Last night was a rough one. Darren was kneading louder on Laura than he has in a long time. Sasha was breathing heavy. It started to downpour for the first time in months. I started to sweat profusely throughout the night. And this was all before my 4:15a dose of pain medication.

Though it made both of us tired throughout the rest of the day, Laura stayed up with me on/off throughout the night. It was comforting to lay in bed, just being able to talk aloud and know that she heard me.

Come 6:45a my mother-in-law came into our bedroom to let us know that there was a roof leak just above our 65” LED TV. Awesome. This is the same exact spot that we had a leak 2.5 years ago that sent our old plasma TV on the fritz. 

I had to direct traffic quickly to get everything unplugged and the TV taken down. It was another case of not realizing how much easier it is to just jump in and take care of it instead of having to instruct someone else.

Once we got through that, the morning transitioned into the normal routine of the past several weeks. We got through breakfast, morning medications and bathroom before Laura took off for work.

My mother-in-law, Sasha and I went for our morning walk around mid-morning. For those wondering, these walks are only approximately 800-1,000 steps in total…not even one way. So, when I mention going for a walk, though it is still progress, it is very slow progress.

Once back home, I decided that today would be "minor tasks that sit on your to-do list” day. All of those little things like testing new widgets on my phone and tablet, rearranging and organizing apps on both devices, updating my favorites bar in Chrome, deleting 1,100 contacts that were mistakenly synched to my phone a year ago and other similar tasks.

It sounds silly but getting those tasks done were refreshing especially for a technology freak like I am. They were all minor annoyances that would eat away at me every time I opened one of my devices. Finally clearing through all of those felt good.

I tweaked Built Unstoppable today adding in a button at the bottom to access all essays, both journal entries and articles. I also broke out journal entries vs articles in the navigation to make it easier.

As the later afternoon set in I didn’t start to feel overwhelmingly tired. I felt exhausted. I was a bit sluggish. But, I didn’t feel that all-consuming tired that I felt the previous couple days. I still took it easy, allowing my body the time it needs to heal though.

We received a call from the neuro oncologist this evening. The brain tumor had been reviewed during the tumor board today.

So far we're batting 3 out of 4 on green lights with the final green light not coming for another 2 weeks. Beyond being a Stage 2 and an oglio tumor, I can't tell you much else about it. The rest of it was a foreign language to me.

That will be the same week that I go back to both the neuro and shoulders surgeons.

If we receive thumbs up from everyone that week then I should be cleared to return to work, even part-time to start reengaging with my team.

After the first couple days back we will need to assess how it is affecting me. I might need to do half-days or a couple hours on x a couple hours off.

I am not allowed to drive for 6 months from the original seizure so, sadly, that confines me to home without the ability to head down to our Santa Clara campus weekly as I enjoyed doing. Though it is a far drive for me, it is nice to see everyone in the office.

We will be scheduling a follow up with the neuro oncologist for 2 months from now where we need to evaluate a few treatment options, one of which could put me back out of work for about two months.

Tonight dinner was provided by one of Laura’s colleagues which was really nice of her. Laura’s colleagues have decided to provide dinners for us tonight, tomorrow and another couple times throughout the weekend. All nice gestures and very much appreciated.

Laura has felt increasingly tired the last several nights so we are in bed earlier than planned while she rests and I bang out this journal entry. Hopefully additional rest for both of us will be a good thing after last night and as we bring this first week back home to a close.

Goodnight!