Update after Seizures

I'm way behind on updating everyone, and life has been overly tiring lately, so I'm going to cheat and use e-mails that my mom sent out to my immediate family during some of the recent drama.  I'm sorry for not getting this done sooner, but the few spare minutes I've had to myself I've spent keeping myself sane and not worrying about this here blog...  Hopefully life will calm down at some point and I'll be able to get back on top of things.  I'm not holding my breath though, so I recommend you don't either  :)

Wed Oct 16th:

Hi All,

I spoke with Rachel tonight to get an update about Mark.  Here it is:

Mark woke up at 8am when Rachel's alarm went off - and she wasn't in the room.  He came out of the bedroom, talked a bit and wanted to get some breakfast.  So Mark headed to the kitchen for some cereal and went to grab a bowl and plate, when Rachel asked him why he was getting a plate, he said that he really wanted a spoon - Rachel replied that they do look alike :-).

Mark ate some cereal and then rested in the egg chair.  He fell sleep again and slept until the kids came home from school [editors note: another alarm].  He woke up again and ate some more cereal.  Rachel commented that Mark is eating more than he has in a while and all they need to do it tell him it is breakfast time and get him to eat some cereal.  Mark slept most of the day and woke up this evening, and came out of the bedroom without an alarm going off, when I was talking with Rachel. [I was wrong, there was an alarm...]

Rachel said that Mark is reminding her of his post surgery phase, trying to make jokes, but they don't always make sense.  Mark left the light on in the van, which caused the battery to die, and he said that he didn't leave the light on - it was Katie.  Katie, that wasn't in the van, didn't have a key to it and couldn't possibly have done it.  Mark said that he had to blame the younger sister for something :-). [It was really funny talking with him that night!  We laughed together for an hour or so before he was tired and went back to bed]

Rachel is still wondering if what is going on is seizures or effects of radiation and brain swelling.  Rachel saw the scans last Tuesday and they showed major swelling and effects of the radiation - to the point that they did more scans, with different contrast, to make sure that it wasn't the tumor growing again.  The ER doctor said that most of the things that Mark was doing could be explained by seizures, but not all of them.  Rachel is hoping to have some tests run to find the cause of what is going on - seizures or swelling/radiation effects.  She wants to make sure of the cause and find the right way to treat it.  She is giving Mark the seizure medicine and will ask Dr. Rich about her questions on Monday during their appointment.

When LaMont was telling a family member what was going on with Mark this week he said that he had seen signs of it on Saturday while they were camping.  Mark's eyes had glazed over and he wasn't himself for a bit.  He also seems to lose time sometimes as well.