Hello, Goodbye!

Yesterday my dad and Joel arrived and as I am writing this they are already gone. It seems like as soon as we said hello we were turning around and saying goodbye. It sounds like they had a good trip down here though. It was so great to see them and get all of our stuff. I forgot to mention in the blog on Friday that when we had visited with Dr. Chang he had told us to reduce Ben's steriod by 4mg a day, meaning that he would be taking 8mg daily instead of twelve. We were excited to hear this. Dr. Chang said that he hoped that Ben would be completely off the steroid by the time he finished radiation. On Saturday when Ben woke up he wasn't feeling to well. He had a headache and his right side was a lot weaker than the day before. We called the hospital and spoke with the on call doc. He said that Ben's weakness and headache were probably related to the reduction in steriods. That he most likely wasn't ready to be weaned off of them and that we should return him back to 12mg a day. Ben takes the steriod to help with swelling in the brain caused by the tumor. When we reduced the amount he was taking the swelling increased which creates the weakness Ben is experiencing. We were quite bummed and sad to see Ben so weak again. This morning Ben woke up weak again and having a headache. We are hoping the steriod will begin to kick in soon and Ben will get stronger. Tomorrow we meet with Dr. Chang again so hopefully he will be able to give us more info on what may be going on. Today Ben and I are just taking it easy and hanging out at the house watching football and playing with Raider. Marla and Terry have gone with our cousin to her lake house for a fun day. I spoke with my sister last night who informed me that the garage sale was going great. The had made quite a bit of money on Saturday and were hoping to make more today. She said they had a bunch of stuff donated to sell and that a lot of people stopping by the sale were donating money even if they didn't buy anything. She also said that they have been taking pictures and she will send them to me soon so I can put them up on the blog. Please continue to pray for Ben's strength and that the steriods will help bring the swelling down soon. We love you all.