11) Imela Imela

Hello everyone,

So its been a little bit since getting home from Hershey and I thought I would give you all an update. Overall I am feeling pretty good. My head and neck feel very tight and heavy but that is to be expected given the general nature of having surgery. I'm not in any real pain which I am very grateful. I still need to take it slow, be careful when getting up, and bending over cause I do get a little disoriented. I can't move to fast or lift much but that will come with time. My vision is still a little off but not to the point where I can't function with some degree of normalcy. And I am hopeful that it will continue to improve with time. I'm not stressing about my vision because at this point I am still able to function and go about my day to day activities. At this point, I'm just learning to listen to what my body is telling me and not trying to push myself too much. Which if you know me is a struggle. I have a bad habit of trying to power through what I am feeling to get stuff done. But I know that this journey is going to be a marathon, not a sprint so I need to learn to pace myself. I know I have been very blessed with everything that has happened so far in these past few weeks. And I can only thank God for everything that has happened.

With everything that has been going on, I can only be amazed by His goodness and timing. It's amazing that in less than two weeks I have learned I had a brain tumor and I found out I have stage IV skin cancer. I have had the tumor removed and now have a massive team of medical personnel working on creating my battle plan for treatment. Even though it all happened so fast I am extremely grateful because now I can focus on the next step instead of trying to figure out how to get the ball rolling. I think for most people this would be very overwhelming. And don't get me wrong I am still coming to terms and processing a lot of it. But from the medical side of what is going on, God has given me a very unique position to be in.

Everyone has some sort of preconceived notion of what happens when you get sick and are in the hospital. For most of us, it is based on things we have heard in the media, seen on TV and in movies. This can cause a lot of anxiety and worry because it is a very scary perception of what the healthcare system looks like. People tend to focus on all the things that can go wrong. And to be fair those risks don't go away. But the likelihood of them actually happening are inflated and exaggerated in order to tell a good story. Since I am in the medical field I am not oblivious to the risks involved but I have a better perspective of what the likelihood of those things happening to me. This has afforded me a great sense of peace through all of this because I know what is going on. I have been with patients as they face surgery. I have seen surgeons drill holes into peoples skulls. I have been with patients through the unknowns of their diagnosis. And I understand the language of medicine. I can listen to the doctors talk about my what is going on and engage in the conversation. I am also a big enough science nerd that I love learning about all the ins and outs of what my treatment will be and how it will affect my body. It gets me excited to research all the latest studies, drug trials, case reports regarding my treatment. But also being able to use what I learn to teach others and be a resource/learning tool to further others education. I am not afraid of what is to come because I know that whatever it is I can overcome it with my Father by my side.

God has been so good through all of this that all I can do is cry out in praise. His hands have been at work through all of this and I know He will be the one to carry me through whatever lies before me. I want to share one of my favorite worship songs that have become my new anthem this week. Please feel free to listen to it and if you want to join me in offering it up in prayer as a response to everything that God has done for me in these past few weeks.

At this point, the next step for me is meeting with my oncologist on Wednesday to go over the next step. I don't think I will be starting the immunotherapy right away since my brain still needs time to heal. But we shall see what Wednesday holds.

On a somewhat related note, the 2018 Nobel Prize for Medicine was announced this afternoon. The two scientists that won were responsible for the pioneering the research that created the immunotherapy drug that I will most likely be starting in a few weeks. So as I do more research into immunotherapy I will probably be sharing more info on that for whoever is interested. I know I am a nerd when it comes to all of this stuff and am proud of it.