You may not want to read all of this. It's not very happy, not much fun. A week ago I was having so much fun. My daughter and I were in downtown Dallas, having just checked in to our hotel room on the 18Th floor. We had a great view of the skyscrapers, a pleasant culture shock for both of us. We had traveled by train to Fort Worth from Oklahoma City and I would highly recommend that to anyone. The ride back was a bit stressful, lots of tired little kiddies on board, but their parents did a lovely job of keeping them amused.
Saturday night we went to the House of Blues. The School of Rock, Dallas, opened the show. If you ever get the chance to see a performance by these kids, or any other School of Rock do it. Those kids were awesome. About five different groups of five or six kids performed a classic rock song perfectly. These kids ranged in age from middle school through high school. One of the singers was likely a mom. Each and every one was excellent. I wanna go to the School of Rock.
Then Fan Halen took the stage. The lead singer had David Lee Roth down pat. At first it was hilarious, and then it just plain rocked. The crowd loved them. My daughter said she didn't realize that she knew all the words to all those Van Halen songs. We really had a great time.
Monday morning my sister called and the world has been a little off kilter ever since. She called to tell me that our brother has a brain tumor. Well, three actually and that a biopsy would be done Wed. morning in Oklahoma City. My brother has been having "difficulties" for about 2 weeks. He couldn't remember things and was confused. So we were hoping for the best, hoping that it would be benign like our Father's was. Hopefully catching it early on. The surgeon (who is very experienced and has seen a lot) says it looks like a very aggressive cancer. I think my brother and sister-in-law had a clue about this but couldn't bring themselves to tell us. We don't have lab results yet. They went into the left side of his brain, and he can't use the right side of his body. His speech is a little slurred. I went to see him on Thursday. After I dropped my son off at a 6 month rehab. Another long story. Normally my brother is pretty quiet. When I saw him Thursday he was talking a lot. He has all of his wonderful vocabulary. He remembers things. He talked about his feelings. His emotions are very near the surface. He cried easily and I'd never seen that before.
His sons flew in from Washington D.C. today. I think we're taking Mother to see him for the first time since his surgery, tomorrow. My sister hasn't seen him yet either. She has been staying with Mother, bless her heart. I've been curled up in my hole here for the past two days. I don't know that I can deal with anyone. I guess I will tomorrow. I really didn't want to leave OKC Thursday. I wanted to stay with my brother, but my sister-in-law encouraged me to go home and I did. He had a bad night that night. They moved him out of I.C.U. yesterday. He got very upset about the entire situation and had to be sedated. I don't think he'd had much rest since Wednesday. He's mad now about the whole thing now and who could blame him. I'm sure it's part of the process. Maybe you have to get mad so that you can fight back. Monday they will be talking with the oncologist to see if treatment of some sort will help. It's not looking good. So if you have a chance, have a positive thought for my brother.
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