(written by Ellen)
Hi Family and Friends,
Yesterday, Wednesday Sept. 4, Dan had brain surgery to remove the lesion/tumor. They were able to get 99% only leaving the portion resting directly on the motor cortex. The surgery lasted 5 hours and the surgeon was very pleased with the results. Dan has feeling in all digits and limbs. The initial biopsy revealed a low grade tumor, however, the complete analysis will not be completed for 5-7 days. Dan spent last night in ICU and was moved to a private room around noon. Most probably he will be coming home tomorrow, Friday. We just went for our first walk!
The news is hopeful, possibly better than expected, certainly compared to what we were initially told while still in Jackson Hole. We appreciate all your calls, emails, prayer circles and love. Dan truly feels bathed in love.
Today is Friday. On my way to the hospital I called and Dan said he had had a mild set back, he had a mild seizure while getting up in the middle of the night to read the clock. The doctors did not seem alarmed and said it was not necessarily unexpected. We spent the day in the hospital, watched tennis, took a walk. Dan felt good. When the doctor came in at 4:30 he looked at the newest MRI and asked Dan if he wanted to come home. We finally got home at 7:30 pm right after room service delivered hamburgers for all of us. So now were watching the ball game. Good thing there's so much sports on TV!
We'll find out more at the end of next week. We remain strong and ready for battle. We will prevail.
Love, Ellen and Dan
(written by Joe Paulino)
Hi all -
Dan and Ellen's internet service is down for a bit, so I volunteered to send out this update. As "What's Up With Dan" is truly Dan's e-zine and I am but a humble guest editor here, I'll try to stick to the facts and leave the humor and pithy observations to Mr. Reich himself. In a nutshell, Ellen said the surgery went GREAT. The doctors told her that things went better than they expected. They were able to remove more of the tumor than they originally anticipated. At this point, it looks like a low grade tumor, which is also good news. As I type this, there are tests being done on this tumor to determine what sort of treatment regimen (meds? radiation? chemo? marinol?) will be prescribed. All of this should come to a head in about a week. So to speak. Yesterday, Dan & Ellen took a lap around the hospital floor. Sometime in the middle of the night, he got up to look at the clock and ended up having a bit of a seizure. This provided him with a rather nasty bump on his forehead. Not to worry though. They said that post operation seizures were pretty common. Today, I went with my wife Juline and friend Anne Zesiger to see Dan and Ellen at UCSF. To combat the side effects of the vile hospital foods, Dan and Ellen asked us to bring along some chicken Caesar salads for lunch. We hung out with them for a while watching tennis, eating the salads and munching Peppridge Farm cookies. I even brought Dan a beer. Actually, a Ginger Beer, which was the best I could do under the circumstances. He looks, sounds and is fantastic! Whatever surgery they did on him is hardly noticeable. In fact, the forehead bump looks nastier than the incision. The plan is for Dan to go home tomorrow. To this I can only add a grateful and heartfelt WOO-HOOO!
Cheers!
Joe Paulino
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