Blog 101 - To those of you who are new to blogs and blogging, I wanted to give a brief overview of how to use this site. There are authors and followers. Authors are Val and Connie. Followers are all of our wonderful support system that continue to follow Bru's journey through this battle. Authors create posts, followers can read posts and comment on posts that have been created. As a follower you don't have to log in in with an account or sign in to comment. If there is a post that you are interested in commenting on, just click the comment icon below the post itself. Once you have typed your post, you must choose an account just below the text box, choose anonymous! If you are looking for all of the posts to the blog, scroll down the page and look to the right of the screen, every post is listed there by month and day. It's listed chronologically starting newest to oldest. If you want to add pictures, please email me at emtp1124@yahoo.com with a description of the picture and the caption you would like underneath it. Blogging is very similar to Facebook and other social sites, but it doesn't have the ability to post things to the blog like you do people's walls in facebook. If you are having problems viewing the blog, it may be because of settings that you have on your internet browser . You can type the URL into your smart phone browser as well and see the blog pretty well. If you want updates sent to you anytime things are updated, subscribe to the blog by email. This option is at the top of the page on the right hand side of your screen just above the picture of Bruce. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at emtp1124@yahoo.com.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

OUR PLAN FOR 2012!!

I want to start by saying thank you to all the well wishes, prayers, thoughts, and acts of kindness through the holidays from various people. Our family spent the holidays together very peacefully, which was very much needed after learning of Bruce's brain cancer on November 9, 2011 and dealing with the brain tumor removal, ICU, rehab unit and eventual return to home for Bruce. It has been a very challenging time in our household but now that the holidays are over, we are getting into a routine and life is becoming as "normal" as we can make it for all involved.

To let you know what's been happening, Bruce/I have had oncology appointments and a neurosurgeon appointment last week. We had a family meeting on January 2, 2012, to discuss and announce to our families what Bruce has decided in terms of treatment in the future and what our plans will be from this point forward. Bruce has opted to not have chemotherapy/radiation at this point in time. As his wife, I will respect his wishes. We have a goal to travel as soon as we can (target date, our anniversary, May 25) to the Turks and Caicos Islands (where we have enjoyed many vacations over the years) and will do everything necessary in order to accomplish this goal. Our goal since learning of this brain cancer has been to allow and provide for the best quality of life experience that Bruce can attain, and we are making great strides in that direction. He is becoming more and more mobile (although not on his own yet without at least a set of hands to help him), and his speech has become a bit more improved, even some added spontaneous comments by Bruce when talking with him, but we have a long, difficult road in those realms. Bruce continues to receive speech, occupational, and physical therapy in-home, and we will concentrate on his becoming as independent as possible to achieve the goals we have decided on. Bruce would LOVE to have visitors come to the house to see him, and often. So I am sending an invitation to all to come and chat with Bruce, hold his hand, hug/kiss him, or just make him smile. That is a gift that Bruce would like to receive. I have delegated my sister, Diane, to organize and schedule a visiting schedule. Please feel free to contact her on her cell number, 231.740.2316 OR her home number, 616.847.1340 to set something up for visits. Our house is ready to warmly accept any and all who wish to enter :) We sincerely love all of you and hope to see you in the very near future. Bruce and Val
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2 comments:

  1. jackie jJanuary 5, 2012 at 7:08 PM

    I'm happy happy to hear he's improving each day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2012 at 10:37 AM

    HI Val and Bruce,
    Some friends were talking last night about a neighbor that had a gliobastoma and he went to a Dr Pawl in GR who sent him to Duke University Medical Center for a clinical trial that was testing an experimental vaccine. While undergoing treatments, he suffered virtually no side effects. He lived another 6 1/2 quality years! Cameron Mitchell was his name.
    Just wanted to make sure you had heard of this as maybe an option.
    (from Pete and Dawn Spiering (DeHaan cottage) on Duck Lake)
    You're in our prayers! Modern miracles still happen every day. Dad is a testimony to that!

    ReplyDelete

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