Hey guys. I'm not sure how to go about this, so I'll just blurt it out; I had a siezure this morning during a break at work. Thank God, because I was working 12 feet off the ground on a ladder just minutes prior. Also glad I wasn't driving, as our new home has me on the road quite a bit more...

Anyway, the guy I was working with said I just locked up in a standing position and fell over like a fencepost. He called 911 and got me revived, the EMT's took me in to the local hospital. I have a baseball size knot on my forehead and bit off a chunk of my tongue when I hit the ground, a concrete slab.

I had a catscan done--And they found a tumor in my head. It's about the size of a golfball and growing. It explains a lot of memory loss and inability to complete some sentences lately--I thought it was the mild version of Alzheimers disease, Partimers...Apparently not.

The doc sez that he thinks the tumor is benign, but they have to take it out regardless and will biopsy the thing afterward to be certain.

So they've got me on anti-siezure meds and want me in surgery as soon as possible--But I still have to go through the referral process, and can't get an appointment til August sometime.

This is a developing story, I will certainly keep you all updated, and if I can't I'll make sure Terrin does.

Wish me luck.

WoW Eric, I am at a loss for words. I can tell you this,  we will crank up the prayer amplifier!!!!  Please keep us posted and let us know if there is anything we can do.

Carl

Well crap.   

I hope this isn't like having ticks where when someone else has one I feel them crawling on me. 

Needless to say we will all be praying and thinking about you.  If you need or want something you just say the word buddy.

Thanks guys, your thoughts are more than welcome.

Yesterday was like watching a movie of someone else's life. This morning I wake to the sorest body I've ever had. When I went down like a telephone pole I landed on my right side and popped my forehead on that side. What my bod tells me this morning is that my forehead wasn't all that hit the concrete. I bit about a quarter-side of my tongue almost off and my right shoulder (arthritic to begin with) is virtually non-functioning. Legs are the same as yesterday, so sore I can hardly walk.

After she got me home, Terrin started complaing that the doc didn't check me for a concussion--I think he had bigger fish to fry at the time. My speech is slurred (from biting my tongue?) and I don't appear able to play my guitar very well at all. I hope that's from the dope they have me on (Dilantin), because my mind is also very cloudy and it takes me a few minutes between sentences, even these typed ones.

I always figured it would be a heart attack or a stroke or a piano falling on my head--Never figured for a tumor.

I'm looking for a happy ending to this. With my cynical luck though, my insurance will run out the day before sugery...

I can't drive and am forbidden to climb ladders...Don't they know that's how I intended to pay for this stupid house we just bought?

Well lets hope that they get the surgery done ASAP, you can recover quickly and this will just be an unpleasant memory.

You know what, I don't think I have your new address either.

Gad, they put me on a "loading dose" of Dilantin on Friday--15 pills, to be followed by 4 pills at bedtime every night. I don't know how epileptics live with this stuff. I had to reacquaint myself with my own back yard this morning. Still can't play guitar, though I now wonder if I ever could.

I'm trying to talk Terrin into taking the kids (me included) to the annual Water Carnival Parade today...She's a tough sell, as she won't leave me home alone and doesn't want me in a crowd either.

I am a ball & chain...

Uhg, drugs. I hated the pain pills and the stuff tehy gave me for phantom pain, which was epilepsy meds that I don't recall now.  Talk about the world being fuzzy.

Hang in there.

Boy howdy, that is not the best news. Please keep us posted. I'll be thinking good thoughts for you. Hang in there.

Frank

Hang in there, amigo, all will be well.  We're pulling for ya down here!

Oh man...hell of way to find out about these things......but hopefully the discovery was soon enough to take care of the problem... Hope everything goes well, and do keep us posted so that we know all that positive fubar karma you are getting is doing some good.

this growing old crap is really starting to suck...I've got cataracts in both eyes and go through the surgery thing...A much more minor problem than a tumor, but looking at the world through fuzzy, blurred, worn out eyeballs is wearing thin.

Yup, Nony, I did the left eye cataract thing last summer and now have to do the right eye soon. Growing old is not for the faint of heart. Better than the alternative , though.

Frank

Hear hear! on the old-growing stuff. I get to be fifty this October and actually thought I might get away without feeling it--Too much.

At the moment, the things I'm allowed to do are much less than the things I'd like to do. Terrin won't leave me unattended. Any of you know how it feels to be attended by a 9-year-old? And she does it really well...

I've been on the Dilantin since Friday. It's, uh...Almost Thursday and I don't feel any less goofy. They said I'd "acclimate".

At least she ain't givin' me no shee-ite about being online. Now she says; Why don't you go chat with your friends?...

For what it's worth, my gut feeling is it's benign.  Take care guy and my very, very best wishers for you.

As far as growing less young, I had the cataract surgery on both eyes last year.  Got the glasses restriction removed from my drivers license.

Hey Roger! Good to see you in these parts. Eric's koolaid is kind of bland, but we make do...

Well, being as I dragged you guys into this I suppose I should keep the updates coming...

Went to see the "surgeon" on Friday. What a waste of time. First of all it wasn't the surgeon, but his assistant, and she had little to offer other than what we already knew. I have a tumor. I've likely had it for 10-15 years, and my brain has finally had enough of it. The MRI shows a lot of swelling, and she had Stephen King scenarios to share, but then said that the surgeon would have more...When I eventually got to see him. They scheduled me an appointment with the Almighty for Thursday, and Terrin went ballistic, made a bunch of phone calls and now I'll be having an audience with his eminence tomorrow afternoon. What transpires after that is now the stuff of speculation.

The drug sucks. I'm still in a semi-dreamlike state 24/7, they still say I will "acclimate". They also said that I will be on this crap for "several months", if not the rest of my life, depending on follow-up EEGs. That means I'll be saving bookoo mileage on my work truck.

Things are happening to me that they tell me have nothing to do with the siezure or the tumor. I find that hard to believe. My face is beginning to swell, mostly around my lips, but spreading. I have a problem with my left wrist, where a nerve seems to be playing havoc with my hand. It's hard to describe, but any pressure at all on one point on my wrist sends rockets of pain through my thumb. My bruised/cracked ribs don't feel like they're healing.

But I can play guitar again.

Terrin is close to basket case stage. The poor woman is taking on so much through this, and there's little I can do. I'm just glad that they're so certain that this is a benign growth and it's accessable without digging through my brain. The dope doesn't allow me to be concerned for anything but Terrin and the kids.

Sorry. Don't mean to be so gloomy.

PuddinFace sez "Hey"...