As far as the weekend, there is never a dull moment...
So we got up the courage to leave town following our scare with Tye, and also Brian's little seizure. I was 1/2 wondering if I might be off my rocker for even thinking this was a good idea. We left town around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. In route to the airport, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with various nurses, trying to figure out the results of Brian's blood tests following the seizure and what to do about it. This led to a 2/3 increase in the amount of anti-seizure medication, which was at a low level and probably accounted for what happened at the doctor's office.
We arrived in Atlanta on time, and made it on to Chicago by the scheduled time as well. The navigation system on our rental car was awesome, which made for an easy transition to the hotel without me getting stressed out. It was Todd's first time to fly, which was a breeze, especially compared to driving in 6 lanes of freeway traffic in the dark! We made it to the hotel around 9 p.m. Todd was cheap labor, as I only got the chance to treat him to dinner at Wendy's because Brian didn't feel up to a nice dinner out! Poor Todd had been from Unionville to Maryville to Kansas City to Atlanta to Chicago in about 12 hours!
We were up and running again first thing in the morning, and made it right on time to his appointment shortly after 9 a.m. By then, I could tell Brian wasn't feeling too well, as he is experiencing loss of appetite, weakness and fatigue, some confusion, a rash and fevers. They decided to give him extra fluids to see if it would perk him up a little. He seems to be feeling overall a lot better since then. He is also somewhat anemic, which probably accounts for some of the doggish feeling.
The infusion went well, and again Brian was pampered by Heidi and the staff at Oncology Specialists. We are blessed to have had the chance to be there for his treatment. It is still unclear whether we'll have to return another time or if things will be ready in Columbia in 3 weeks...hopefully I'll find that out this week.
But...the extra fluids pushed us on time. We made it out by around 2:15 p.m. and on the road by 2:30 to make a 3:40 flight. It was a 28 mile drive, which ended up taking just over an hour in the crazy Chicago traffic. I was glad Todd was driving and not me! We pulled into the rental car return at 3:40, and I had already called ahead to find out that the flight was leaving right on time. There was no possible way to get Brian and our bags out and anywhere, so we didn't even try. I also wouldn't have been able to check my bag, which I might have been able to get around because it was small enough, but I would have had to throw some things away. They put us on stand-by for the 5:51 flight to arrive in Atlanta at 8:30, and our flight from Atlanta to K.C. was leaving at 8:20. The math didn't add up, so we knew we were stuck. We decided we would rather be stuck in Atlanta instead of Chicago. At least we would be 1/2 way home by this morning; plus, Brian and T0dd's cousin Tara lives near Atlanta. So I checked my bag to K.C. because they were concerned about it being checked to Atlanta because the K.C. flight was delayed. We almost took the chance to see if we could race for the flight, but again, it just was too short of a time frame. We couldn't sit together on the 5:51 flight and would have had to have Brian in a middle seat, so we decided to go confirmed on the 7:20 flight. This got us into Atlanta by shortly after 10 p.m. I double-checked that my bag did indeed go on to Kansas City, and found out that the K. C. flight was delayed until 9:05, but that the flight from Chicago had just arrived about 30 min. before that. There would have been no time to move Brian off and back on a plane, let alone move from one gate to the other. Have you ever been to the Atlanta airport? Wow!
We were originally thinking of staying at Tara's. After thinking through Brian's condition, we decided not to drive the hour to her house and back another hour this morning. Tara and her husband, Rich, put us up in a very nice hotel for the night, came and got us at the airport, and helped us get settled in. They stayed to visit for a while, and it was great to see them. Brian and Tara haven't seen each other since Brian and I got married!
It was a short night, as we had to get up at 5:30 a.m. EST, which was actually 4:30 for us. We were on stand-by on the 8:05 out of Atlanta, and we joined thousands of other early travelers in a rat race at the airport. The flight wasn't close to being full, and as they boarded us with the wheelchair, they offered for us to sit in first class. This was a great benefit, and I actually slept part of the way home. We were back in Maryville by 11:15 a.m. and were able to still eat the traditional Homecoming Day chili/vegetable soup at dad's for lunch before the game.
Denise and Tye got along great, and he is back to his ornery self.
So we are back and resting for the dodge ball tournament tomorrow. I hope to have lots of pictures! We'll have some family coming in tomorrow to be here with us and play too! The t-shirts look amazing!
Brian is ok. He is somewhat confused, which irritates him. This new drug can cause this, and he is on so many different medications at fairly high doses that it is no wonder. On top of it, he dozes off and sometimes doesn't always know what is going on. Todd and I had a few good laughs, albeit at Brian's expense; I guess it was laugh or cry because Brian was a real handful on our trip. Thank God Todd came with us, and I know Brian felt great to have him along. There is no way we could have done this alone because physically Brian is practically unable to move his legs much.
Thank you for your continued prayers, and for walking on this journey with us. We continue to pray for Liz and Mike, Tara and Dave, and so many others in this unfair battle, as well as the Bryce Brown family.
Jenni
1 comment:
I am writing after speaking with the one and only Bubba Dorrel, who wants me to tell you he is thinking and praying for you. Of course Jenni, he thinks you are amazing. I told him, what would you do? most likely the same. He said he was sorry for bringing it up to me and I told him Thank you for bringing it up, I told him that it is a big part of our lives and very important to us and it made a difference to me that he cared. Just wanted to pass it along.!
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