March Madness

Isn't that the truth!? Dad received his first chemo treatment last Tuesday after being prevented from receiving treatments due to the blood infection and subsequent complications. He went to St. Louis to have his liver stent replaced, at which time it was discovered that the stent had been the source of the infection all along. Tim had guessed that from the beginning. Just to recap....the doctors (after days of discord on the issue) decided to allow the infectious disease physician to remove dad's port, as the doc was convinced the port was the source of the infection. Dad learned last week that all cultures taken from the port after it was removed were negative (no infection). Because the port was removed, a pic line was placed in his arm so he could receive his antibiotics. Mom has to flush the line twice daily. She is doing a fabulous job, though admits she did not miss her calling to be a nurse!

So...back to the chemo. Dad is now on to a Phase 2 chemo regimen consisting of a cocktail of 5FU and oxaliplatin. The oxaliplatin is more toxic than the tarceva was, but has shown promising results in preliminary studies completed at MD Anderson. Dad also has a new oncologist, as Dr. Sorscher is now only seeing his patients in St. Louis. This was a difficult transition, as mom and dad had developed quite a fondness and trust for Dr. Sorscher and his nurse, Sherry.

Dad is feeling quite fatigued from the chemo, but is hanging in there. He is watching lots of basketball and has been doing some yard work. Benjamin and I spent my spring break with mom and dad and had a great time. Somehow, I got through the whole week without taking a picture of dad and Ben, but here is one of "MiMi Lou" and Ben at the park that I love. Funny .....Ben started calling dad "Grandpa Lou!" Ha.



An interesting theme that has emerged is that each doctor who saw dad at the time he was diagnosed has been shocked to see how well he is still doing. His GI specialist in St. Louis said he must be a special man....he admitted he did not expect to see dad back at 7 months post dx. Everyone, even the specialists, agree that dad's attitude is the source of his strength and perseverance.

Please continue to pray for dad and mom. Each day is a blessing no matter our circumstance.

TGIF

I met mom and dad in St. Louis last night and dad had his stent replaced this morning. The procedure went well. The doctor said the stent was blocked. More than likely this is what caused the bacteria in dad's blood. They let him go home after the procedure.

Although dad has not been healed, I do believe there have been a few miracles along the way. There's power in prayer and I have no doubt the hope and prayers from family and friends have played a role in dad's success. He is determined more than ever to continue to fight the disease. He says he doesn't even feel sick. He hasn't given up and I ask that you don't either. Please continue to pray for dad. It helps.
Have a good weekend.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879016-1,00.html

Fixin to go home!

The hospital is in the process of discharging dad. The infectious disease doctor took control of things yesterday and formulated a plan. The results of the test performed last Friday didn't show much and there really not sure how dad got E. Coli. They took his port out this morning because it could be infected with the bacteria. This afternoon they hooked dad up with a pick line so he can get chemo, blood, etc. Mom will have the flush the pick line twice a day. Dad will have to be on antibiotics through an IV (maybe through the pick line, I'm not sure) at Sikeston every day for the next 14 days to make sure the bacteria is gone. They're not going to give dad chemo while he's on the antibiotics. Dad is coming up to St. Louis on Friday to get his stent replaced. Dad's comfortable with the plan. He's in good spirits and glad to be going home.

Ball of Confusion

Wow! That's about all I can say about today. I don't think I've ever been so confused in my life. I can't begin to write about the experience we had today at the hospital. Mass confusion, disorganization, lack of communication, pride, and lies. Man, what a mess. Whatever your thinking, it was worse. As a family we have seen a lot over the last year. But never have I been more disappointed with the way things have gone as I was today. To top it all off, I don't think we made a whole lot of progress.

The good news is that dad's doing ok. We stayed up past midnight last night playing old Elvis concert clips on You Tube and telling stories. I'm surprised they didn't call security on us. It got pretty loud.

I pray that tomorrow starts out better than today and hope the medical staff can put pride aside and work together. I have a feeling dad may be coming home tomorrow. I'm thinking about checking him out of the hospital. There comes a point when sitting in the hospital can do more harm than good. I realize this is a difficult situation for the doctors and the medical staff and some of the inefficiences are frustrating to them as well. I don't necessarily think the problems today were the fault of a single person, but yet a small glimpse into a much bigger problem.

Ding! Ding!
Round two tomorrow.

No New News

Well, I wrote a pretty good blog this morning but decided not to post it. That's happened several times over the last 6 months. The title was going to be something like "Inefficiencies in Large Organizations." Think about that one for a while.

Anyway, we don't know anything new. Dad has a lot of pain. His fever is normal and some of the cultures came back negative yesterday. They've found more spots on his lungs, in his stomach, and in his colon. They're assuming they're probably cancer. The substitute doctors (weekend crew) apparently can't call many shots so we're waiting for the A-Team to get back tomorrow. I'm about to head up to the hospital. Mom's not feeling well so she's staying in today. I'm going to take some favors up to dad and were going to have a party at the hospital. Mizzou / Kansas game at 1. Everybody welcome.