HEAVY Week

Graduation time for all my cute kids......if you call the 1st of 3 years of pre-school a graduation or the 1st of 2 years of kindergarten a "graduation."  I guess it is a graduation from this year and ceremoniously sends them off to their next adventure.  I know how much my kids love all the hoop-la and attention it brings.  Olivia completed 4th grade and is going to be a big 5th grader now.  It really is hard to believe she is getting so old.  

But the real reason this has been a heavy week is not about all the kids and their graduations. 

It's about my dear husband.  Let me fill in some history and details to bring you up to speed.  A few months ago Travis noticed that the right side of his face was a little droopy and felt "funny." He saw the doctor who quickly said it looked like Bells Palsy and would resolve on it's own within a few months.  We didn't think too much of it.  It was more of an annoyance to Travis but we weren't too concerned.  That was about 6 months ago and it hasn't gotten any better.  He got a referral to a neurologist and had some blood work done and did an MRI on Monday. Originally they couldn't get him back in to go over the MRI for 2 weeks but then called the next day to say that they could see Travis on Thursday afternoon.  By Wednesday afternoon Travis was feeling anxious and called to see if the doctor would tell him what was going on. The doctor called back about 40 minutes later and told Travis that the scan didn't look good.  It is most likely a slow-growing malignant tumor in his brain stem.....and this area is usually inoperable.  Travis left work and came home.  He found me in our bedroom and told me what the doctor said.  We hugged and cried.  We talked and decided to stay positive and take this one step at a time.  We had to wait 24 hours until our appointment with the neurologist.  It was excruciating. I tried to busy myself with kids, laundry,  "graduation," preparing for our weekend campout, but it was a constant thought.  Our appointment didn't yield many answers.  We looked at the scan pictures and were convinced of the presence of the tumor.  Our next step is to meet with a neuro-oncologist to discuss the diagnosis and treatment options.  The craziest thing about the timing of this is that our little 5 year old Ella was diagnosed with Leukemia on May 20, 2004, nearly 4 years to the day ago.  I really believed we had already cleared the cancer hurdle.  I guess that is not the case.  Please keep Travis in your prayers.  He is the love of my life, the amazing father of our 4 kids and the best person I know.  We are going to beat this!!!