Post by stonecutter on Oct 19, 2010 17:15:33 GMT -7
Folks, I'm freaking out...
After having a rough weekend, Sunday was supposed to be a relaxing day. As I was getting ready for my morning shower, I heard the phone ring a couple of times. I stopped so I figured that my wife answered it. She soon appeared in the bedroom as I was warming up the shower. She handed me the phone and said, "It's your dad - something's wrong."
My mom has been battling a rare auto-immune disease for a few years, but has seemed to be getting better for a while, but the statement of "It's your dad..." made me think that something was wrong with her. I grabbed the cordless phone from my wife, and said hello. There was no one there. I hit the answer button and got a dial tone.
This was very worrysome, so I dialed my parents' number. It rang four - five - six times (they don't have a machine...). Finally, someone answered - it was my Mom. She sounded terrible - clearly in tears and mid-sob. I asked her what's wrong. She gathered up the strenghth to tell me, "Your brother called..." She started crying again. My mind immediately started racing - had something happened to one (or both) of my nephews? Had something happened to my sister-in-law? My brother lives off the west coast of Canada, but was taking a medical course in Vancouver about 1900kms away from my place in Edmonton. Being so far away leaves me feeling helpless to do anything if I need to...
Then came the next piece of information. "He's in the hospital." My brother is a very active person. He's into kayaking, rock climbing, hiking, running, mountain biking - everything that a relatively inactive person like myself isn't into. My mind started thinking of the possibilities... car accident, kayaking incident, a fall from a high place, etc...
"Mom, what happened?" I say.
"He has a brain tumour."
About right there - the truck full of bricks hit me. This must be a bad dream. I look at my wife, who is making the, "What's wrong" face as she's trying to get a read of what's going on...
I get mom under control enough to tell me what is happening. Last Tuesday - one week ago from today, he woke up to find that he had no use of his now numb and weak left hand. Being a medical doctor, he knew that this is not a good scenario, and he went to get checked out. On Saturday his colleagues were able to schedule him in for an MRI where they found an egg-sized tumour on the right side of his brain.
Yesterday - Monday he had a full body scan to see if this is the only location that this has occurred, or if this is a cancer that has spread from elsewhere. That's not expected to be the case, as he swears that the loss of the use of the hand was his first and only indication that something was awry. He called me yesterday evening to update me. He told me of the scan and that he was waiting to hear from his oncologist and neurologist who are reviewing the scan and that nothing was expected in the way of news until today. But he expects that it's a low grade glioma (search that term on WebMD or Wikipedia for info). I updated our extended family last night, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, etc...
Now I wait for further updates. FYI: Today is my brother's 39th birthday (he's 3 years older than me).
After having a rough weekend, Sunday was supposed to be a relaxing day. As I was getting ready for my morning shower, I heard the phone ring a couple of times. I stopped so I figured that my wife answered it. She soon appeared in the bedroom as I was warming up the shower. She handed me the phone and said, "It's your dad - something's wrong."
My mom has been battling a rare auto-immune disease for a few years, but has seemed to be getting better for a while, but the statement of "It's your dad..." made me think that something was wrong with her. I grabbed the cordless phone from my wife, and said hello. There was no one there. I hit the answer button and got a dial tone.
This was very worrysome, so I dialed my parents' number. It rang four - five - six times (they don't have a machine...). Finally, someone answered - it was my Mom. She sounded terrible - clearly in tears and mid-sob. I asked her what's wrong. She gathered up the strenghth to tell me, "Your brother called..." She started crying again. My mind immediately started racing - had something happened to one (or both) of my nephews? Had something happened to my sister-in-law? My brother lives off the west coast of Canada, but was taking a medical course in Vancouver about 1900kms away from my place in Edmonton. Being so far away leaves me feeling helpless to do anything if I need to...
Then came the next piece of information. "He's in the hospital." My brother is a very active person. He's into kayaking, rock climbing, hiking, running, mountain biking - everything that a relatively inactive person like myself isn't into. My mind started thinking of the possibilities... car accident, kayaking incident, a fall from a high place, etc...
"Mom, what happened?" I say.
"He has a brain tumour."
About right there - the truck full of bricks hit me. This must be a bad dream. I look at my wife, who is making the, "What's wrong" face as she's trying to get a read of what's going on...
I get mom under control enough to tell me what is happening. Last Tuesday - one week ago from today, he woke up to find that he had no use of his now numb and weak left hand. Being a medical doctor, he knew that this is not a good scenario, and he went to get checked out. On Saturday his colleagues were able to schedule him in for an MRI where they found an egg-sized tumour on the right side of his brain.
Yesterday - Monday he had a full body scan to see if this is the only location that this has occurred, or if this is a cancer that has spread from elsewhere. That's not expected to be the case, as he swears that the loss of the use of the hand was his first and only indication that something was awry. He called me yesterday evening to update me. He told me of the scan and that he was waiting to hear from his oncologist and neurologist who are reviewing the scan and that nothing was expected in the way of news until today. But he expects that it's a low grade glioma (search that term on WebMD or Wikipedia for info). I updated our extended family last night, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, etc...
Now I wait for further updates. FYI: Today is my brother's 39th birthday (he's 3 years older than me).
