Ronald R.

About Ronald R.

I am sending you this message to recognize my wife, Joan Reed, who is my caregiver. She is a wonderful and very caring person. I am a 72 year old male and my wife is 67. In late 2020, I had not been feeling well for several months and had significant pain and other issues in the midsection of my body. I went to the ER at Boulder Community Hospital when the pain was really severe and they provided relief for the pain, but they could not provide much in terms of a diagnosis. In April, 2021 I went to my family physician (FP) in Boulder, Colorado and he performed some tests to help diagnosis the medical problems that I was having. Through those tests, I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. In addition, the cancer did spread into some lymph nodes. My treatment strategy included 45 radiation treatments and chemo to help fight the cancer. The treatments started in September 2021. After about 6 radiation treatments my wife thought I was not quite right cognitively. The oncologist sent me to the ER for a cat-scan of my brain and they found a large brain tumor, meningioma. neurosurgeon removed the meningioma with brain surgery (turned out to be benign). The brain tumor subsequently produced small seizures, which hospitalized me once again for another week. Then I continued with radiation treatments while I recovered from the brain surgery. I finally ended the radiation treatment in late December and have been recovering with up and down moments since then. It has been quite a rocky road and I believe it will get better.
Now that I have explained my situation, I want to express my sincere gratefulness to my wife for being an excellent caregiver. The removal of the brain tumor required me to start taking a brain seizure medicine which meant that I could not drive for at least three months, not that I was driving since around July. I was totally dependent upon my wife to take care of me at home and to take me wherever I needed to go. I never realized how quick this illness would make dependent on one person. I needed her to attend all of my doctor’s meetings to take notes and communicate my issues to them, since she is much more knowledgeable about medical and pharmaceutical information, and I have been fairly foggy off and on. She handles all of my medicines and makes sure that I am okay. I know that my pain issues concern her and she wishes she could do something to remove the pain. She has provided me with the opportunity to focus on my health and has taken complete responsibility for my well-being. I don’t know what I would have done without her. I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful and loving caregiver.