Dear gentle readers. As we drove to PT (physical therapy) today, Christmas music playing on the radio, and me mindlessly singing to the music, I thought for a second, "Christmas?" This Christmas, the only Christmas that I will be celebrating is thanking God for gifting us with faith, hope, and charity. There will be presents for relatives as I try never to forget our dear relatives, but the real Christmas present, as everyone knows, is the miracle sitting right next to me in his seat. We are dealing with physical therapy for brain surgery and tiny infarcts in the thalamus, whatever they are – except uncommon and unique, I don’t know much about them. But we are dealing with them.
Chuck works very hard in PT, and on Wednesday Chuck had some right hand tremors while biking vigorously. The PT leader and the doctor we saw on Thursday could not explain the tremors that stopped as soon as Chuck stopped biking. The neurologist cut out one seizure medication increasing Kepra to 500mg twice a day. I feel better about being on only one seizure med, and the neurologist said he prefers not to "mix" similar meds. OK. We see him again in 2 months. We can live with this.
After PT today we scarfed down hamburgers and chocolate shakes (OK it’s not brain food, but he does get plenty of fruits and veggies too), took a shower, and dressed to meet my Emmaus sister Dr. Millares to get an eye exam. She hugged him and told him how good he looks and how everyone is praying for him…. About a millennium ago (in October) Chuck said he was having trouble reading, well it HAS been 3 years since his last eye exam. Stuck in traffic for an hour, I arrived at the eye doctor’s office with much higher blood pressure than Chuck did and he got an A+ for healthy eyes. (Thank God). I was concerned about the brain trauma affecting his eyes, but once again we got the old familiar "OK" "he’s in great shape" … except for a little tiredness and slowness in motor and cognitive, and the occasional slurring of words when he gets tired he’s on his way to recovery. Funny thing, I do that too, and I often don’t know the date … and I didn’t have my brain stomped on ……
Chuck and Charlie Paparelli are talking now as Charlie came for a visit from Atlanta. We look forward to many visits with old friends and we continually thank you for your prayers. Christmas will be very special this year. God bless you! Sue
OH ps: about the title. When things seem too overwhelming… we can "go to the mattresses" ("The Godfather" and "You’ve Got Mail"). For me it’s "Go to the sunset." Who can ever be overwhelmed or sad looking at a sunset? Amen.