Happy New Years to everyone who still keeps up with our blog! Words can not describe how relieved Rion and I both are to have 2012 behind us. 2013 is surely going to be a much, much better year for us.
Rion for the most part has been doing really well. We have found that he still has the partial sensory seizures occasionally- specifically when he is tired, dehydrated or stressed. His grandmother passed away very unexpectedly in December and for a few days he was having multiple seizures every day. As things have gone "back to normal" and he has begun the grieving process, the seizures have all but stopped. We have decided (along with the doctors) to increase his anti-depressant medication to see if that will help how his body responds to stressful & emotional situations. I don't think I will ever get used to him having seizures or get over my fear that he is going to have another major seizure like the one that started this all. But for the most part he is happy & healthy and really trying to not let his condition dictate how he lives his life.
Speaking for back to normal, Rion is very glad to be back working. He is helping out at his cousin's antique mall right down the road from our house. It is a great situation because his schedule is flexible and it allows him be out & around people (and if you know Rion, you know he's a people person.) He is still seeing his local oncologist once a month for lab work & I'm assuming we will continue to visit the folks at Duke quarterly (and having local MRI's quarterly) so having a flexible schedule is important. (So is having someone that understands that Rion may have good & bad days and not get upset at him for it.) It is so nice for both of us to have him out of the house most of the day instead of him feeling isolated; I've hesitated to make plans for after work & on the weekends with my friends these past few months because I feel so bad that he was at home by himself most of time. Having something to do all day really takes a lot of stress off of both of us.
I am doing great as well. I am almost 24 weeks (6 months) pregnant and we found out in November that we are expecting a baby boy in April. To say that Rion is excited would be an under statement- he was literally speechless when the ultrasound technician revealed the sex to us. Now that the holidays are over we are focusing most of our spare time/energy on preparing for the baby. That currently involves finishing a room in our basement so that we can totally empty out & re-do the room that will be the nursery (it is currently used for storage & as an office type room.) I am blessed to have such a wonderful husband who has done 99% of the work finishing the room in the basement and all we lack is carpet to have the room completed (something he does NOT want to do.) I find myself feeling overwhelmed a lot with all of the preparations to be made but we are slowly making progress which makes me feel so much better.
In closing, Rion had his first post treatment MRI today at 8:30 AM. It's hard not be nervous since he has not been on any sort of treatment for 2 months, there is that lingering thought in the back of our minds that Morton has already started to come back. But we try to just stay busy and ignore those pessimistic thoughts so they don't weigh us down. There is absolutely nothing we can do to control what is on the MRI so we will continue to pray for God to give us peace & comfort, whatever the outcome may be. I am not sure when we will get the results of this MRI, it will be sent to the local oncologists office & up to Duke and I'm assuming Duke will contact us if anything of significance shows up. In the mean time we will just keep on living and getting more and more excited about our son!
God bless everyone in this new year,
Emily & Rion
