Less Than a Week!

Sorry for the lack of a Monday post.  Things have been going well for Roberto, so there's not much to report.  I, however, have a cold.  Well I was careful about bringing germs to Roberto, I neglected to be cautious about not getting germs *from* him.  I think it's the same thing he had which is a scratchy throat and feeling terrible.  Hopefully, this will pass soon!  My mind has been in a fog and sometimes it's hard to concentrate on ...

Like the blog post title says, we have less than a week now until Roberto has his surgery.  Yikes.  I'm getting a little scared about it all.  Tomorrow, I may spend the time thinking about how to get ready for it all.  I already made an information sheet about the surgery and the post-surgery recovery advice I got from the surgeon and whatever my mom found on the internet.  I showed it to Roberto who read it all in a couple of minutes.  His biggest concern is that he cannot lift more than 10 lbs for about 6-8 weeks.  I can worry about the other stuff for him, I suppose, like the 4-6 inch incision that he *may* have (that's for the smaller type of thoracotomy incision). 

Roberto is practically back to his old self now.  He's been full of energy and even made dinner a couple of times!  I've embraced the change since that means I don't have to get burgers and pizza or make jambalaya for a full week.  Also, he's been admiring the peach fuzz that has started to grow on his head.  The eyebrows have come along nicely in the past few days, and Roberto looks like a normal person again!

On Thursday, Roberto will be starting a regimen of a special nutritional smoothie that the surgeon recommended.  The drinks have a patented combo of nutrients that purportedly support the body's immune system and reduce the chance of infection after surgery.  I'm not sure if it works, but it's good for Roberto to be as healthy as possible before the surgery anyway. 

Am I ready for life to change again?  Not really.  Well, I still have time to find some more confidence!

Late Happy Halloween!

Well, the brain cupcakes didn't work out.  I didn't have time to work out the logistics of my mold with the frosting I had.  :(  I guess I'll have to make Thanksgiving-themed brain cupcakes now.

We did spend Halloween playing the appropriately themed Ghost Stories board game ... and won!  Finally!  Now we might be ready to play on normal mode instead of easy. 

Roberto seems to be mostly over his cold even though he still has the sniffles.  At this point, the cold is just annoying more than anything else.  Roberto called up the nurse today to ask how long the surgery would be.  We were thinking something like five hours or so.  The nurse told us that the surgeon set aside *two* hours!  Thinking about it, that does make sense since the surgeon only has to cut out the tumor.  He's not doing anything too complicated...?  My training in optimization algorithms and machine learning techniques is really failing me right now. 

The other day, I heard Roberto yell in surprise.  I raced up the stairs to the bathroom to make sure he was alright.  He happily told me that his eyebrows were growing back!  He has the cutest little eyebrow hairs now.  Maybe now the rest of his hair will start growing back. 

I've been reading up on a thoracotomy and the recovery afterward.  Apparently, thoracotomies are one of the most painful surgeries.  Also, it'll be really important for Roberto to stay on a regular schedule for taking his pain medication and for him to perform the rehabilitation exercises daily.  Hopefully, Roberto will be back to his normal activities by the end of December!