finally a day where we talk to people

About 10:30am the next morning, we go to the Brain and Spine Center, and meet with the social worker. She appears to be very young. After talking to her a while she seems to know her stuff so we fill out forms for Cancer Care, Angel Flight.

After that meeting Marie suggest that I get my hair cut in the hotel lobby. We meet the salon lady and she says she will cut my hair. She proceeds to give me the best hair cut that I've ever had using a comb/razor contraption, but first she washed my hair and rubbed out a knot that was on my neck. She told me that I have a lot of stress. While she cut my hair she told us about some of the history of M D Anderson. Not about the building but about the people. She has worked there for 42 years since, as she put it, that M D Anderson was just a little place in the back country. She told us about Clark, one time president of M D Anderson, and how he helped the place grow to what is is today. She told us about patients, Sam Walton and how he could be difficult, and about Sam Shepard(the astronaut). She talked about a time when it was hard to get people to work there because they thought cancer was catching. She filled us with stories of Egyptian royalty with many wives and maids. She should write a book. I'm sure it would become a movie.

At 1:00pm we meet with the surgeon and his entourage. Besides his normal staff he has two medical students with him. The surgeon tells us that the surgery will take about 6 hours. He is going through the original surgical cavity which is quite large, and makes it easy to get to all the spots. He tells us that instead of 4 lesions it looks like there may be 5, but two are connected. He explains that one spot is from radiation and some of the other spots are probably neurocytoma and some may not be. His plan is to send some to the pathologist so we know what we are dealing with. We ask him if we could take a picture with him and he seemed overjoyed.

Later that day Marie picks out a scarf/hat from the hat cart. The hat cart if a small push cart that is manned by volunteers and comes to the Rotory House(hotel) lobby on Monday evenings at 7:00pm. The hats are free to patients. Another nice service. Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference.

That night we watched a CD in the TV room. It was extremely funny. It is great to see patients laugh for a while. Good thinking Rotory House.