Home at Last

I did not do a very good job of communicating this week.  I feel like I need to catch a lot of you up on what has happened since Monday.  It's been crazy.

Monday night Marc started having really terrible pains in his abdomen and back.  He woke me up at 1:00 after struggling for several hours, wanting to go to the hospital.  We got to the hospital emergency room and the pain continued.  He was scheduled for a CT scan.  After drinking the half gallon of contrast, he threw it all up.    He did have the scan, though, and they found a blockage in his small intestine.  Not good.  A team of doctors met and discussed his options.  They decided surgery wasn't a good option because so much tumor encases his small intestine.  It would be a complicated operation and his recovery would be difficult.  They opted to put a tube down his nose into his stomach to drain the fluids that accumulated -- in essence giving his GI tract a chance to rest and resolve the blockage on its own.  If that didn't work we would explore the surgery option again.

Monday afternoon he was moved to the oncology ward.  He was able to get some relief.  The pain and abdominal swelling decreased.  His digestive system started making noise again.  All good signs.  Wednesday afternoon he had the tube removed and started a liquid diet.  All went well.  By Thursday morning he was on solids and was released in the afternoon.

We are home now; however, it doesn't mean that this is all behind us.  Here are the obstacles we are facing right now.

• The CT scan showed progression of the disease.
• Because the tumor has grown, the area that is constricted  may only become more constricted, resulting in another blocked intestine.
• His red blood cell count has been down.  He received four units of blood without a huge bump in numbers.  We don't know why this is happening.
• Because his red blood cell count is down his energy is low.  Fatigue is frustrating to him.
• He has lost a great deal of weight.  We are working with the dietitian to get his calories up; however, with the threat of blockage, we have to be careful that he doesn't eat too much in one sitting.  Frustrating!
• Marc is faced with deciding if he will do another round of chemo next week.  His body is in a weakened state and the chemo will only make him weaker.  He needs to decide if it is worth it.
• He is continuing with the nutritional therapy with some modifications.  Hopefully we will see some positive results from this soon.

For those of you that we were able to update, thank you for your prayers and support.  I apologize I didn't update here sooner.  It's hard for me to be present for Marc and for the kids in this type of situation.  I feel torn and am scrambling every minute when he is in the hospital.  My little family needs to be my focus and I can't always find the time to update the blog or make phone calls.  I hope you all understand.

I want to thank my mom and dad for taking on the kids and their schedule this week.  It's brutal being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night to take care of four children.  They did an awesome job of keeping the house up and getting the kids to school.  I also want to thank Melanie, Jess, and Jani, for coming up to visit me and take me to dinner. It was a nice break. Thank you, Susan, Steve, Elo, Dave and Karen, for coming up to sit with Marc.  It gets boring and lonely up there!  We are so grateful to all of you that made the trip up the hill.  We appreciate it.

A humorous side note....We did manage to find adventure while up at OHSU.  Marc was feeling antsy and bored so we got permission Wednesday night to leave the floor and take a walk.  We ambled throughout the hospital, towing his IV pole.  On floor nine there is a very cool veranda that overlooks the city and river.  It's a gorgeous unobstructed view.  The night wasn't rainy or too cold, so I suggested we go out so he could get some fresh air and enjoy the view.  When we decided to come back in we found that we were locked out.  Who knew the doors automatically lock at 9:00?  Hmmm.  Locked out of the hospital.  Funny.  Marc didn't think it was too humorous at the time.  I was just starting to have a panic attack when a man walked by on his way to the garage.  After banging on the windows I got his attention and he was kind enough to backtrack and let us in.  We escaped a little chilly and most embarrassed.  Gotta keep it memorable, right!?!