Brad is home...without answers.

Brad was released this afternoon. We don't know any more information but he is not in as much pain right now and that is huge progress.

The diagnosis is being left at one of two things; One, is lung cancer and two is something obscure that infected his lungs, likely through work. It is not pneumonia. The infections disease doctor was in and had such a perplexed look on his face. Brad is only 32 so they certainly don't expect to see a tumor like this at his age.

He is home on an antibiotic (a pricey one at that), steroid and inhaler. He has a regular family doc appointment on the 20th and a CT Scan and Lung Cancer Clinic appointment on the 4th of December. They told us not to freak out about the Lung Cancer Clinic that they see people with other obscure lung problems but I really can't help but not.

He lost a pound again and is back to 179 lbs. (He is 6'9 for those who did not know) so my goal is to fatten him up and keep him from thinking he can run off to work right away.. His mother arrived last night and I did not warn her about his appearance and I think she was a little startled last night when she saw how thin he was in the hospital.

He is still on a nicotine patch and said he doesn't have a desire to smoke. This has definitely gotten his attention on many levels.

I meant to ask for a copy of his x-ray or CT Scan and forgot. The best I have is a drawing a doctor put on the dry erase board. The large blacks spots in the upper lobes are the areas in question and there are smaller spots of it below as well.

He did not have doctors orders to not work so he is out checking in on a couple of jobs right now. Unbelievable! I don't know how I am going to get him to relax.

Thanks again everyone for your support. We are not out of the woods but I am SO glad to have him home. Miles's reaction of joy was priceless. The kids missed him so much.

Liviana's Daddy In Hospital

I wanted to post a quick message letting everyone know that Brad is in the hospital. I won't go through all of the details but he had been having strong chest pain and back pain as well as other miscellaneous problems. A CT Scan has revealed a little pneumonia in his left lung as well as a 3.2cm mass in his upper left lobe. They have not done a Brochoscopy or Biopsy yet to determine what the mass is yet. I suspect that will be tomorrow (they are waiting to see if antibiotics improves the area. He is also currently under TB isolation at the hospital because the mass was unknown and they could not rule out Tuberculosis. I don't think he has TB but they are following protocol by imprisoning him in a small insulated room which has him not a happy camper.

I am exhausted and emotionally spent. He is at Methodist hospital where Liviana was born and she "kind of" was in the hospital (since the Children's NICU is on the Methodist Hospital side). It is surreal being back there worrying about the mortality of a loved one. My greatest fear is obviously lung cancer since Brad smokes. Don't worry, I have mentally Bi***** him out several times. I will move to verbally when he is feeling better :).

Please keep him and the kids in your thoughts. They miss their daddy so much and I know he hates not being able to see them also.

I will keep everyone updated.

Not So Scary Tiger

This Halloween was the first time the kids have dressed up and experienced the joy of going door-to-door and having perfect strangers toss candy into their bucket. Liviana was a little tiger, as was Miles. Aria was adamant about being a princess, a fairy princess. Here are a few pictures. First from our trip Thursday night to the Children's Museum trick-or-treat night, complete with snacks from Whole Foods and next from trick-or-treating last night. Our littlest tiger was asleep half way into our walk around the neighborhood. I will have more Halloween details today on our other blog.



Liviana is such a keen observer that she hardly made a peep while at the Children's Museum until we got away from the crowds. I kept trying to get pictures of her and she seemed to distracted with watching everything going on around her. I got these half grimace smiles from her while she looked around.



Livi was also very upset when I tried to put her little paw gloves on her hands. She does NOT like her hands messed with so we scrapped the paws, making the little tiger less scary of course.



Enjoy the pictures. The kids sure did have fun!