Category Archives: medical news

medical news

Love is overpowering

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I feel a compelling need at this moment to extend a heartfelt thank you to those who have reached out to my bride and me in this most challenging time in our life.

My goodness, the outreach has come from many quarters, some of them I didn’t expect. Just today, a neighbor approached my son and me as we were walking toward our home in Princeton. She asked, “Where is your wife? I have missed seeing her.” I told her what you already know, that she is in the hospital recovering from a setback she suffered the other morning when she was stricken by a seizure.

My neighbor started crying while offering her prayers.

We continue to look forward to her beginning her treatment for cancer, which will come when the top-notch medical staff at Medical City/McKinney gets her seizures “under control.”

The love my family and I are feeling has been overpowering and, of course, so very welcome. It is coming from former colleagues of mine and of my wife, people I know only through some vague social media connection, from actual friends of both my bride and me and from total strangers.

This outreach helps buttress my belief in the general goodness of humanity.

As for those who have reached out and who have extended their hope for a positive outcome — which my family and I embrace — I hope they see this brief blog post and know my thanks to them comes from my overflowing heart.

My gratitude extends far beyond any measure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Recovery isn’t always smooth

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Well, today my wife and I received a stunning lesson about life and the journey one must take to full recovery.

It is that the journey is full of unpleasant surprises. One of them arrived this morning with full force. We were told it was possible that it could happen and today it did: my wife suffered a seizure that rendered her incapacitated.

She is back in the hospital. Back in the intensive care unit among those who cared for her in late December after she underwent surgery to remove a tumor from her brain. She is being treated by the best medical team I have ever witnessed.

We see this is as a bump in the road. Radiation and chemotherapy await. First, though, she must regain the strength she already had gotten back after her surgery. Knowing this woman as well as I do, I am convinced that her constitution will compel her to regain that strength.

Our journey will continue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Reconnecting is so rewarding

We returned to a place we called home for more than two decades and — if you’ll pardon the cliche — had the time of our lives reconnecting with some dear friends we continue to miss.

Our visit to Amarillo’s primary mission was to wish our son a happy birthday. We were able to do so. But along the way, as he was working during the day, we caught up with a man who helped pastor us on our faith journey and then visited with a dear friend of my bride and her husband.

Oh, and then — at dinner — we reconnected with another good friend who happens to have become friends with our son.

Not bad … you know?

To be clear, we have many more friends in the Amarillo we were unable to see. Our time back was too brief to visit everyone we know and love. We had to scurry back to our home in Princeton, where treatment for my bride’s medical challenge awaits.

That is what we have done.

This quick-hit trip back to the High Plains, though, will be one for the books.

My wife and her dear friend had lost contact in recent times. They hugged and reminisced about the old days; my wife got her pal caught up on her current medical challenge. As we have heard throughout this trying episode, my bride has found her way onto many prayer lists.

Our pastor friend has been in his current job for 33 years. He is good at what he does, which is that he serves as “outreach” pastor at the church we attended in downtown Amarillo during the time we lived there. He, too, has become a dear friend over that time and we were able to catch up with his bustling family’s activities.

The doctor who insisted that my wife make this trip — even if it would interfere with her cancer treatment — appears to have been spot on … that she would get as much out of this journey from the Metroplex to the High Plains as any treatment she would receive.

He is correct. The reconnection had a restorative value that I will be hard-pressed to define.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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On the road … safely

I am delighted to report that my bride and I drove 360 (or so) miles from Princeton, Texas to Amarillo.

Furthermore, I am even more delighted to report that there was nothing out of the ordinary occurring on that trek. Why gloat about that? Because my dear wife is recovering from brain surgery and I have been sharing the start of her journey back to good health with you on this blog.

Our son, who lives in Amarillo, is going to mark a landmark birthday very soon. We are thrilled to be able to help him celebrate.

Indeed, we had planned to make this trip even if her treatments for cancer had begun. The rehab doctor had all but insisted we make the trip even if her radiation and chemotherapy had begun. “She’ll get as much good from that trip as she would from the treatment,” he told us.

The treatment hasn’t yet commenced. It will begin soon … I hope.

She continues to show remarkable improvement in her strength, equilibrium and coordination as she continues to recover from the four-plus-hour procedure to remove a cancerous tumor.

We’ll enjoy our time with our son then skedaddle back to Collin County, where we will continue to prepare for the next leg on our journey.

She makes me so very proud.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Team is ready for fight

My wife’s medical challenge is being met with a stellar team of doctors and I want to sing their praises in this brief post.

You know about the tumor the surgeon dug out of her brain two days after Christmas. It was cancerous. He sent the tissue sample off to be tested, then it went to the Mayo Clinic — yes, that Mayor Clinic — for further analysis; we have yet to hear back from the brainiacs in Rochester, Minn.

But we now have a team of oncologists assembled here in North Texas and they assure us they are ready to wage all-out war against the tumor that remains inside her brain.

We have a medical oncologist who will administer the chemotherapy treatment, which will come in pill form. Then there is the radiation oncologist who will develop the strategy to burn the daylights out of what’s left of the tumor. We also have a neuro-oncologist who will oversee the chemo and radiation treatments.

The past few days have been hectic as we have visited doctors throughout McKinney and Plano. To be brutally honest, my head at times feels as though it will explode. We are seeking to process a lot of information as we await the final pathology report on the tissue being analyzed.

Then the radiation will commence simultaneously with the chemo pills my bride will consume daily.

There will be more MRIs, CAT scans and seemingly countless other tests to take along the way. I’ll be candid about one more point: My lovely bride is as ready to commence this fight as the team of docs that is surrounding her.

I have never been as proud of her over the course of our nearly 52 years together as I am at this moment.

She is ready for the fight.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Her independent streak is alive and well!

Pssst … I want to let you in on a little secret, so here goes.

The therapists at Medical City/McKinney (Texas) Hospital prepared me thoroughly to be at my wife’s side every step on her recovery from brain surgery. She came home early this week, and I was ready, willing and oh, so very able to be there as she took her baby steps back to full speed.

The secret? She doesn’t need me to be there to the extent the therapists had prepared me.

Now, don’t misunderstand. I still flinch and get the nervous jerks when she gets up to walk from one room to another in our house. She insists that she’s doing just fine. I believe her. I do not, though, want to get complacent about it … you know?

The surgery that the doctor performed to remove part of a cancerous tumor was successful in this important regard: It restored her balance and her ability to walk without the constant fear of falling. It was the series of falls she took that prompted our son and daughter-in-law to insist that she visit the hospital ER the day after Christmas.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now the rest of the journey is about to begin. We are seeing doctors and are getting a full rundown of what lies ahead for my bride.

She fancies herself as an independent sort, and she is all of that. What I am learning in real time is that not even the kind of surgery she endured will change that aspect of her character.

She is truly amazing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Now comes the next leg

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Well, we now have arrived at the starting gate for the next leg of our amazing journey through life.

My cherished bride is home with where she belongs after spending three weeks in acute care. The Medical City/McKinney (Texas) emergency room team found a mass in her brain, the surgeon cut most of it out, the labs determined it is cancerous, she spent some time in ICU, then she went to rehab.

Now she is home to be with Toby the Puppy and yours truly.

Treatment for the disease they found will commence in a few days. I just have been utterly amazed, astonished and will be grateful for as long as I live for the care she received at all levels … from the ER, to ICU, to rehab.

I realize they are just “doing their job.” I realize they are trained and instructed to be nice to patients and to not let the stress of their jobs show on their smiling faces.

However, when you’re on the receiving end of that kindness and compassion — at least it’s true in my case — you might feel the need to offer serious shout-outs to the medical pros who tend to your loved one’s needs.

They answered the call.

Now comes the next step in our challenging journey through the marvelous life we are forging together. I believe we are ready.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

They’re like family … almost

I didn’t think it was possible to grow attached to a team of medical professionals who would answer the call to care for my bride.

But I have … become quite fond of the men and women who have worked tirelessly at Medical City/McKinney to assist her as she begins her recovery from brain surgery.

I will declare that I likely will shed a tear or three in a couple of days when my wife leaves their care and comes home to Princeton, Texas — to Toby the Puppy and me.

My wife told me something today as well that softens me up for the emotional goodbye that awaits. She said the nurses told her they often cry when patients leave. They shed tears when their favorite patients depart their care and venture out to begin their own journeys back to recovery.

I suppose I need to share with you this bit of intel: My dear bride has become a favorite among the nurses, techs, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who have cared for her. She doesn’t ask for much from them, as she knows how hard they work, given her long-ago experience working at an acute care hospital in our hometown of Portland, Ore.

That was then. The here and now is about to bring us a flood of emotion as we depart their care and venture into the next challenging chapter of our long life together.

I have to get ready for this.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Needing to keep emotions in check

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A big day awaits my bride and me. It’s coming on Monday, which is when she checks out of the Medical City/McKinney (Texas) rehab unit and returns home.

Many of you know the story by now. She had a cancerous tumor removed from her brain two days after Christmas. She has been in rehab for several days regaining her strength, her balance, her dexterity in her left hand.

Now I must prepare to say so long to some folks who have become almost like family to us. I refer to the rehab medical staff at Medical City.

I have told many of them already to their smiling faces how much we appreciate the care she has received. I am ratcheting it up a bit farther with this blog post.

To be brutally candid, at this moment I am not sure how I am going to hold my emotions in check when she leaves the rehab center.

Now, spare me the lecture about how they’re just doing their jobs; that they are trained to do the things we have asked of them; that they hear high praise all the time and they likely might not even remember us once we walk out the door.

I don’t care about any of that. I feel the overwhelming need to praise them for their kindness, their caring, their compassion, their senses of humor and their patience with doting family members who ask them zillions of questions each day.

So, I am offering them praise here. Hey, it’s my blog and I intend to use it as a source of encouragement for them as they prepare to do the very same thing for future patients who will entrust themselves to their care.

These medical professionals all have brought a measure of joy to us on this latest lap on our life journey. More challenges lie ahead but we are keeping the faith that a positive outcome awaits.

I am just want to keep the blubbering to a minimum when we leave the hospital and head for the house.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Lessons keep piling up

One of the many lessons I am learning as I cope with my life being turned upside down, inside out and shredded into a million little pieces is that my emotions can run across a gigantic field.

I am alternately frightened, heartened, saddened and joyful. Sometimes those emotions come all come at once.

My wife’s fight against cancer is just beginning. She is tough and resolute. We are hopeful for a positive outcome, and we have ample reason to expect one. Her radiation and chemo treatments begin soon after she leaves the hospital where she has stayed since Dec. 26. Her discharge date is just about at hand.

She is receiving expressions of love and support from far and wide, from people we know and love, from casual acquaintances, even from people she’s never met. That love strengthens me beyond all measure.

And I’ll be candid about one more point. I had said on this blog that I would take a break from commenting on political matters as we commence this fight. I am withdrawing that pledge. Why? Because I feel strong enough emotionally to dish out some criticism and yes, offer some praise when it’s warranted.

The love that is coming our way is delivering that strength.

For that, as well as for the love that is pouring in, I thank you.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com