Another Day Begins

Mom and I arrived at the hospital early this morning and were pleased to see which nurse was assigned to dad today. She's a real sweetheart and dad is very comfortable with her.  We were also happy to see that the drainage tube in dad's neck was removed throughout the night (this is really good). We practiced our lip reading quite a bit as dad had lots of questions and concerns he wanted us to address.  His demeanor changed once mom was with him, it's like she's his baby blanket!  Now that she's here, he's able to relax and doze off a little.  I'm sure it's just reassuring for him to know that the person who knows his needs best is nearby....and he's a suck!! Just kidding... I can't imagine what this is like for him.

We went to the cancer center this morning to be prepped for radiation that will occur later this afternoon.  It was kinda surreal to watch these women transfer dad on what is the largest slide board that I have ever seen!  Dad needed to have a special face mask made that is molded to his face that will hold him still and in place during the radiation to make sure it targets the right area.  The process was quite fascinating actually.  The porter that returned dad back to the ICU was most likely a race car driver in a former life as he almost hit people in our path and dinged a few wall mounted items along the way.  Always interesting!

This afternoon dad will go for the CT scan and then on to radiation around 5:00.  They will only be doing one round of radiation treatment this time, again, with the goal to shock the spine so the growth won't rapidly grow back.

We also saw one of our first case workers today that worked with us back in '94 when dad was first admitted after his accident.  It's becoming a bit of a reunion in here!  Mom is currently waiting for "the team" to come by and update them with any new information so I will most likely be posting at least once more later today.  We have been telling dad about all of your comments on our blog and Facebook and I know that means a lot to him.  We feel your love from here.