Perspective.

Everything changed this week.

Since we have come to this ministry, my life has been difficult.  Just read this blog and see that.  This week I got a bit of a shift in perspective.

Over the past 6 months or so we have been noticing memory loss in my wife, W–so much that it has significant impact on our day to day lives.  A week ago we made an appointment with the doctor to try and figure out what was going on.

Last Tuesday, she developed double vision.

The same day we went to the doctor to discuss the memory loss.  He suspected that she was experiencing some issues with depression and the depression was directly causing the memory loss (the same chemical associated with depression is the same chemical used to write memories).  He also had a blood work up done.  He prescribed an anti-depressant.

The double vision had him concerned.  We saw an ophthalmologist on Friday.  He saw a bulging of the optic nerve which indicates increased inter-cranial pressure.

The combination of symptoms indicated the possibility of a brain tumor.  On Tuesday this week, we had an MRI done to see exactly what we were or were not dealing with.  The MRI showed a 6-7 cm tumor in W’s brain.  It has been the cause of the personality shifts as well as the double vision and memory loss.

Since last Tuesday, her symptoms have increased significantly.  Today we met with a surgeon and have begun pre-op medications.  Sometime within the next 10 days, W will undergo brain surgery to examine the tumor and see what/if they can do to treat it.  W continues to deteriorate.

We will not know long term prognosis until 24-48 hours after the surgery.  There may be as many as 3 surgeries within a week’s time.

Each surgery carries a 20-30% chance of significant complications (death, stroke, neurological deficit, loss of personality, loss of cognitive ability, etc).

Needless to say, our family is in shock.

At this point in time, we are working to tell our families and friends about what is going on, so we ask that you maintain strict confidence of our situation.  If you know us personally, please do not make any Facebook posts or the like.

It adds a lot of perspective.  I don’t think it was perspective I wanted.