Nora's First Birthday Party

This is a long way from the typical post but I wanted to share something with you guys about today's activities. My Grand Daughter is having her first birthday celebration today. Her date of birth is May 29, 2013 but scheduling makes it easier for all if we have it today, Saturday.

This is a bigger deal for me than one might normally expect because no body believed I would survive the malignant brain cancer thing that was discovered 22 days from today, 5 years ago. Tim Jr looked up the numbers and announced that I am in the 1/2 of 1% group that survives Glioblastoma Multiform Grade 4 cancer.

June 22, 2009 was Father's Day and on that day, I had a stoke or a seizure of some kind that knocked me out. I was driving along the rail road tracks at the stone yard that I was running near Ft. Polk. I passed out, crashed my truck and remained unconscious for almost 4 hours. During that time, someone called in a one car accident and the police showed up, called an ambulance and took me to the hospital where an MRI was done. That's when they found it.

When I came to, they told me that I had a large tumor on my right temporal lobe, that they could not handle it there and asked where I wanted to go. I told them to take me to the VA hospital in Shreveport. My buddy, Tommy Perkins, had my cell phone and had already talked to Tim Jr. who was on the USS Enterprise at the time. He made arrangements for an emergency leave and prepared to fly home to Shreveport to help me out.

When I arrived at the VA, they gave me another MRI and a Cat scan and told me that they couldn't do the surgery there and I would have to be transferred to another hospital. We hoped it would be LSU Med Center in Shreveport but as things turned out, a high school buddy of mine, Guy Kinnebrew, who worked at the VA, told us about Debakey Medical Center in Houston and explained that it was the brain trauma center for the military and that was where I really needed to go.

By that time, Tim Jr and Kristin had arrived from Norfolk and they loaded me in a car and transported me to Debakey where the brain surgery was performed on July 9th. My brother drove down from Austin and a number of other friends from the Houston area came by to visit before and after surgery.

As they were preparing to put me out, they explained to Tim and Leland that IF I survived the surgery, I may not be able to tie my shoes and I may have trouble talking. With that little announcement they sent me to pre-op and then rolled me into the operating room. I was really groggy but I remember when the brain surgeons came in and asked it I wanted to say anything before they put me to sleep.

I looked at Doctor Ininni and Dr. Fox and in my best Caddo Parish accent I said:

"I'll give you twenty five dollah if you don't use that catheter". Everybody laughed and one of the doctors said: "Go ahead" to the doc that was going to put me to sleep. I counted backwards from ten but didn't make it past 8.

To make a long story short, I made it past the surgery and stayed there for roughly a week when they transferred me back to the VA in Shreveport where the Oncologist met with us to deliver the news about the biopsy.

The Chief of Staff for Oncology met with us and announced that the biopsy was in. He said:

"Mr. Butler, I wish I had good news for you but your biopsy shows that the tumor was  Glioblastoma Multiform Grade 4 and it's the worst brain cancer on the planet. You have 3 months to 12 months to live".

In response to his statement, I didn't say anything at first. He asked me if I had something to say a couple of times before I responded. He mentioned to Tim Jr that he thought I was in denial and that's when I decided to speak up. I asked him if he had ever been shot down in a helicopter while flying in Cambodia. He said "NO, of course not" and I said: "When people tell me how screwed up stuff is I always ask "Compared to what?"

After that, I told him that I only wanted to live long enough to see the birth of a Grand Baby and kill terrorists". With that, he promptly sent me to the mental health department.

As you can see from the above story, I'm real excited about today's birthday party and the fact that Baby Butler #2 will be here around the 21st of June. Ooorah. Happy Birthday, Nora.