Alan’s Army

We saw Alan’s surgeon today.  He is very pleased with the results of the MRI saying they got all the tumor out but still no word on the pathology.   I asked about the mechanics of the operation and got more detail than Ginny wanted to hear, but the titanium plates in Alan’s skull was interesting.  Alan and I joked that it was too bad it wasn’t Admantium like Wolverine has.  The doctor said that he shouldn’t set off detectors in airports, although he has had some patients that carry X-Rays with them when they travel.  He said that Alan shouldn’t participate in contact sports and I joked that he was safe with Disc Golf except perhaps at Sedgley Woods on New Years Day.  (It’s weird being in Philly for nearly a solid week and not getting onto the course.)

The “brain drain” is still a concern as Alan is still producing lots of fluid.  If it self-regulates soon then they will take it out.  If not, they will need to do another operation to put an internal shunt in.  However, they can’t put the internal shunt in until the protein level in the fluid drops or the protein would clog the shunt.  So it’s a waiting game.

They are weaning Alan off the steroids for swelling (apparently going cold-turkey off steroids is very dangerous.)  Once the steroids go, then his BP and Glucose numbers should regulate so he can stop getting BP and Insulin injections - Yay! less poking and prodding!  He is now also off the morphine and just on Tylenol 3 and says his pain index is a 1 or 2 where before the operation it was a 5 or 6.

Alan’s college buddies Josh and Ben drove up from Virginia and Alan was very pleased to see them as well as Aunt Dari and Kit who visited today as well.  He is really looking forward to seeing his sister Amber tomorrow.  We asked him about opening the floodgates for all the people that want to visit and he said we should keep it quieter for now as he does tire very quickly and he doesn’t want to be a bad host if people come to visit.  Hopefully he will be up for it in a few more days.

Many thanks to everyone who is sending emails of encouragement, jokes, etc.  we are reading each of them to Alan and he is very appreciative and sorry he can’t respond at this time.  I am creating a binder with all of them so he can review them all at a later date.  Please keep them coming.  Reply to me or send to Alan at bigs@bcdga.com

We are especially thankful for all of your prayers.  God is good and faithful, and we find our strength through Him and all of our friends.

God Bless,

Andrew