skippyhawk

kelly here.

the last 24 have been full of ups and downs. yesterday they discovered that dad had some clots in the veins of one leg (not good, but not critical), and in the arteries of the other. clots in arteries are more of a problem because that means that parts of his body aren’t getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy. the doctors have decided to focus on the very large arterial clot blocking most of his leg at the hip. they put him on blood thinners to help his body deal with the rest of the clots (and prevent more from forming) in the mean time. mom apparently had some serious bouts of deja-vu yesterday as she talked to the doctors about the possibility that dad might lose some toes or his foot….yes, that foot.

it was decided to treat the main clot with drugs via a catheter at the source of the clot to limit the amount of drug spreading to the rest of his body. the choice was obvious, but a bit risky because the drug could cause the tumors to bleed out as well. they put him on a lower dose of the drug, and checked it later in the evening to make sure it was working and not causing problems. they put him in the ICU so they could keep a close eye on him.

last night, things were looking up. the big clot was dissolving, and some of the other clots were fading as well. they decided to keep it going through the night and check again this morning. there was talk of moving him out of ICU today, and possibly a trip home later in the week.

this morning, things were less good. the clot hadn’t changed since the test the night before, so they decided to stop the drugs. tomorrow (monday) he’s going to have surgery to remove the big clot. this surgery has some serious risks, which are complicated by the cancer. also, while this will fix the immediate problem, the cancer is causing the clotting, so there will still be issues. It is possible he will be able to go home eventually, providing the surgery is successful, the blood thinners do their thing, and his body cleans up the rest of the clots. but it is also possible that he might not. (wow that was hard to type)

i wish i had better news for all of you. i can’t tell you how much your support has meant to both my parents in the past few months. they are enjoying your comments on this blog as much as you are. please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

much love,
kelly

In the last post Bob told you how good he felt, chemo sabe was taking a break and life was pretty good. Now not so much!

The boy is back in the hospital, this time with blood clots in his legs. He was having pain in his leg yesterday and this morning, so we call the doctor, went in and just like last time went straight to the hospital. Right now we are just sorta waiting around for the treatments to begin and get the real scoop from the doctor.

I’ll post more later.

Sue

Went to the Dr this morning and I feel like I have lost a friend.   Chemo Sabe and I are no longer a team.  A  week from today we will hook back up, but for now, no sabe.

I have really been feeling good lately.  Sort of scary.  Once we got rid of the pnemonia (probably not even close on the spelling) I feel as good as I did before the treatements started in early January.  I want all of you people to know that you have played a big part in how good I feel.  Thanks again.

bob

I finally got released from the hospital around 12:30pm today.  Sue has done an excellent job of keeping everyone up-to-date on what has transpired over the last few days.  Not too much I can add to what she has already said.

The first two days I was in quite a bit of pain and was glad to be where I was.  The last three, not so much. 

I would like to thank all of you that came and visited me at St. Lukes.  It made my time there a lot more tollerable.   I am still trying to figure out who was more shocked when I exited the bathroom half naked on one particular day.  Me, because I didn’t expect to find two women in my room, or Pat and Stephanie because they didn’t expect me to come out of the bathroom half naked. 

I would like to respond to all of the comments that were made to Sue’s posts but I am not going to even try.  I think they were all great and enjoyed reading all of them.  Thanks again to everyone for all of your support.  It really means a lot.   I’ll do another post soon.

bob

For the title of this post to make any sense, you need to look under “sucker punched” for the comments made by our nephew Dan’s girlfriend Ellen. I haven’t met her yet, but I like her already. My new saying will be “swim between the flags”. Right now Bob is back between the flags.

Today’s report is still good. The antibiotics are working and the right dosage of pain medicine is helping manage the pain. The plan was/is to have him on antibiotics for 5 days before releasing him. Tomorrow they will be starting on oral antibiotics so that is a step closer to going home. He, of course is ready to leave now since he’s not doubled over in pain. But since I have the keys to the Jeep, and his pants, and the doctors have him hooked up to machines, its going to be tough for him to escape.

Once again I am going to ask you readers to imagine. . . you all know Bob and now imagine him without NICOTINE or CAFFEINE for 72 hours. He also is very bored and has a very small non-dish TV without TiVo, so he gets 4 stations and doesn’t get them well and can’t back them up. Hasn’t had a poker chip in his hand for over a week and he is wearing a hospital gown. Is this the happy Bobby we all know and love?, I think not!

He gets Chemo Sabe removed on Tuesday for a week so he can’t even complain about his “fanny pack” and it appears to work so I love the pack.

As I said in the beginning, Bob is between the flags and I feel confident that he will be swimming very soon.

Sue