It's a Wonderful Life

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sorry about the delay in posts, too much fun in the sun.   To recap our first week in Palm Beach:  Saturday night was our arrival, our trip from PHL to PBI was pretty uneventful, we loaded up on hand sanitizer and braved the flight down here, Brandon did great!   The first few days on beautiful Singer Island were a little rough, Brandon was just not Brandon.  He felt a little off, still on crutches, and his body basically felt like he just went through round 1 of chemotherapy.  Brandon and Sam spent most of their time breaking in the Ream's new condo.  I spent a lot of time reading on the balcony and Brandon took a lot of naps.  Gary and Becky brought us dinner every night and plus the condo has everything we need; DVR, PS3 and an amazing view, so trust me being stuck inside wasn't too bad;)  The only bad part about those first 2 days was the inability to make him feel better.  SNAP! It is Wednesday, Brandon wakes up feeling a little more energized and even wants Jimmy Johns!  By Wednesday night he is talking more and acting more like himself, thank you God.  Thursday morning arrives and Brandon is back!!! POOL DAY!!! Yes!  We head over to Brandon's grandparents new condo and head up to their pool, Brandon walked 20 laps, his first steps in 4-1/2 weeks, I was so proud and most importantly he was feeling great.  Did I mention that Thursday night Brandon decided to toss his crutches over the balcony into the ocean?  Well, not literally but he no longer is using his crutches.

Friday morning we had an appointment with our oncologist  at the Palm Beach Cancer Center, Dr. Bobby Green.  Dr. Staddon at Penn is close friends with Dr. Green and had arranged that we could see him for follow up appointments while in Florida.   The facilities were great (even had valet parking, fancy) and we felt really welcomed by Dr. Green.  Brandon had blood work done and Dr. Green went over some precautionary steps for our weekend.  These couple days are Brandon's most susceptible days for infection.  Don't worry we are piling up on hand sanitizer and doing our best to steer the germs away.    We will meet with Dr. Green again on Tuesday morning for a follow up appointment which will then be Day 14 of this cycle.

That brings us to today, Christmas Eve (Christmas in the Tortorello household)  We woke up this morning and celebrated "Christmas" morning with Sam's family via skype.  All 5 of Sam's siblings plus their spouses plus our 7 nieces/nephews gathered at Sam's parents house because Santa Claus came!  We were on skype for almost 3 hours watching gifts being opened.  Best part of being and aunt and uncle of 9 (soon to be 11) is their faces on days like this.  The kids would open a gift and then walk up the computer and show us what they got, it was like we were sitting right there.  It was a great day, we are now looking forward to Christmas day with the Ream's.

Just a quick note to say thank you again for all the phone calls, emails, text messages, facebook messages, tweets, cards, packages etc.  Brandon and I are extremely blessed to have such amazing friends and families.  We are in great hands and feel very loved.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I will sign off on a fun note, Brandon and Sam know 3 people who got engaged last night.  A big congrats to 2 of Sam's cousins and Brandon's best friend, Noah (and Abby)!  So many things to be happy about, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Brandon's first steps, laps in pool