It was Thursday, March 7^th, 2013 and Tyler woke up that morning and created a video for Travis so that he could see our dog Cisco, his room, all of his toys and the rest of our house.  It was really nice that Tyler did that and he kept telling Travis that everything was going to be OK.  Travis told Tyler that if he didn’t make it, Tyler could have all of his stuff.  That was pretty emotional to hear and think about but also pretty cool to witness that side of brotherly love!

We decided it was best for Tyler to go to school that day and Tony headed back down to the hospital with video in hand.  Travis liked seeing Cisco and all of his stuff at home before the surgeons came in and talked with us again and prepared us for what was about to take place.  Just when we were about to leave for surgery and Travis was getting a little nervous, we had a surprise dog visitor who made our day.  He jumped right up on the bed with Travis and you should have seen the smile on his face.  How does God know to send us the right thing at the most perfect time?  The nurses came in and hugged us since we would be returning to the surgical recovery floor downstairs later that day.  And we were off…

After we changed Travis into his gown and finished the surgical preparations, he walked down the hallway to surgery holding the nurse’s hand.  Whew…that was so hard to watch but we knew it was for the best!

We sat out in the waiting area and knew it was going to take some time.  We prayed, talked, made some phone calls and prayed some more.  Tony went and picked Tyler up after school to bring him to the hospital and made it back just in time to meet with our neuro-surgeon.  He explained that everything went very well and he was able to remove virtually 100% of the tumor.  In fact, he said that of all of the brain surgeries he does, this was one of the easier ones.  Who would have thought that brain surgery could be easy in any scenario?  Go figure!  But at least part of our prayers had been answered.

While Lynne was in the recovery area with Travis, Tony and Tyler were sitting in the waiting area finishing dinner and one of Tony’s buddies from work, Saul, comes walking in.  He said that he felt like he needed to be there for us which was very uplifting to see a familiar face.  How did he know to find us there and that the timing was perfect?  Divine intervention just when you need it!

So much has happened over this last year, it is incredible to look back at the road we have travelled and we wonder how in the world we made it to this point. The keys for us have been to have faith in God, trust in our doctors, take things one step at a time, set some goals to work towards, keep a positive attitude and rely on our support system.  It doesn’t seem possible to have any of these without the others, especially in the darkest of times.  But as Lynne says, let’s try to find the Silver Linings in every day.

We know we still have this recovery road ahead and we will continue to face things head on as they come. But at this point, we are 1 year Cancer Free and Travis is getting stronger every day.  Love it!  Thank God!

Thanks,

Tony and Lynne