Posts
I am so happy to be blogging right now. It has been a very long day from sun up to sun down and beyond. I am actually sitting down for once. Don't get me wrong. I do sit in the doc office but it is not the same. There is always something to do there.
We were running late today and Gary was getting hydration and he was done so we got him into his wheelchair and proceeded to ask Kristen to unhook so we could run. We thought we could escape without blood work. We were wrong and now we have to be at Hoag tomorrow morning (bright and early) to get blood transfusions. His blood count fell fast this time. I was a little shocked only because he looks so great. He must have what we call the "chemo tan". Chemo sometimes gives you a flushed appearance.
So, blood transfusions and then back to the Birch office by 10:45 for an MRI of Gary's spine that should take upwards of 2 hours. Needless to say it will be another long day for both of us.
The boys are looking forward to the weekend. They LOVE Fridays and so do I! No lunch packing and clothes washing and homework for 2 hours every day. No waking them early and rushing out to doctor appointments. It will be a nice break. Just pray that we stay out of the hospital this weekend.
Gary has a 103 degree fever right now. I gave him Tylenol and am watching him. I hope he does not start shaking because I did not even think to ask Dr. Barth for steroids to stop the shaking. When he was in the hospital he had to have the steroids all the time for the shaking and they worked beautifully.
We had an appointment with Dr. Ashkenaze on Wednesday. He is the Neurosurgeon that will implant the pain management system. He was so nice and so caring and we both instantly liked him. He ordered this MRI that will be done in Barth's office tomorrow and we will proceed from there. Gary will be in the hospital 1-2 days following the procedure. In the meantime we will keep him doped up on all of his pain meds in hopes to keep him somewhat and sometimes semi comfortable.
I am going to go get Nate now and bring him downstairs so that I can go to sleep hopefully. The boys take turns sleeping in our room downstairs but I don't like to get them until I am close to turning the lights out. They go to bed at 7:30 each night and hopefully we do not keep them awake too much during the course of the night hours.
Nate did something that brought tears to my eyes. Quiet little Nate. Reserved is sometimes how I perceive Nate. Picture this. I am driving and the boys are all in the backseat. It is quiet and out of nowhere Nate busts out in TRUE RAPPER STYLE - the movement, the voice, the tone, the everything. You have to say it to yourself anunciating the words, sharp and hard.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. How I wonder what you are. Yo Yo.
Is Nate part Brother or what? It was just what I needed. Where in the world did that come from? Is that a Guitar Hero thing or a Rock Band thing? Whatever it is IT WAS FUNNY!
On that note, Goodnight and Sleep Tight!
Remember to say your prayers!
Love,
L
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
DAY IN REVIEW
Tonight Jax had an extra credit assignment to write a letter to someone. He wanted to write to our neighbor Bette who is also struggling with cancer. The boys love spending time at her house. It is loaded with trinkets and all sorts of interesting stuff. So, he wrote the letter and we delivered it today. He wrote and thanked Bette for being such a nice lady. It was super cute and it was so awesome that it was all his idea.
Nate is a DS hog! That kid LOVES playing his DS and the Wii. Trying to get him to do anything else once he is fixated on one of those things is literally impossible. When I tell him that it is time to put it away he really has a hard time doing it. He can be such a booger but he always has a smile on that cute face of his!
Zach has been bugging me to go to Sport Chalet or Chicks or Sports Authority. He does not let up either. "Mom, can we go?" "Mom. When can we go?" "Mom. You said we could go." "Mom, we don't have baseball today." "Mom, what are your plans this afternoon?" OMG - It goes on and on. I finally cave and tell him that I will take him today and then ask why he wants to go so bad.
His exact response was as follows:
"Can't a man just go to a store like Sport Chalet and just look around and shop sometimes? Is that too much to ask? There are so many things to look at and do unlike when we go shopping with you. You take forever and never buy anything. Men just like to go to stores like this and this is where we do our shopping."
Are you kidding me? A man I ask? HE IS 9 YEARS OLD. He cracks me up!
Sure enough I took all three kids and he looked around just like he said he would do. I guess he needed his "man time".
Gary had a long day today. We were at the Birch office by 8:30 and home at 2:30. He had a full dose of chemo today. To make a long story short Gary had an allergic reaction to the Celebrex he was on. After reading the warning online and contacting the pharmacy it finally made sense to me why he has been having so many odd symptoms over the past 4 days. I thought he was going crazy. Come to find out that people who are allergic to Sulfa should not take Celebrex. Gary is always going to be the one who reacts to things adversely.
I gave him Benedryl tonight along with all of his other drugs and he has to be at Dr. Arata's office tomorrow morning at 9 AM for another attemp at a nerve block. We have an appt. with the neurosurgeon in Laguna tomorrow at 2:45 PM to plan his surgery for the neuropathic receptors (Precision Plus System).
He is sleeping right now and I am trying to play catch up on laundry, dishes, making lunches, and taking a shower. Hopefully we will get some sleep tonight.
I will update tomorrow after our appointments.
My friend Kathy has the greatest license plate. It says PRACTICE RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS. I try to remember that every day when I am out and about and I am so proud that Jax did that today and doesn't even really know what a huge impact it had on Bette!
Love and Hugs,
Lisa
Nate is a DS hog! That kid LOVES playing his DS and the Wii. Trying to get him to do anything else once he is fixated on one of those things is literally impossible. When I tell him that it is time to put it away he really has a hard time doing it. He can be such a booger but he always has a smile on that cute face of his!
Zach has been bugging me to go to Sport Chalet or Chicks or Sports Authority. He does not let up either. "Mom, can we go?" "Mom. When can we go?" "Mom. You said we could go." "Mom, we don't have baseball today." "Mom, what are your plans this afternoon?" OMG - It goes on and on. I finally cave and tell him that I will take him today and then ask why he wants to go so bad.
His exact response was as follows:
"Can't a man just go to a store like Sport Chalet and just look around and shop sometimes? Is that too much to ask? There are so many things to look at and do unlike when we go shopping with you. You take forever and never buy anything. Men just like to go to stores like this and this is where we do our shopping."
Are you kidding me? A man I ask? HE IS 9 YEARS OLD. He cracks me up!
Sure enough I took all three kids and he looked around just like he said he would do. I guess he needed his "man time".
Gary had a long day today. We were at the Birch office by 8:30 and home at 2:30. He had a full dose of chemo today. To make a long story short Gary had an allergic reaction to the Celebrex he was on. After reading the warning online and contacting the pharmacy it finally made sense to me why he has been having so many odd symptoms over the past 4 days. I thought he was going crazy. Come to find out that people who are allergic to Sulfa should not take Celebrex. Gary is always going to be the one who reacts to things adversely.
I gave him Benedryl tonight along with all of his other drugs and he has to be at Dr. Arata's office tomorrow morning at 9 AM for another attemp at a nerve block. We have an appt. with the neurosurgeon in Laguna tomorrow at 2:45 PM to plan his surgery for the neuropathic receptors (Precision Plus System).
He is sleeping right now and I am trying to play catch up on laundry, dishes, making lunches, and taking a shower. Hopefully we will get some sleep tonight.
I will update tomorrow after our appointments.
My friend Kathy has the greatest license plate. It says PRACTICE RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS. I try to remember that every day when I am out and about and I am so proud that Jax did that today and doesn't even really know what a huge impact it had on Bette!
Love and Hugs,
Lisa
Monday, October 6, 2008
CHEMO X4
Good evening. I realize it is late so I will be brief.
Gary had one chemo drug today and will have three more tomorrow morning. The drugs tomorrow are the wicked ones and they are the ones that wreak the most havoc on his system.
WE WILL NEED BLOOD DONORS THIS WEEK AT HOAG'S DONOR CENTER.
Usually on the 8th day from the start of chemo Gary needs blood. So, if anyone that is 0+ or 0- and is eligible to give blood could do so then that would be more than awesome! 764-5621 is the number to the Hoag Blood Donor Center and as long as you give it before the weekend it should be ready to go for him by next week. REMEMBER to donate for Gary's personal bank when you go in. How great is it that so many of you have taken one for the team and shed your blood for Gary! We are so grateful!!!
Gary's pain is being managed by the fentynl drip and the "button" that delivers an extra 50 mcg. every 10 minutes. It is just an insane amount of drugs and we are hoping that as soon as this stimulator is in place that he can back off of these drugs. We know it takes time to dial the program into the machine that will control his pain. We are having to wait a little longer than expected to have the surgery because of the chemo schedule. His counts (white, red and platelets) will drop harshly around the 8th day and in order to have the surgery he has got to be strong. So, the cancer takes the front stage and the pain will have to continue to be treated with meds in the meantime. I guess we have to prioritize the battles at this stage in the game.
We will most likely plan to have the surgery sometime during the week of Oct. 20.
Gary had a decent day. He is in loads of pain but managed to eat 3 meals and smile a little. We even snuggled while he received chemo today at Barth's office. We don't get to do that very often. I miss that and I will take it anytime he is comfy enough to give it!
It is Nate's turn tonight to sleep on the floor in our room. I love that the boys love to be in here. It is a little challenging getting around them but I will manage.
Love, Hugs and Prayers to you all!
Goodnight
Lisa :)
Gary had one chemo drug today and will have three more tomorrow morning. The drugs tomorrow are the wicked ones and they are the ones that wreak the most havoc on his system.
WE WILL NEED BLOOD DONORS THIS WEEK AT HOAG'S DONOR CENTER.
Usually on the 8th day from the start of chemo Gary needs blood. So, if anyone that is 0+ or 0- and is eligible to give blood could do so then that would be more than awesome! 764-5621 is the number to the Hoag Blood Donor Center and as long as you give it before the weekend it should be ready to go for him by next week. REMEMBER to donate for Gary's personal bank when you go in. How great is it that so many of you have taken one for the team and shed your blood for Gary! We are so grateful!!!
Gary's pain is being managed by the fentynl drip and the "button" that delivers an extra 50 mcg. every 10 minutes. It is just an insane amount of drugs and we are hoping that as soon as this stimulator is in place that he can back off of these drugs. We know it takes time to dial the program into the machine that will control his pain. We are having to wait a little longer than expected to have the surgery because of the chemo schedule. His counts (white, red and platelets) will drop harshly around the 8th day and in order to have the surgery he has got to be strong. So, the cancer takes the front stage and the pain will have to continue to be treated with meds in the meantime. I guess we have to prioritize the battles at this stage in the game.
We will most likely plan to have the surgery sometime during the week of Oct. 20.
Gary had a decent day. He is in loads of pain but managed to eat 3 meals and smile a little. We even snuggled while he received chemo today at Barth's office. We don't get to do that very often. I miss that and I will take it anytime he is comfy enough to give it!
It is Nate's turn tonight to sleep on the floor in our room. I love that the boys love to be in here. It is a little challenging getting around them but I will manage.
Love, Hugs and Prayers to you all!
Goodnight
Lisa :)
THE PAST * THE PRESENT * THE FUTURE
I grew up in Mission Viejo by the Lake. Gary grew up in Missouri and then moved to El Toro when he was 9.
I grew up next to the Marsh Family. They had 2 boys and one of them was a good friend of Gary's. When I was Zach's age I used to ride my banana seat bike in our cul-de-sac. I had the coolest bike. It had a basket and a horn on the front.
During that same time I had the greatest collection of barbies complete with the Dream House! I used to make my barbies get married and have babies (they just had them and I did not even know how to make THAT happen at that age)!
I can remember spending hours sitting in my Yellow Holly Hobby room and dreaming about my wedding and my babies and my future.
I was going to meet my knight in shining armor and have a grand wedding with the perfect dress (which I did) and live in a house with a picket fence (I like my house but it has no fence). I wanted 2 kids (thank God I got my 3) and to live in complete and utter marital bliss forever and ever (have the marital bliss but am uncertain as far as the timing goes).
I pictured myself growing old with my spouse and spoiling our grandchildren. I often had images in my head of us holding hands and walking down the beach. We would have a house near our kids and our kids would be super duper rich and support us as we traveled around the world! (BTW - they don't know our intentions yet. We'll ease them into that!).
Well, back to when I was Zach's age. In that same cul-de-sac that I mentioned above my future knight in shining armor used to drive up in his AMC Ambassador to my neighbors house as I rode around on my bike. Gary was 16 at the time and I was 9. He was a rowdy teenager at El Toro HIgh School and I was just learning my multiplication facts and looking forward to my recess at Del Lago Elementary.
My Knight was right there so many years before we even met. I saw him all the time and had no idea who he even was. How lucky I am that our paths crossed once again and my dreams came true when we were married February 16, 1996.
As I fast forward to the present I think about the latter part of my day dreams. The part where we grow old together and live off of our kids! The part where we have an empty nest and we take long walks on the beach and travel to the most amazing parts of the world.
I truly hope that my dreams that I have for Gary and for me come true. This is the way I WANT my life to go. However, does God have different plans for the two of us? Are his dreams for my life the same as my dreams and desires for my life? I do not know the answer to that question but I do know this much............
I am going to be okay no matter what. I have surrendered my life to God and I put everything in His hands. I have a peace that transcends understanding. Do I wish things were different for the two of us? Of course I do. Do I ask God to heal Gary? Every single day.
We all have things we wish were different.
Some of us wish we would have had a better childhood. We wished our parents would have payed more attention to us. Some of us wish we would not have been abused or the person that we so desperately loved wouldn't have let us down or left us. Some of us were/are victims of abuse or exposed to violence. Some were exposed to parents with drug or alcohol addiction. Some had verbally abusive parents or family members.
Maybe you feel like your life is crumbling all around you. Some of you have lost your jobs or have been trying for a long time to get a job. Some people have come dangerously close to losing their homes and are fighting with their spouses. There are so many negative scenarios and I could go on and on but I won't.
I do want to say that we all have choices to make. We can hide behind our circumstances and the pain of what we have all been through. We can make excuses for behavior related to our pain and suffering and we can allow ourselves to become depressed and saddened about how things have turned out for us.
OR
We can choose to embrace our past, present and future and find the goodness and sunshine in every set of circumstances we face. I am a true believer that you can pull a positive out of every single negative no matter how great the negative might be. The glass is either half empty or half full. We can be sad that things have not gone OUR way and we can pout and stomp our feet and let this prevent us from growing and moving forward and learning and changing OR we can rejoice in ALL of the blessings that have been bestowed upon us by God and focus on the good!
Our lives are not perfect and noone ever promised they would be. You have to gain perspective.
I am scared. I do not want to be alone and raise 3 boys by myself. I do not want to be a widow and lose my best friend. I could pull so many negatives out of what Gary and I are going through right now. Even though I think about these things I do not allow them to paralyze me or control my heart and mind. Instead I really try to focus on the great things that are right in front of my face each day. The small moments. The things that are seemingly insignificant to most of us. A smile. A laugh. A stupid joke.
No matter what has happened to you in your past, in the present, or what you think might happen in your future always remember to look for the positives in every situation and take time to smile and laugh. For some it can happen during the toughest of times and for others it might take a long time for that to manifest. Whatever the timing is it is always God's perfect timing and not our own.
Don't focus on the what coulda, shoulda or woulda been for you. Focus on what is and how you can make your life the very best it can be in everything you face!
I hope noone is confused. I have all these thoughts and I want to share them. Life is so precious and wonderful. I want everyone to have life to the fullest here on this earth until it is time for us to go home and be with our Heavenly Father.
We want you to learn from our experience. Learn through our mistakes and gleen what you can from our victories!
Love to all of our family and friends who are doing life with us! Thank you for accompanying us on this journey.
We will pray for you and ask for you to pray for us.
Love,
Lisa
BTW - Gary is hanging in there and I will give you a detailed update tomorrow. Too much information for me to write tonight.
BTW2 - This was not meant to be some Tony Robbins Rah Rah!
I grew up next to the Marsh Family. They had 2 boys and one of them was a good friend of Gary's. When I was Zach's age I used to ride my banana seat bike in our cul-de-sac. I had the coolest bike. It had a basket and a horn on the front.
During that same time I had the greatest collection of barbies complete with the Dream House! I used to make my barbies get married and have babies (they just had them and I did not even know how to make THAT happen at that age)!
I can remember spending hours sitting in my Yellow Holly Hobby room and dreaming about my wedding and my babies and my future.
I was going to meet my knight in shining armor and have a grand wedding with the perfect dress (which I did) and live in a house with a picket fence (I like my house but it has no fence). I wanted 2 kids (thank God I got my 3) and to live in complete and utter marital bliss forever and ever (have the marital bliss but am uncertain as far as the timing goes).
I pictured myself growing old with my spouse and spoiling our grandchildren. I often had images in my head of us holding hands and walking down the beach. We would have a house near our kids and our kids would be super duper rich and support us as we traveled around the world! (BTW - they don't know our intentions yet. We'll ease them into that!).
Well, back to when I was Zach's age. In that same cul-de-sac that I mentioned above my future knight in shining armor used to drive up in his AMC Ambassador to my neighbors house as I rode around on my bike. Gary was 16 at the time and I was 9. He was a rowdy teenager at El Toro HIgh School and I was just learning my multiplication facts and looking forward to my recess at Del Lago Elementary.
My Knight was right there so many years before we even met. I saw him all the time and had no idea who he even was. How lucky I am that our paths crossed once again and my dreams came true when we were married February 16, 1996.
As I fast forward to the present I think about the latter part of my day dreams. The part where we grow old together and live off of our kids! The part where we have an empty nest and we take long walks on the beach and travel to the most amazing parts of the world.
I truly hope that my dreams that I have for Gary and for me come true. This is the way I WANT my life to go. However, does God have different plans for the two of us? Are his dreams for my life the same as my dreams and desires for my life? I do not know the answer to that question but I do know this much............
I am going to be okay no matter what. I have surrendered my life to God and I put everything in His hands. I have a peace that transcends understanding. Do I wish things were different for the two of us? Of course I do. Do I ask God to heal Gary? Every single day.
We all have things we wish were different.
Some of us wish we would have had a better childhood. We wished our parents would have payed more attention to us. Some of us wish we would not have been abused or the person that we so desperately loved wouldn't have let us down or left us. Some of us were/are victims of abuse or exposed to violence. Some were exposed to parents with drug or alcohol addiction. Some had verbally abusive parents or family members.
Maybe you feel like your life is crumbling all around you. Some of you have lost your jobs or have been trying for a long time to get a job. Some people have come dangerously close to losing their homes and are fighting with their spouses. There are so many negative scenarios and I could go on and on but I won't.
I do want to say that we all have choices to make. We can hide behind our circumstances and the pain of what we have all been through. We can make excuses for behavior related to our pain and suffering and we can allow ourselves to become depressed and saddened about how things have turned out for us.
OR
We can choose to embrace our past, present and future and find the goodness and sunshine in every set of circumstances we face. I am a true believer that you can pull a positive out of every single negative no matter how great the negative might be. The glass is either half empty or half full. We can be sad that things have not gone OUR way and we can pout and stomp our feet and let this prevent us from growing and moving forward and learning and changing OR we can rejoice in ALL of the blessings that have been bestowed upon us by God and focus on the good!
Our lives are not perfect and noone ever promised they would be. You have to gain perspective.
I am scared. I do not want to be alone and raise 3 boys by myself. I do not want to be a widow and lose my best friend. I could pull so many negatives out of what Gary and I are going through right now. Even though I think about these things I do not allow them to paralyze me or control my heart and mind. Instead I really try to focus on the great things that are right in front of my face each day. The small moments. The things that are seemingly insignificant to most of us. A smile. A laugh. A stupid joke.
No matter what has happened to you in your past, in the present, or what you think might happen in your future always remember to look for the positives in every situation and take time to smile and laugh. For some it can happen during the toughest of times and for others it might take a long time for that to manifest. Whatever the timing is it is always God's perfect timing and not our own.
Don't focus on the what coulda, shoulda or woulda been for you. Focus on what is and how you can make your life the very best it can be in everything you face!
I hope noone is confused. I have all these thoughts and I want to share them. Life is so precious and wonderful. I want everyone to have life to the fullest here on this earth until it is time for us to go home and be with our Heavenly Father.
We want you to learn from our experience. Learn through our mistakes and gleen what you can from our victories!
Love to all of our family and friends who are doing life with us! Thank you for accompanying us on this journey.
We will pray for you and ask for you to pray for us.
Love,
Lisa
BTW - Gary is hanging in there and I will give you a detailed update tomorrow. Too much information for me to write tonight.
BTW2 - This was not meant to be some Tony Robbins Rah Rah!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Precision Plus Pain Management
Good Morning. We had a VERY long night last night. Gary was up ALL NIGHT LONG with pain. It seems that the Precision Plus Device is not completely working at this time.
I asked Gary to try to explain to me how this pain was different than the original and it leaves me a little confused.
The original pain was sciatic nerve pain.
Then he got relief with just some minor irritation from the electrical currents.
Then, he started feeling an overwhelming sensation of tingling and numbness (like when your leg wakes up from being asleep and causes you to cramp).
Now, he has both the original pain as well as this tingling/numb sensation so the pain has become unbearable.
I have loaded him up with valium and xanax all night with the hopes that he could relax but it did not work.
So, I am calling the Rep this morning and we are meeting at Barth's office at Noon to have the leads taken out. Hopefully he can shed some light as to why this is happening. After all, this is only suppose to be a trial run and I want all the kinks worked out before we do anything permanent.
I will keep you all updated!
Love, L
I asked Gary to try to explain to me how this pain was different than the original and it leaves me a little confused.
The original pain was sciatic nerve pain.
Then he got relief with just some minor irritation from the electrical currents.
Then, he started feeling an overwhelming sensation of tingling and numbness (like when your leg wakes up from being asleep and causes you to cramp).
Now, he has both the original pain as well as this tingling/numb sensation so the pain has become unbearable.
I have loaded him up with valium and xanax all night with the hopes that he could relax but it did not work.
So, I am calling the Rep this morning and we are meeting at Barth's office at Noon to have the leads taken out. Hopefully he can shed some light as to why this is happening. After all, this is only suppose to be a trial run and I want all the kinks worked out before we do anything permanent.
I will keep you all updated!
Love, L
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Insensitive
Please forgive me for being insensitive and not giving you an update sooner. Many of you have called and texted and left messages all trying to find out what is going on with test results and pain management and I have totally been inundated with busy work and I am so sorry. I would like to give you an update now - better late than never.
We met Bob and Dr. Barth at the Day Hospital at Hoag today. Dr. Barth changed out Gary's wound dressing and removed the suchers. I think this will be much better for Gary. Dr. Barth briefly touched on the results of the CT Scans. He does not have much information for us at this time. The CT was done without contrast and therefore is not the most accurate of tests when you are searching for the slightest of changes.
Right now it would not be beneficial for Gary to have a CT with contrast until we can cleanse his kidneys and lower his creatine level. Dr. Barth did say that he did not see anything "too evil" and I guess you can look at that statement any number of ways. But the bottom line is that we don't really know anything from the scans other than the fact that Gary's lungs are clean and even this small victory is something to celebrate. So, we wait and are patient just as God would want us to be. We have no anxiety or worry. It is really cool to have such peace.
Gary has had zero pain in his leg! The neuro transmitter is working and we are so excited! Tomorrow they will take the transmitter out and within a 2 weeks period of time he will have the surgery to permanently implant the pain system! He will just have to endure another two weeks of pain - I say just but I don't mean it so flippantly. I told Gary that for the first time there is a light at the end of the tunnel with hope of so much less pain and suffering. It is an answer to patience and prayer and we can't wait.
I have to get the kids down but wanted to touch base with everyone.
Happy October!
Love,
Lisa
We met Bob and Dr. Barth at the Day Hospital at Hoag today. Dr. Barth changed out Gary's wound dressing and removed the suchers. I think this will be much better for Gary. Dr. Barth briefly touched on the results of the CT Scans. He does not have much information for us at this time. The CT was done without contrast and therefore is not the most accurate of tests when you are searching for the slightest of changes.
Right now it would not be beneficial for Gary to have a CT with contrast until we can cleanse his kidneys and lower his creatine level. Dr. Barth did say that he did not see anything "too evil" and I guess you can look at that statement any number of ways. But the bottom line is that we don't really know anything from the scans other than the fact that Gary's lungs are clean and even this small victory is something to celebrate. So, we wait and are patient just as God would want us to be. We have no anxiety or worry. It is really cool to have such peace.
Gary has had zero pain in his leg! The neuro transmitter is working and we are so excited! Tomorrow they will take the transmitter out and within a 2 weeks period of time he will have the surgery to permanently implant the pain system! He will just have to endure another two weeks of pain - I say just but I don't mean it so flippantly. I told Gary that for the first time there is a light at the end of the tunnel with hope of so much less pain and suffering. It is an answer to patience and prayer and we can't wait.
I have to get the kids down but wanted to touch base with everyone.
Happy October!
Love,
Lisa
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
10 hours
Can you believe we spent 10 hours in Dr. Barth's office today? Gary is so incredibly whipped and he is totally unresponsive right now. He is snoring after eating a piece of Round Table Pizza and he looks rather comfortable for once. He does look better tonight. HIs coloring is better and he does not look twisted in pain. Maybe we are taking a turn for the better finally.
I am super tired and I can hardly imagine how tired Gary is. I didn't do anything today and I am still tired.
We got to the office at 8 AM and they placed the receptors in his spinal space. The stimulus worked and we programmed it. Within about an hour his pain came back FULL THROTTLE in the left leg and the stimulus worked only in the right leg where he does not need it! So, at 3:30 this afternoon they put him back into the procedure area and readjusted the receptors. When they hooked him up to the CT they discovered that the receptors had slipped about 2 CM. They think this is due to his weakness and atrophy in his muscles. So, they placed it very high to offset the mere fact that it would probably slip once again. It seems to be working and if all goes well then they will remove the receptors on Friday and do the permanant placement/surgery 2 weeks from today. They have to wait to clean out the spinal space to prevent infection.
After meeting with Dr. Barth we learned that he was somewhat concerned with Gary's urine output as well as the amount of bile secretion he has been having over the past 24 hours. His creatine levels are off as well so he ordered CT scans TODAY on his lungs, pelvis and abdomen. Thaty is the procedure that ended our day today.
The office outfitted him with a 3 litre bag of fluids and a pump to keep him hydrated for the night. That machine coupled with the noise from the feeding tube is so stinking loud. I hope to get used to the sound.
We go to the day hospital tomorrow at 8:30 am for wound care and removal of the stitches and retention suchers. Dr. Barth and Bob will replace the retention suchers with a thing called Montgomery Laces. This will hold the wound together as it heals without compromising the skin like the other ones do.
I am not looking forward to 8:30 AM. I am a little concerned about the CT results. Gary has had chemo and radiation all to combat the cancer and to try to reverse the cancer. It is a little scary not knowing what is going to come next. I am not worrying but I am nervous to find out where we stand. I told you all last night that I have been gravely concerned with his functionality and awareness and I have hoped that it is just from exhaustion and treatment and not that his body is shutting down. Only tomorrow will tell.
Please be praying for us in the morning.
Good night and Sleep Tight!
Love,
Lisa
I am super tired and I can hardly imagine how tired Gary is. I didn't do anything today and I am still tired.
We got to the office at 8 AM and they placed the receptors in his spinal space. The stimulus worked and we programmed it. Within about an hour his pain came back FULL THROTTLE in the left leg and the stimulus worked only in the right leg where he does not need it! So, at 3:30 this afternoon they put him back into the procedure area and readjusted the receptors. When they hooked him up to the CT they discovered that the receptors had slipped about 2 CM. They think this is due to his weakness and atrophy in his muscles. So, they placed it very high to offset the mere fact that it would probably slip once again. It seems to be working and if all goes well then they will remove the receptors on Friday and do the permanant placement/surgery 2 weeks from today. They have to wait to clean out the spinal space to prevent infection.
After meeting with Dr. Barth we learned that he was somewhat concerned with Gary's urine output as well as the amount of bile secretion he has been having over the past 24 hours. His creatine levels are off as well so he ordered CT scans TODAY on his lungs, pelvis and abdomen. Thaty is the procedure that ended our day today.
The office outfitted him with a 3 litre bag of fluids and a pump to keep him hydrated for the night. That machine coupled with the noise from the feeding tube is so stinking loud. I hope to get used to the sound.
We go to the day hospital tomorrow at 8:30 am for wound care and removal of the stitches and retention suchers. Dr. Barth and Bob will replace the retention suchers with a thing called Montgomery Laces. This will hold the wound together as it heals without compromising the skin like the other ones do.
I am not looking forward to 8:30 AM. I am a little concerned about the CT results. Gary has had chemo and radiation all to combat the cancer and to try to reverse the cancer. It is a little scary not knowing what is going to come next. I am not worrying but I am nervous to find out where we stand. I told you all last night that I have been gravely concerned with his functionality and awareness and I have hoped that it is just from exhaustion and treatment and not that his body is shutting down. Only tomorrow will tell.
Please be praying for us in the morning.
Good night and Sleep Tight!
Love,
Lisa
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