (the lights are on but with the dimmer switch set to low).  She's still having the occasional seizure when she's woken a little too quickly (we really have to walk on eggshells when we need to rouse her).

Her abdominal shunt site has now opened up again and we've had to put a drain bag back on again. This inteferes a little when we need to roll her to change her pads.

Ali's sister did a great job and managed to get a canvas print done of Ali and I at our weeding, which I've put up so Ali can see it from her bed.  She finds it very comforting when she sees it.

Ali's so quiet in her bed that I find myself almost forgetting that she's there. I'm still housebound except for a few hours one day a week, but I wouldn't have it any other day.

To top it all, I'm starting to get quite fat.

Id just like to say Hi Pete.A lovely idea the canvas print.Youll have to do some exercises,lol.Take care.HUGS xxxx

Hope this gets us back on the front page again, we down on 5th !!!!!!!

Good to hear from you Pete, glad the canvas print is comforting to Ali, well done to her sister.

We had a fab night out with our friends but today has been expensive, for some reason we didn't renew our central heating cover and of course today Lara shouts down that there is no hot water for her bath, I pop it on for an hour and she is still moaning, Tony goes out to discover our boiler isn't working!

Great, £99 for British Gas to come out and take a look tomorrow afternoon.  Fingers crossed its something easy to repair, don't want to have to replace it :(

Love and strength to all who want or need it xxx

moving us up.

cx

Hi all,

Beed reading and catching up on everything.  Naomi, your poor litle man, the screaming for that long must be awful for you, bless him, I hope he is feeling better.

Well no good news from me i'm afraid,  On Friday it was two weeks to the day that mum died and dad had a stroke.  He got up in the morning and collapsed, his legs buckled.  We rang the surgery and waited for a call back.  Hours later they rang and asked us to bring him down, he was still walking at this point but a little shuffle.  He had severe head pain, side weakness and was slurring. The doctor gave him some diazepam and sent him home.  An hour later he was getting worse so my sister rang the doctor back who said he it was anxiety and attention seeking and to take him to casualty if he didn't improve in the next couple of hours.  We rang an ambulance at 4.00pm as we could not physically move him and he was not making sense.  They were furious that he had been sent home, the sent a rapid response team and blue light and sirens all the way to hospital.  A scan confirmed a blood clot and a damage to his brain over two inches long.  Well right now he has no use of left side, is sleepy all the time and has a catheter fitted.  It's like deja vu.  Exactly the same as mum.  I just don't believe it - he is 61 for goodness sake, mum was only 63.  They hoist him from bed to chair and back again, he is like a broken little old man.  Four weeks ago he was taken to hospital with similar problems but only very minor.  They believe he could have had a mini stroke and now this one.  I don't know what will happen its apparently a day by day thing but I can't believe it, as if he hadn't gone through enough and now he possibly will not recover.

Am sorry for depressing post, just all seems unbelievable right now.

Love to all xxx

Omg Sharron, your poor dad and you and yoour family. What's it all about? How can life be so cruel?  My thoughts are with you and I hope that your dad manages to make a full recovery.

Ange xx

So sorry to hear of the stroke, I hope your father is more comfortable now.  I think in that case, I would have called 999 and got an ambulance out right away.  I'm just fearful with any brain condition that the longer you leave it, the more damage occurs (and harder it is to recover).

I hope the right thing is being done.

Sharron..its unbelievable..you must be feeling as though everything is collapsing around you. Good grief..how can any doctor say that these symptoms are attention seeking, not only that ..in a man who has just lost his wife to a BT?

Pete is right 999 is the way to go. We are all too scared of thinking we are making a fuss about nothing but why take the risk. I hope everything works out ok and you get your Dad back soon. The photograph of your Mum and Dad on your profile is lovely.They look wonderful and happy.

Cathi x