We Have a Plan

I saw the neurosurgeon on Wednesday to talk about "Minnie." Turns out Minnie is more of a "Max." She's a big girl. You can see her here on the bottom right of the screen (though that's the left side of my brain.) 

Left Temporal Lobe Meningioma

Turns out because of her size surgery is really the only option. And it's happening fast. Like in two weeks fast. I'm not one to wait and to be honest I'm fine with this plan. Because we FINALLY have a plan! It was also super helpful for me to see the picture of it. Even if it was MUCH bigger than we were initially told (and from what I expected.) 

 

My initial feeling was "WOW! That sucker is huge!" But it gave way to a feeling of relief. We now know what it is and what can be done about it. All I have to do is "show up." My mom has a favorite quote that she came up with. "So much of life is just about showing up." I think she's completely right.

The waiting is close to over and we have an action plan. TO ACTION!

Everyone has been very supportive... and understandably shocked. It's not a very common thing to get a brain tumor. Add to that the fact that I also had latent TB just 3 years ago and I really need to start buying Lottery tickets because I'm that big of an exception. My picture should be on Wiki when you look up "outlier."

My nephew sent me the most adorable picture. He knows I love sharks. The red is "all the blood from what it ate." Awwwww! 

Yesterday I sent everyone an e-mail with specific ideas of how they can help us. You know when there's a crisis like this you want to help, you offer to help, but you don't really know specifically what to do and then the person has to go back and ask. It's just awkward all around. I thought if they all had some specific things to choose from it might make it easier for everyone. Times like these are when I'll take all the help I can get. Which is funny because my husband's more of the opposite. He tends to shore up and want to do it all himself. At least until I want to make him watch Frozen again. Then I'm sure he's happy to delegate.

In the meantime I'm trying to be kind and gentle with myself and resting when I can. I'm still very tired a lot and that's ok. I'm dealing with a brain tumor after all.

The big down side to all of this is my surgeon doesn't think the tumor is the cause of my muscle weakness. But we'll see. I know the brain and body are complex and you never know. Also without the muscle weakness I don't think they would have found the tumor till much later. And who knows where that could have ended up. Maybe the muscle fatigue was my body's way of making the tumor known? God works in mysterious ways. I'm just glad it was discovered and can be treated.