Bruce At Home!!

Well, where to start? I guess from where we left off, huh? Bruce came home last Thursday afternoon. He spent most of the weekend trying to get back on his normal sleeping schedule, i.e., sleep at night, up during the day. In the rehab unit that got somewhat reversed and he wasn't getting adequate rest. That's much better now :)

Bruce still doesn't speak much, although when I am conversing (and I say "I" because I do all the talking - nothing new there, huh??) he will just spontaneously add a comment. That's a step forward. Still has difficulty with either gathering his thoughts to express OR having the ability to actually say what he's thinking, thus the photo just added of what Bruce wrote to me last night. As he has short-term memory problems, he didn't remember what had happened to him, the brain tumor, the surgery, nothing. We know that this is normal during the course of his recovery from the surgery and the brain shifting back to its original placement. Unknown if that will get any better. Also unknown if his speech will be getting better, but we're an optimistic bunch, for sure!! And I concur with Bruce's thoughts last night, we SHOULD be in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and as soon as Bruce is capable of travel, we will be doing just that!

Ambulation is very slowly progressing. Bruce is now able to walk with a walker with one person simply assisting to make sure he doesn't fall. Not that he's gonna be running any marathons anytime soon, LOL. He has what is called a Lema strap that allows his left leg to ambulate. This after a short 3 weeks where he could only take one step forward, period! So proud of him and all his efforts :)

I would like to add that our children have stepped up to the plate for their dad. I am so proud of these 3. Guess we must have done something right in the way we raised them! They are going above and beyond and like to tease Bruce, make him laugh/smile, and show him he is so loved. VERY heartwarming to see and experience. Kudos to my and Bruce's families for everything they've done for Bruce and I thus far. The saying has always been you can choose your friends but not your family. Know what? We wouldn't trade our family for anything!!!

Life is very hectic around this house these days. It's like we have a revolving door. Speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and visiting nurses are here pretty much daily. Then radiation/chemotherapy will be started after the holidays, radiation to be 5 days per week for 6 weeks. We would love to have people come visit, sit and chat with Bruce, but we need a little bit of time (probably after Christmas) to get our schedules worked out with everything that's happening in the very near future. Please be patient, and once we have a routine set in place we would love to see each and every one of you! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to call, write, prepare meals, send cards, run errands, lend a shoulder for me to cry on, and being OUR support system! You need to know that we appreciate it and gives us renewed strength to take one step forward (literally in Bruce's case and figuratively in mine!!) Will update soon......Val