Daily?

A daily update? I mean, why not... There's not much new to say - just something to pass the time, really. I'm at home, recuperating. Mom and Dad are here still, and have been a HUGE help. Truly cannot thank them enough for all their help. Making meals, playing with Teddy, doing some basic grocery shopping... I guess that's what family is for.

Plan is, they're going to leave tomorrow. We've got a pretty good handle on things around here. We're starting to settle into a new form of a "routine." Whatever that means. I've got 30 more days of convalescent leave (which is to say, uncharged time off work). Laura's able to manage Ted and get him into daycare. Ted's able to maintain a schedule and routine of going into daycare 5 days a week. So things are starting to advance to "normal."

I've got a metric buttload of appointments coming up. Again, with the family thing. This time it's a hat tip to my amazing and beautiful wife who was able to schedule all these appointments for me. I do count it as fortunate that the military Tri-Care system does allow a spouse to schedule appointments on one's behalf. Otherwise this would have been a nightmare.

The scar on the front of my forehead is where they went in and removed Sylvia.

I mean, at the end, I really do find this all to be utterly surreal. I'm still questioning if this all really happened. It's just...crazy. Almost incomprehensible. Did I really just go from normal and healthy, to bad headaches, to double vision, to diagnosed with a BRAIN TUMOR, to biopsy, to resection, to back home? All with a wife who's nearly 8 months pregnant? And with a 20 month-old son at home? Do you not see how this is hard to fully grasp?

I've been told by others how they're "impressed" with how I've handled it. That I'm some sort of superhuman for being able to tolerate it all. I disagree. There's nothing impressive here. It's what we do. It's the human condition, it's how we react and relate and respond. Sure, we all would have responded differently. But we would have responded in how our character was raised and formed. We all respond based on our past personal histories and experiences. I'm not surprised at how I've handled this. And I'm not that glorious and self-congratulatory. I was presented with a challenge, and I faced it. With fears, and anxiety, and doubts. There were moments of utter terror and the occasional instance of pure bliss. But you can't run and hide from it. There was a tumor in my brain. It needed to be dealt with. And, thus far, it has been. So, while not quite the "end of story," that is the story as has been laid out.

Doing good. Laura's putting Teddy to bed for the night, I'm about to head upstairs, take a shower (!!!!!), and go to sleep myself. After all, tomorrow is another day.