Friday Update

I'm going to try and give regular Friday updates rather than waiting until some event has happened. Right now, we know that Scott is doing much better than the doctors thought so we call that our miracle but we are also very aware that we are a long way from being "in the clear". We haven't got out of the woods yet.

We recently saw Scott's neurosurgeon who was genuinely surprised at the improvements Scott has made in his language. His feeling about the tumor death is that it could be from the rapid growth which will cause it to starve itself of blood supply and dye in the center. No matter what, he's encouraged that the tumor has slowed down so much. He scheduled Scott for a "functional" MRI next week Friday. This is an MRI that actually maps the parts of the brain that Scott is using for language. They do this by asking Scott questions while watching his brain light up in the areas that are being used. Dr. Chandler thinks there is a possibility that Scott's language areas might be far enough away from the tumors that he could surgically remove some or all of the tumors. It's just a small possibility but it sounds good to us.

This past week was much harder than expected. Scott's been very tired and fatigue always effects his language abilities. That's scary because I wonder, "Is it just fatigue or is it tumor causing his difficulties?". In the last few days things have started to really improve, he's less tired and his language is getting better. We believe now that he was just getting over a cold. Wheeeeeew!

We have also started speech therapy. I say "we" because speech rehabilitation is completely a team effort. We went twice this week and will continue to go 2 to 3 times a week for a long long time. It was really surprising for me because I discovered that I was doing a very good job learning how to adapt to and interpret Scott's way of communicating. So good in fact that I wasn't aware just how many common words he's lost from his vocabulary and although he can find ways to communicate without them, it makes him a little hard to understand unless you're use to listening to him. More importantly, it makes it very hard for him to understand others who are constantly using words he doesn't know anymore. We are also working on speed and fluency in reading and writing. The speech therapist is great! She is so kind and patient. We have complete confidence that she's going to help us find tools and techniques to bringing back everything he's lost. It's just going to take time and work.

I'm so proud of Scott. This is hard stuff, humbling stuff, and he's my hero in every respect. I couldn't dream of a better teammate. Somehow, in all of this, he finds a way to continue to be the supportive loving husband and adoring father to Josephine. She's such a lucky girl to have a father like Scott. One of his strongest motivations in speech therapy is to be able to read to Josephine her silly children's books again with the expressions, rythm, and enthusiasm he once did. He was so good at that and he will be again.

Now for an annoucement on prayer nights:
Since this adventure began we've been having occasional prayer nights at our house. We wanted to announce the next two nights and invite anyone to come who would like to. We usually sing some worship songs and then spend some time praying. It's very casual. Your children are certainly welcome. We start at 7PM. Here's the dates.
Thursday, January 27th
Tuesday, February 1st
You can let us know you're coming or just show up.
1751 N. Talman Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

Thanks for all the love and support!!
Michele, Scott, and Josephine