Counting the weeks

Life has been counted by the weeks...

Three weeks in ICU, 2 weeks in step down, five weeks at Lakewood hospital, endless weeks at Mentis in Stow and most recently, 5 weeks of radiation. "wow, that's a lot of time!" Somehow, the time keeps passing and before we know it and we are out of another phase.

I'm glad this phase is over and I am sure Gordon is too, although we know the effects from the radiation will linger for a few weeks if not months, and the main goal behind the radiation. It's the beginning of more change and right now we need more change.

I thought Deb was declining in progress during radiation. Attention shorter, short term memory worse and frustrated easily, amongst some of the things I saw and after talking to Gordon, he agreed. Some of the questions being asked were on a continuos loop of repeat.

Appointment checker and greeter Deb referred to as Rod Stewart

Most of your life you are told to enjoy the days, don't rush through life. But for us we won't truly enjoy those days until Deb is better. Until she has independence and a quality of life that she will remember. We are just wishing the time by, looking to a future date on the calendar like you would when looking forward to an upcoming trip.

On our last journey downtown for radiation Deb continued to keep us laughing and while she rang the bell, I'm not sure she understood the significance of it. Afterwards meeting with the doctor one last time until we return in three months for a check on how things worked.

I've been to a lot of Deb's appointments throughout this journey and have observed a similiar battery of tests she goes through, and with every negative I also see a positive. In the series of questions they mention three things to remember (giraffe, seattle and purple), ask her to repeat and then at the end of the testing they ask her again those three words. She did remember giraffe and purple and knew the city when given a prompt, I was impressed! And this was the first time she did remember them...

Here we go to the next phase of the journey...