Dears Sisters Please pray for Past International President Ginger Banks, tomorrow (thursday) she is going in for surgery! See her note below... she is always so uplifting .. even when facing BRAIN SURGERY - Tasha
Dear Friends,
I always thought it might be interesting to have a date with a brain surgeon so I could pick his brain. I envisioned that the date would be us sitting across a table together at a lovely restaurant. As it turns out, I do have a date with a brain surgeon, but I won't be across the table. I'll be on it.
Having been diagnosed on Jan. 17 with a brain tumor (a meningioma, which on the outer surface of my brain) and having no doubt about what we need to do, I say "let's get it on" and "let's get it over with." I've got more dates -- in restaurants and other places -- to plan.
The surgery is scheduled to be on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2005, at 12:30 p.m. (Central Time) here in Austin, TX at the North Austin Medical Center.
I'll recover at my Mom's house here in Austin (bless her!). I understand the recovery will take about a month, but it's hard to predict how long I'll be at Mom's.
I've asked Rene Fitzgerald to provide future medical bulletins to you. Please feel free to contact her for the latest.
As much as I love, value, and treasure the e-mail messages I've received (they've been my lifeline) since I found out about this extra added attraction on my brain, it probably would be best to not send messages to my e-mail address for at least a while after Feb. 8. It may be sometime before I feel like sitting at the computer. We'll let you know when I'm up and running again -- on the computer and otherwise.
In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you via my Mom's e-mail address:
dit4305@earthlink.net . (She has dial-up, so please don't send any large files.) Mom will let me know about messages, but we may not be able to respond. We hope you understand.
I've tried to acknowledge all the wonderful communications I've received, but I probably won't be able to do that for many others in the near future -- for a while, at least. Even if you don't hear from me, please know how very much I appreciate your concern, friendship, and love. They have sustained my family and me during the last few weeks and will provide us even more strength during the weeks to come.
My family and I profoundly appreciate the outpouring of love, support, encouragement, and HUMOR that we've received since getting my diagnosis. If it's not pressing our luck, please keep all of that coming! It means a lot and has kept us going. I don't even want to think about what the last few weeks would have been like or what the coming weeks would be like without it.
I've always believed in the power of prayer, positive thinking, positive energy, and letting people know I care. Now, I believe in all of that even more because I've seen the powerful effects in my life, especially recently. Thank you from the bottom of my heart -- and the top of my head. Thanks in large part to you, I feel better already and know everything is going to be OK.
All this is very scary. But, we're taking enormous comfort in the fact that everything we've learned about my tumor is very encouraging. From what we believe, this tumor is treatable, it's benign (a beautiful word!), and the long-term prognosis is very good. In fact, a neurosurgeon said, "You have a menginioma and that's good." I'm glad he thinks so!
Also, I thought you might like to know that I feel that I couldn't be in a better position to be prepared for all this. With all "my stuff" delegated to willing, capable hands, the support and encouragement I'm receiving, and knowing I can fully focus on getting better after surgery (thanks in HUGE measure to my dog Mandy and me being in Mom's loving care at her house while I recuperate), I can't imagine being in a better situation or better place mentally to fully focus on getting better. I'm very blessed.
The five doctors I consulted said the same thing: surgery is necessary, the tumor is relatively easy to access (location, location, location), and I should be fine. Besides, I've been wanting to get a new hair do. This should take care of that.
I'm just sorry that all those people who've thought for years that I have a swelled head now have the MRI to prove they were right!
My love, thanks, and best wishes to you always,
Ginger
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