visit with oncologist

Hi Friends,
We saw Dr. Suh, the oncologist this afternoon and he seemed unsurprised at how weak Joe was and that he was retaining fluid in his abdomen. He said this was all a result of the infection and all the IV's he got in the hospital. He was happy with the blood counts. His platelets are back to 59 from 38 and his HGB is 10.8. Hi bilirubin is still a little high at 3.8 but he thinks that is due to the infection. He wants to start chemo again next Monday if Joe continues to improve. He wants him to exercise every day to sweat the toxins out of his body. So, things are going the right way and our goal is to be able to get to Phoenix the middle of May for a week to visit Karen. We are hoping for warm air and sunshine so he can walk outside but we do have a workout area in the clubhouse. The IV antibiotics finish tomorrow and he has already started on the oral. Life will then look more normal without the medical equipment in the bedroom.
Love to you all. Thanks for all your emails and comments. God Bless Mary Anne

Happy Birthday Joe

Hi Friends,
Today is Joe's 68th birthday and he is coming home this morning. The home care nurse will be here to show me how to do the IV antibiotics for the next three days and then he will switch to oral. His spirits are great and that has to be all the prayers. He walked the hall of the hospital several times yesterday and even did two flights of stairs with P.T. His hemoglobin is up to 10 and his white count is back to normal. He got more platelets yesterday and they will do another blood count before he leaves.
We will be so happy to have him home. The "we" being Lucky and me. The kids will come over for a short visit this afternoon and bring dinner. This was a rough week and we did lots of praying at the bedside. We felt supported by all your prayers and can't thank you enough for being our friends. For the first few days, I again ask for your to use our cell phones. That way if Joe is sleeping the phone won't wake him. He is one of those people who can't just let it ring. Hugs and kisses to all of your - our devoted friends. God Bless Mary Anne

Wednesday April 23, 2008

Praise God for some good news! The colonoscopy was clear - showed nothing which was a relief. Our fear was that there was tumor causing the internal bleeding. This is not the case. He won't have any more tests at this point. It appears the bleeding has stopped because his blood count is stable. He got platelets today and he will get shots for his low white blood count daily. He will be on IV antibiotics for two more weeks, but will be able to go home sooner than that when he is stable. This was a gram negative bacillus which is a serious blood infection. But he appears to be out of the woods. Thanks so much for all your prayers and calls. Joe looks and sounds better today than he has since he got here. He is really looking forward to his first meal in three days - he had to fast because of various tests. We'll continue to keep you posted.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Joe had an endoscopy this morning and it showed no ulcer. Colonoscopy scheduled for tomorrow. He does have a blood infection, probably due to the catheter in the bile duct. Please pray for a spirit of hope and courage. He is still in intensive care so we'd like to limit visitors to family only to give him a chance to rest. Thanks for your prayers.

April 21, 2008

Hi - this is Karen writing for my mom. Dad had his first chemo last Thursday. He didn't have any nausea from it, but by Saturday he was feeling pretty weak. Sunday night he spiked a fever of 102 and had indications of internal bleeding so they went to the emergency room. His hemoglobin was 7 so they gave him two units of blood and admitted him to intensive care. This morning his hemoglobin was up to 9.9. His chest xray and urine were clear of infection so they think the temp might be caused by an infection of the catheter in his bile duct. He will probably be moved out of intensive care today. He is on 3 IV antibiotics to take care of the infection. We will keep you updated but please pray with us for strength and healing to get through this.

Karen

April 15, 2008

Hi Friends,
We saw Dr. Seigel today and Joe has the go ahead to start Gemzar on Thursday. He will get it IV on Day 1 and Day 8 and then be off for 13 days. We tried to set this up to squeeze in our trip to Phoenix to see Karen in May and Joe's fishing trip with Michael and two of his grandsons, Matthew and Connor. He will start the oral Xeloda after the first cycle of Gemzar. His bilirubin came down to 2.8 yesterday.
So our prayer concerns now are that the chemo works in shrinking the tumors, and that the side effects are minimal. They will watch his blood counts closely.
Tomorrow is supposed to be almost 70 so he is going to try and play golf for the first time this year. We're now 21 months since diagnosis and 31 months since the symptoms started so we know we have been truly blessed with all this good quality time. Take care and God bless. Mary Anne

April 11, 2008

Hi Friends,
Just talked with the oncologist on the phone and he was very happy to hear Joe's bilirubin dropped to 3.2 this week. He wants to wait one more week before starting chemo to see if it will get closer to 1 which is normal. We see him next Tuesday and will talk more about it. Joe is feeling really good and feels his strength coming back as his levels drop. We are just happy for this respite in this disease. Looking forward to a quiet weekend. Take care and God bless. Mary Anne

April 6, 2008

Well, we just finished a family weekend with all our children and grandchildren in town. There were 18 of us and it was noisy but fun. Our daughter Cassie planned many of the activities for Saturday and we were never bored. We did manage to take a family picture. We laughed a lot and Joe managed to stay up the whole day except for one short nap.
We talked to the oncologist Friday and the results of the cat scan showed there are no new sites. The tumors in the liver and lungs are still there and the one big one in the liver is quite large (12 cm x12cm x 6 cm) but that is not much change from the last time. Joe has no pain now and is working hard to gain back some strength so he can pay golf in a month. He did two big days of outside house chores getting ready for the kids this weekend. He cleaned our fish pond and set up the patio and believe it or not, we were able to sit on it Saturday with a temp of about 62. It was great to be outside even for just a bit. We took lots of pictures and laughed a lot playing couples newly-wed type games and fought a lot playing family feud from a DVD. All in all it was a memorable weekend. Cassie had each of the grandchildren write down what they liked about Grandpa and me and she read them at dinner. We only get a chance to have everyone together about once or twice a year and this was very special. Karen also had her boyfriend Mark with her this weekend and if the family picture gets on here, he is the tallest one at 6'5".
Joe will have another blood test tomorrow. Last week's bilirubin only went down to 4.2 and the doctor would like it below 3 before he starts any chemo but if it levels off or starts going up he may reconsider. As I said before normal is 1 so he is getting there. His whites of his eyes are finally getting back to white.
We are grateful for all the good times this weekend and for all the blessings God has given us in our family. Our parents gave us good models for family traditions and we're happy to be able to continue them. God bless you all and have a wonderful week. Mary Anne