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November 30, 2008
The past few days
We had a quiet Thanksgiving Day here at home this past Thursday. It was a bright sunny morning but rainy the rest of the day. Dear friends came over in the afternoon and brought a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with them. We took time to read about the first Thanksgiving and shared what each person was the most thankful for while we ate.
On Friday, Karen had the fluid build-up in her abdomen drained again. This time they removed three liters. This relieved a lot of the pressure and pain that has been building up over this past week. But afterward she was still very weak and unable to eat more than a few spoonfuls at dinnertime.
Saturday went a bit better. Karen was able to eat more and we had a good visit from long-time friends coming from Seattle and St. Louis.
Today, Sunday, we made it to church and enjoyed the worship, teaching and fellowship. The sun was shining when we got out of church so I took Karen for a short wheel chair ride along the sidewalks near the church. The fresh air and sunshine did us both good -a real gift from God. She has only been able to eat about a half a cup of soup today. She continues to weaken in body but not in spirit.
Posted by David at 4:26 PM
November 19, 2008
Catching up
Last week was busy for us with four prayer meetings for OMF missionaries including the one for Cambodia where we said farewell to Daniel and Suzanne Prak who returned to Cambodia on Tuesday.
On Sunday afternoon we took Wil to a preview weekend at Corban College in Salem, OR. Wil spent the night in one of the dorms while we stayed with Jim and Louise Morris, retired OMFers. On Monday we attended several sessions for parents, a chapel service and sat in on a class. Wil is looking at Corban and several other schools here in Oregon.
On Tuesday I lead my morning Bible study at church and then went in for my chemo treatment and then went to our church’s missions prayer meeting in the evening. Today I have not been feeling well, pain levels have been higher and nausea has kept me from eating very much. The hospice nurse will be coming to see me on Thursday and I have an appointment on Friday afternoon to have the fluid drained from my abdomen again. Hopefully that will relieve the pressure and pain I am feeling today.
Posted by David at 11:13 PM
November 8, 2008
Feeling drained
Another appointment was scheduled for November 7 to try to drain my abdomen. I can’t say the procedure went perfectly, but the radiologist was able to get a catheter in safely and drain 2.2 litres of fluid. There is more there, but this helped greatly to reduce the pressure on the abdomen. Now I can sit comfortably again to read and write emails. I had taken Vicodin and even morphine to try to get the pain under control.
We have also asked for the support of the Kaiser Hospice team. When Ben was ill we learned how quick and good they are at handling palliative care and my co-pay on medications is covered as well. We’ve been able to talk more with Wil about how he is processing all of this. Basically he isn’t ready to give up hope of a cure for me, but does understand that my time here may be fairly short. We had parent-teacher conferences with Wil’s teachers yesterday and are grateful that despite the academic and sports pressure, he received all As for the first quarter. We are very proud of him.
Posted by David at 3:58 PM
November 3, 2008
Started a new chemo today
Dave and I really appreciated having a few days to digest the news from Dr. Bigler before my regular monthly appointment today. We had lots of questions and he was patient in answering. It appears that the pain in my pelvis is also caused by the spread of tumors. Until now there was nothing definitive on the scan. So now the cancer has spread to every organ it can and I am faced with cancer side effects, not just chemo side effects. My counts were good today and I was able to have a new chemo. This one I will receive each week for three weeks followed by a week off. Whether the blood counts will remain good enough to continue treatment remains to be seen. We also discussed pain management and Dr. Bigler recommended switching to Vicodin along with stool softeners to handle constipation. I talked to Elena, Dr. P’s wife on Saturday and she recommended several natural ways to relieve the pain in my swollen abdomen. The first involves taking castor oil! Not drinking it, but rubbing it on my stomach, then covering it with a flannel cloth, plastic, and lastly a heating pad. That has given more relief than anything I have tried. And this, along with Vicodin, gave me a number of pain free hours today. I am still not able to eat enough to keep my weight and energy levels up. Pray that nausea will not be a big problem with this new chemo drug.
I was not able to have the procedure last Thursday to drain some of the fluid in my abdomen because the ultrasound technician was unable to find a safe place to insert a catheter. Apparently my bowels are floating all over the place, making it hazardous to insert a catheter. Not getting the catheter meant I was able to go to Wil’s district soccer game. He scored the only goal for their team and they all played really well, so I would not have wanted to miss it. His next game is tomorrow (Tuesday) in the State playoffs.
Pray for good weather and that I will feel well enough to attend.
Posted by David at 8:34 PM