At this point we still thought it was a Grade 3 or 4 astrocytoma.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Wolford
Subject: We're back at home!
Hi everyone :-)
I came home yesterday (Thursday), and my fingers are on the computer again (I asked Dhalie to bring it into the hospital and then I barely touched it, heh).
I know Dhalie’s been updating you for the past few days. It’s been an interesting few days since I woke up from surgery – I don’t know *why* I thought I’d just hop out of bed and start cruising around, put on my helmet & gloves, etc. As it turns out, having brain surgery requires a fair bit of recovery time.
My energy seems to come in waves. In my energetic phase I can easily get up, walk around (like from the bedroom to the couch) and do a bit of email, talk on the phone a bit, etc. In my downtime phase it feels *really* good to lie down and close my eyes and just hang out inside my body and relax. I know that might sound like it could be boring but not now, not now, it feels really good to do that.
Diagnosis/pathology of the tumour will come next week. I’m looking forward to getting it, and at the same time it doesn’t change anything that I do for now (walk, relax, etc), as I need to wait for 3-4 weeks after surgery for the skull's recovery to complete before following up with the appropriate treatment. Staples (not stitches) will come out on Monday – did Dhalie tell you that the staple remover is...with us?? We will take it to my GP and she can remove the staples (I won’t let Dhalie do it, I forbid it).
We’ll let my energy levels dictate my visits etc. In the hospital it was really nice to see everyone when they came in – I would just get up to say hello and then tilt my bed into sit-up position, heh. Right now it feels quite important to get enough rest etc (for Dhalie too!) so we’re going to keep the visits light for the first few days – emails are great :-)
We’ll keep you posted, to be sure. When the energy levels rise I’ll let you know, and I also look forward to being able to visit people myself! It will all come in good time.
Talk to you soon :-)
jw
