A good holiday weekend May 26

Hello to anyone that might be checking up on Brock.

It's been awhile since I've checked in with you. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. It's very important to Brock and I to remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country from Valley Forge to Bagdad.. They died in the name of liberty. We have been to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. What a place. You will come away from there a better American.

At this point in recovery, about 4 and 1/2 weeks, Brock is still improving. He is good for about 3 to 4 hours. Then he is down for a nap or a rest for 1 to 2 hours. I can see it in his face before he even knows it himself. He has the desire to do more things, which is probably a good sign. I know he hates to watch me mow the lawn or do any of the things that are "his" jobs. Being with him all the time, I'm not seeing the changes like others that don't see him as often. Our daughter and son-in-law were over to do a few things around the yard and made the comment that he's doing fantastic and they can really notice changes. I was really glad to hear that. Our son-in-law asked if we are tired of each other yet. We haven't been apart except for brief moments and it's been fabulous! Good thing we really, really like each other. :)

We had an interesting thing happen on Thursday morning at 4 A.M. Brock woke me up to report that his feeding tube fell out. That was scary. We didn't know what to do. Many things that happen in the middle of the night seem like a crisis, when in reality, if it was the middle of the afternoon it wouldn't be any big deal. We didn't know whether go to the hospital, call the doctor on call or what. We talked and thought it out and decided to wait till 8 A.M. when the office opened. We remembered at our last appointment, the surgeon saying he likes to wait 4 weeks to take it out. It had been exactly 4 weeks to the day. Also the home nurse had told Brock that he could just pull it out himself, that it wouldn't be a problem. There was a lot more of it inside his body then we thought. The whole tube was 16 inches long, 11 of it inside his body. It's so bizarre.

When Brock got ahold of the doctors office at 8:00 and told the nurse what happened, she said,"oh,oh". Then he explained he'd had it in 4 weeks and not using it. She said not to worry about it. So we didn't. The hole started closing immediately and we just covered it with gauze. It's all healed up now. The body is God's miracle. Perfect design.

We had another surprise on Friday late afternoon. The radiologist that we saw the week before called us at home. We are just so amazed about these doctors calling at home! He had told us that he would follow through with the surgeon and the oncologist. He and Brock had a really good talk. He said the 3 doctors had met and all agree that the cancer was caught extremely early and that surgery was the treatment. We've been smiling ever since we heard that. We will breathe the sigh of relief after we see the oncologist on Thursday this week and hear it out of his mouth.

The last thing I would like to share with you is something I am just beginning to realize. Brock does not remember very much about his hospital stay. I'm sure glad my dad was with us a lot because I need a witness to prove some of the strange things that went on. Most of them seem funny now. Like Brock just getting up thinking he's going to take a walk and barely giving me time to unplug 3 things from the wall, cover up his behind and gather all the tubes and wires to take along with us. Sometimes I think the Lord protects us by wiping bad things from our memory.

Well, it's time once again for Andy and Opie (The Andy Griffith Show).

Have a successful and healthy week. I will write again, hopefully on Wed. after our visit to the surgeon. We have lots of questions for him.

Thanks for being there. Brock and I appreciate you.

Our God is an AWESOME God!!

Love,
Chris