my overall health and lifestyle

The latest MRI I had was at the end of July, and based on the report the tumor is not getting any bigger and appears to be stable, however, there seems to be an increase in fluid in the surgical area which they think may be contributing to the paralysis on my left side. For now, we're not doing any treatment for the smaller tumor until we get rid of the edema, which is being done by an increase in the steroids again. The doctors here and in Cleveland are going to confer, plus another doctor from Duke University, to see what the next plan of attack is.

As far as physical therapy, and occupational therapy, I am now at St. Luke's, which doesn't have a brand-new facility like in Waukesha, but it saves us over an hour of driving time, and they seem to have their act together as far as the therapy. Unfortunately, at the present time, I'm only getting two therapy appointments per week and it is not always both PT and OT. I'm also missing out on my aqua therapy, which they are going to check into. there has been improvement, but as usual, it is a long process. My goal is to get back to normal by next summer. The good news for us is that the company that did the experimental surgery that caused the paralysis is covering the cost of all of the therapies. This is a big relief, financially for us, because of all the therapies that I do need.

My lifestyle is pretty boring at this time. I pretty much get up in the morning between 5 AM and 6 AM, then it is pretty much sitting at the kitchen table in front of a computer, reading the morning paper, doing a variety of exercises to strengthen and try to get use out of both sides of my body. I usually take a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon, and in the evening, we usually watch a movie. When you are used to being so active and doing something productive and being with people all of time, it is quite a change and am anxiously looking forward to getting back to normal.

Since you can see how exciting my life is now, the blogs will not be coming as frequently, unless there is something to report. Again, I welcome visitors, just call first.

But I'm still in good spirits and it really isn't as bad as it sounds, just different.

pogo