Hello my VDF family! First, I hope everyone has been enjoying a good holiday season and that most, or all, of us have many things to be grateful for.
I want to take this opportunity to update everyone on my shingles and some other news.
I'm now into this thing for the 40th week! Yes, 40 weeks! During this time, I've been on lots of meds, which also included two different strengths of Fentanyl patches, none of which even phased me! I have a high tolerance to narcotics! I've settled on Norco and Lyrica for the burning and itching this dreaded disease has left me with, just above my right eye in the Trigeminal nerve. This is the location where the Shingles virus broke out. After 3 months of this, I was in the phase known as Postherpetic Neuralgia, or PHN for short. All websites I've visited say that if you still have pain after 1 year, you'll probably have it for the rest of your life. With only 12 weeks to go, I can honestly say that my symptoms have improved, but I'm not fully cured yet. Fingers crossed that I'll continue to see improvements in the coming 12 weeks.
However, all this takes a backseat to the devastating news my girlfriend received towards the end of September. My Eve was diagnosed with a Stage-4 Glioblastoma, aka, an aggressive brain tumor that doesn't respond well to both chemo and radiation treatments.
I'll give you all the condensed version of what's been happening since then. Eve underwent a craniotomy within 1 week of the discovery of the tumor. The surgeon was able to resect (remove) about 80 percent. During all this time, and due to our ridiculous healthcare system, Eve never received any treatments. A recent CT and MRI scan showed that the tumor had already increased to the point where any treatments wouldn't help. Eve's only option was another craniotomy to remove more of the tumor and finally begin her treatments.
Eve is at Loma Linda Hospital as I type this and her surgery is scheduled to be first this morning. She requested that I not be there, as she didn't want me just sitting around in the waiting room for an unknown amount of hours. Her daughter, who is also an RN, will send out group texts to keep us all up to date.
This surgery is merely a stop-gap measure to buy Eve some more time with her family and we have all made peace with what lies ahead from her chemo and radiation treatments. While I don't believe in miracles, I can certainly be hopeful.
Eve and I have been together for more than 20 years and I am grateful for the wonderful memories we've made together. It's taken me since the end of September to fully accept what is to come and, while still difficult, I'm now able to deal with.
Eve has been the biggest supporter of all my drum related activities and always looked forward to seeing what the next snare drum I would purchase to add to my collection. There's even a stack of 9 beautiful snare drums in her bedroom!
Please send out positive vibes for my Eve for her successful surgery today and her treatments that will follow in the very near future. A heartfelt "thank you" goes out to each and every one of you!
-Mark
