Dr. Bentz is very pleased at Erik's recovery thus far. With the cancer margins coming clean... we are definitely onto the next step. The next step will happen in March! Yeah... then Erik's body can continue to heal and become strong for the reconstruction part of this ordeal. When Dr. Bentz and team took out another 1 cm of bone, they left a little gap that will most likely need to be filled with a bone graft. We will know more about the details of this on March 8, when we have our appt with Dr. Hunt and team. The next surgery will be sometime in March or this spring sometime. They will also fix whatever might need fixing with Erik's flap (floor of his mouth).
Until then... it's therapy 3 x's a day with neck stretches, tongue movement exercises and jaw exercises. And continued rest. His body has been through a lot. Thinking back about the craziness of December... I can't believe we made it through that long day of December 13... of Erik's 13 1/2 hour surgery. It started out very early and finally ended....I don't know when, well, I do... It just seems like a blur, the next three weeks. The surgery that day ended about 9pm. When I first saw Erik.... his face was like a balloon. His eyes were tiny slits he was so swollen from the surgery. It was quite devastating. I wanted to roll back time and not have them do this to my guy.... but facing reality, it's what had to be done. Chemo and radiation weren't options. The only options were to use surgical procedures or to let it go. Letting it go was not in the plan. I remember sitting in the appt going over what each team of doctors would need to do and Dr. Bentz asking Erik.... if this is what he wanted to do. Erik's answer came quickly without hesitation and replied...."well, I want to live longer."
So here he is a month and a half later healing. And dealing with the recovery process of learning how to eat and talk again....dealing with the pain, which is diminishing day by day. And dealing with not living a normal life at the moment like attending another semester at SUU. (His scholarship was easily deferred... so that's good. ) And dealing with not being able to go on his mission and watching all his friends get their large white envelopes from the Prophet and leave their homes and families for two years wherever in the world they might go to proclaim the goodness of the restored church of Jesus Christ. But what a geat guy Erik is.... He has been able to hang with friends somewhat.... be excited for them as they get their mission calls and/or go back to school for the semester. Erik has wonderful friends. I see him texting or on facebook communicating with them throughout the days while he's chilling on the couch or in bed. Many of his friends come over to visit. And even in SLC, when we are up at Huntsman whether it's just for an appt or Erik's admitted on the 5th floor... he's had friends stop in and say hi. It was fun to see Justin B again on Wednesday in the lobby waiting for Erik to come out of his appt. Justin was in between classes and has mastered the underground hallways that connect the different hospitals of U of U and Huntsman and Primary Childrens. With the help of Erik's friends... he has also accomplished the rubik's cube. What fun!
Looking at Erik... you know how he has matured through all this the past three years. He is kind and very considerate of others. He seems to have his head on straight... knows his priorities and acts on them. (Knowing and doing are two different things!) Just ask me... I have a problem with that and I am 40 something years! It's something we all continue to work on. Erik has achieved it early in life. His testimony of the Savior has really grown too. We have had some great conversations about life and the next life and about having resurrected bodies someday. He brought up the fact that it will be nice in the next life to not have to worry about if the cancer would come back. There's a constant thought of the "not knowing". All cancer patients get to deal with this. In our day and age... I guess we ALL deal with the worry of getting cancer and what kind. Cancer is so prevalent. It will be nice in the next life not to have these worries.
This break between surgeries is wonderful, too... that we can concentrate on the wedding. I was hoping that I would get to be able to attend Ashley's bridal shower! And I get to! Lately, we have plan A, plan B, and sometimes a plan C, because of Erik's Salt Lake trips with appts and surgeries... so this is great. We get to do all our "plan A's" for the next 6 weeks! Ashley and Hayden are really cute about all this planning about starting their next phase of life together. What fun!
Chris is doing well in school... in fact making the Dean's List last semester was quite a cool thing to happen! Good hard work! It's great that he and Allie live right here in Cedar. It's also nice that Tim and Brooke live in Cedar, too. And now Hayden and Ashley will be destined to live here for at least the next 3 1/2 years, too! Loving life!
Justin the man, what a great 8th grader he is. Lots of friends... too many friends! It's hard to pull him away from his Ipod and facebook "back to the family". The joys of technology, right!? He's been a trooper through all this, too. He's had a lot more responsibility lately. He's loved playing basketball, too. Being quite tall for his age right now really comes in handy on the court... as well as being athletic, too.
So, since I've mentioned all the family now... I can't forget my wonderful husband and the father to my kiddos. Wow... what a great support and a great friend. I've had my ups and downs and he's always there to lend a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. He's wonderful. He's so very busy now with work.... it's crazy. But we must not complain about having work. It is such a good problem to have!
Life is good.
OH, I must not forget to mention that Erik has started his own blog!!!
http://lifewithoutafibula.blogspot.com/
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