Update on life.
First off, I still want to be working on my car.
Second, it's not so easy. I'm spending the weekends with my brother doing the odds and ends sht he would normally do at his place. This coming weekend my project is to reroof his storage shed and start building new doors for it.
He had just stripped the roof of all it's shingles and felt paper when he had to start his chemo and radiation treatments. I guess he thought the treatments wouldn't be that hard on him and he could finish it during the treatments, lol.
He's suffering from a problem called "chemo-brain" right now. Talking to him is close to talking to a person that has had a stroke (both of my parents died from strokes, so I got an idea). He has a rough time putting two words together. He seems to understand when I tell him about things. He nods his head like he's getting what i'm saying. And yet a tv remote is baffling to him. He knows what it's for, he just can't operate it. Though he understands if he gives it to me I can change the channel for him.
You can see how it frustrates him. He knows what he wants to say, he just can't communicate it. I tell him it's ok.
He's lost almost eighty pounds in the past three months. He was a little larger at the start of this journey, roughly 255 at 6'1". He's in the 170's now. He, physically, doesn't look terribly sick. He looks like a trim man now. Tough diet program.
This thursday he goes back for another petscan to see if the treatments killed the cancer. The doctors will also give him a catscan to see if the chemo has done any physical damage to his brain.
From what I understand, a person can recover from this disability. I don't know if it's a recovery of the existing brain cellls that control the communicative side or a case of a new section of the brain learning to compensate for a nonfunctional portion.
My oldest brother has never been a touchy feely sort of guy, but I gave him a hug last weekend. He seemed to be ok with that.
It's really amazing how a person changes through life. I've done things in my past that might be considered fairly challenging, perhaps even fairly hardcore (not the prons industry, ok?). Things most wouldn't consider genteel. And yet here I am now, 55 and crying to myself over my brother. Funny, isn't it......
Oh well. I'll be back after the car soon, and intensely too. Just got to take care of a few things first.
First off, I still want to be working on my car.
Second, it's not so easy. I'm spending the weekends with my brother doing the odds and ends sht he would normally do at his place. This coming weekend my project is to reroof his storage shed and start building new doors for it.
He had just stripped the roof of all it's shingles and felt paper when he had to start his chemo and radiation treatments. I guess he thought the treatments wouldn't be that hard on him and he could finish it during the treatments, lol.
He's suffering from a problem called "chemo-brain" right now. Talking to him is close to talking to a person that has had a stroke (both of my parents died from strokes, so I got an idea). He has a rough time putting two words together. He seems to understand when I tell him about things. He nods his head like he's getting what i'm saying. And yet a tv remote is baffling to him. He knows what it's for, he just can't operate it. Though he understands if he gives it to me I can change the channel for him.
You can see how it frustrates him. He knows what he wants to say, he just can't communicate it. I tell him it's ok.
He's lost almost eighty pounds in the past three months. He was a little larger at the start of this journey, roughly 255 at 6'1". He's in the 170's now. He, physically, doesn't look terribly sick. He looks like a trim man now. Tough diet program.
This thursday he goes back for another petscan to see if the treatments killed the cancer. The doctors will also give him a catscan to see if the chemo has done any physical damage to his brain.
From what I understand, a person can recover from this disability. I don't know if it's a recovery of the existing brain cellls that control the communicative side or a case of a new section of the brain learning to compensate for a nonfunctional portion.
My oldest brother has never been a touchy feely sort of guy, but I gave him a hug last weekend. He seemed to be ok with that.
It's really amazing how a person changes through life. I've done things in my past that might be considered fairly challenging, perhaps even fairly hardcore (not the prons industry, ok?). Things most wouldn't consider genteel. And yet here I am now, 55 and crying to myself over my brother. Funny, isn't it......
Oh well. I'll be back after the car soon, and intensely too. Just got to take care of a few things first.