SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2011 8:28 AM, PDT
written by Karen Salvaggio
Father's Day Update
I want to begin with a "Thank you!" to the many good folks that have stopped by and visited Andy over these weeks, and to those sending continued good thoughts, prayers, and wishes through the Caring Bridge site. Please know each of your visits and posts here mean so much to Andy and to our family. We continue to be thankful for the outpouring of love and support from our extended family, which includes members from the Corvette, Factory Five Racing, Riverside International Automotive Museum, NASA, club racing worlds, as well as so many of my colleagues in the educational world. Your kindness is truly amazing!
Andy enjoyed his visit with good friends, and fellow Corvette racers Tex and Steve Schwab on Friday.....Tex brought a very nice, framed picture collage of the two of them from their racing days at Riverside, Ontario, Las Vegas, and so many more. Andy truly appreciates the many visits he's received from his long-time friends (and extended family) from the racing world, and it meant a lot to him to spend some time with Tex and Steve. I know he would enjoy a trip to Arizona more than you know....Thank you!
Andy also enjoyed a visit with the grandbabies (Evan and Kendall) yesterday, and will be celebrating Father's Day with them later today. Both babies love their Papa, and we know Evan would like nothing more than to be back out in the garage, playing with tools and crawling around the cars with his grandpa.
On the health and recovery front....The radiation treatments began last week, and are slated to continue for the better part of seven weeks. During the initial surgery, the neurosurgeon was able to remove a significant portion of the tumor, however, due to its location and proximity to the speech center, as well as they nature of the tumor itself, the tumor could not be completely removed. Chemo wafers were implated directly into the remaining tumor cells during the surgery, and these time-release agents have been working on limiting the growth in the weeks following. The latest scan indicated the tumor was stablized enough in location to begin radiation treatments.
As you might imagine, all of these changes (surgery, chemo wafers, and now radiation treatments) can and will have effects.....For those of you that have visited, you will note that Andy sleeps, a lot. He's also working very hard to recover movement and neuroconnections to the right side of his body, as well as with his speech therapy, and these are taxing to him as well. Throughout this process, we are working closely with the doctors and nursing staff to monitor his overall wellness through these therapies, and today it was noted he has developed a bit of a fever....The staff are in the process of evaluating the source so it can be effectively addressed
Andy is looking forward to a Father's Day visit with Evan and Kendall today (Tracy and Brandon too), and we wish all of you a great day with your families. While these are challenging days for our family, we continue to be overwhelmed by the endless love and support we've received from our amazing family and friends......Thank you!!! Karen