After the Excitement

Kevin had a wonderful birthday, and much of that success is due to all of you—friends, family, friends of friends and so on. We now have a ridiculous amount of chocolate cakes, cupcakes and candy in the house, but that’s not the worst problem to have! Kevin has been enjoying dessert samplers every evening.

The birthday cards also were a huge hit. We put all the cards in a big wrapped box (pictured in the post below... that's about twice the size of a shoe box). When Kevin took the lid off the box, he squeaked out an overwhelmed “wow” before his eyes teared up. This was a great way to show him how much support he has. When all the messages of support come at once, it’s so much easier to comprehend how many people are out there thinking of him. Plus, the fact that he can hold each card in his hand makes the volume much more tangible. Showing him numbers of how many people check the blog each day just doesn’t have the same impact as holding a box of a few hundred cards on his lap. We haven’t reached an exact total count yet because he’s still working on opening and reading all the cards. Thank you so much to all of you who sent cards and postcards—you’ve helped Kevin truly understand how much he is loved by you all!

Even with all the emotional excitement on his birthday, Kevin managed to keep his energy level high. On his birthday and the day after, he was able to complete some great exercises with his left side in physical and occupational therapy. The day after his birthday, he stayed active and up in his wheelchair until about 6:30 p.m.! Yesterday, the excitement finally caught up to him, and he was pretty exhausted. Once Kevin got home from speech and physical therapy, he got to rest for the remainder of the day.

Today, Kevin is very concerned about his eyes. His double vision has improved over the past couple months, but his bouncing vision remains. This was one of the first symptoms to develop back in November, so the doctors have said it may be one of the last symptoms to leave. Over the past few days, his eyes have also been watering, stinging and giving him a bit of a headache. Kevin is very worried about this, since he’s very in tune with each new symptom that arises. However, the rest of us have a hunch that this is a combination of allergies and side effects of chemotherapy rather than a new symptom. Whatever it is, we hope it resolves soon so Kevin can be a bit more at ease.

Thank you again to everyone who sent Kevin a birthday card! We hope his new comprehension of his huge support network will give him new strength to fight Steve and Bob day after day.