In lodging and transportation costs on Mary Walter in Washington, D C. Now the Fisher House story, in their own words continue. My wife came to visit and I picked her up at the airport. And she said, there's something definitely wrong with you. We gotta go to the emergency room. Next. We need to military doctors Colonel Rob Holmes and Colonel Cindy Holmes from the Army Dental Court. Oh, yeah, they're married and she remains active duty. He's retired and in treatment. We caught up with them at Bethesda Fisher House number five. Now, in their own words, Here's their Fisher House story. Hi. My name is Rob Holmes from Chicago, Illinois and joined the military to help pay for school. I joined the reserves and I was in the reserves for National Guard, actually, for four years while I was in dental school. And after I graduated dental school on active duty and served 30 years active duty as a dentist in the dental corps, and then retired past August and Health issues kind of came up and ended up here. Well, I was up in Alaska building a cabin for a retirement home and my wife came to visit and I picked her up at the airport. And she said, there's something definitely wrong with you. We gotta go to the emergency room. So we went to the emergency room, and the reason for that was because I was acting strangely and I started kind of stumbling and losing my balance my equilibrium and they did a CT of my head and found a big tumor about the size of her fist was six centimeters by seven centimeters. My name is Cindy Holmes and I'm robs Homes wife. We currently live in Augusta, Georgia, actually, just a little bit outside Dagestan. Apple in Georgia, right outside of Fort Gordon. I'm still active duty and we were separated for about three weeks because I'm still working, and he's retired. And actually, you know, we talked to him every day and I could tell over the phone that there was something wrong with him and actually looking back at the past six months had noticed that his personal it's personality was changing. And but it was very Suttles. I wasn't too sure what it Woz and I knew that he should consult with a doctor thinking Maybe it's just, you know, having a hard time. Adjusting to retirement. But anyway, all this to say that the last two weeks before he was diagnosed with the two are they just mentioned I could tell on the phone when I was talking to him while I was in Augusta, Georgia, Anne was in Alaska. That he his cognition was didn't seem quite right. He seemed very like, um, detached, like not part of the conversation. I had some friends. I have some friends in Alaska that were telling me that rub was not acting himself. They were really worried about him. And one point. Actually, I didn't even talk to him for 40 something hours because he didn't even realize that we had not been talking and he was not thinking of charge. In your cell phone, and we're there in Alaska in the middle of nowhere. They're hard to reach him. So anyway, all this to say that I was really looking forward to going back to see him. And actually, on the 16th of June, I was flying from Georgia to Alaska on a night flight. And when I landed in Anchorage, Alaska, and 17th, I saw my husband like having a hard time walking like he's he's drunk. You know, he's walking, very crooked. He's slurring his speech. I can see is processing information very slowly and that was like While this is this is very bad. You know, I could tell there was something allow. You know, It was a lot more obvious than just over the phone and I told him I said Rob, we have to go to the ER because there's something very wrong. He didn't want to go because he didn't recognize how serious that wa so I forced him and said, I'm going to do the talking. You don't have toe The talks that we went to the ER to make a long story short stew late to make a try to think what you did took us again and of his brain. And suddenly he had a big tumor way. Decided to come here at Walter Reed actually worked here back in 2013 for a year, and I knew the team here of providers is just incredible. So we came here to the ER and the admitted him as an in patient. And they actually found out also through a, uh, another skin that he that brain tumor is coming actually, from a long cancer and my husband Rob is never smoked, actually. So we were shocked and when you have a big tumor like that in the head six by seven centimeters. Rob was very scared that they were going to do the surgery. Two days we got here at Walter Reed. Actually, on 19. June I had taken a night flight, and we had already been in the hospital for two days up in the last guy, And by the time we were here, we had not slept for a long time and flying from Alaska was long, very exhausted. And these so we stay in the hospital. They scheduled his brain surgery for just two days after we got here. And Rob was terrified that you know, with a big tumor like that he would wake up with Not all this cognition is his personality. Personality would a change even more acutely than I had changed already, So we really wanted this family and actually my family to come and see him. He wanted to see them before the surgery because he was afraid he wouldn't be the same person. That day we asked. We had the social worker and impatient social worker who said that she could set us up and This Fisher house and at that point in time with the boys, not for my husband and I was for the family because they wanted to come and see him because myself and Rob we were staying in the hospital. So Fisher houses again. Just not for you know the patient and this house, but also for The family who's coming to, you know, get support. So it meant a lot to me to have that because by the time I actually saw a bed in the Fisher House had not slept for 50 something hours And even though I was staying in the hospital, I didn't want him to be alone because I know he was terrified, so I would be with him in the hospital and then in the day When his mom and sister were able to be with him in the hospital. I would go to the room at the Fisher house, Take a shower, get changed, and so on, like, kind of regroup. Take a nap for a couple of hours because I was exhausted and then went back to the hospital. So if I didn't have the Fisher House, I would have been able to do that. This is the Fisher House story in their own words. Stories of military service and how 85 Fisher houses in the U. S. And around the world serve our military veterans and their families. If your host Mary Walter, from Washington, D. C first time I walked into the Fisher house. I was amazed. I saw well decorated well cared for just beautiful places that didn't look anything like a hotel. Looks like a house like someone lived there, and they were opening their doors to us. And then after I was there for a couple days, I realized that it's much more than a house that it's It's a social network, and it's kind of like a fraternity. Really, because you've got all these other families. They're all going through different situations, but they're just equally as a distraught and thankful to have the resource is that are available here. That the common area at first seemed like kind of a weird thing that you're sharing dinner space and kitchen space and living space with people you've never met before, And then it becomes a real comfort. You know, we've we've learned their stories. They've learned ours and way always asked about how each other's doing and offer support. It's just been a great experience both logistically and psychologically. Hello. This Cindy Holmes. I'm Rob's forms wife. He's a retired Army colonel. We're from Fort Gordon, Georgia. And you're listening to a new edition of the Fisher House story brought to you by Fisher House dot orc..