Pray for gas

As any of you who have had major abdominal surgery may recall, it is not uncommon for the bowel to be inefficient at moving its contents along. A prerequisite to progressing to a regular diet is to pass gas, and so far none to be had. We spend so much of our lives holding gas in, and now Kay is focusing on the opposite. Strange thing to talk about after the 7th grade.

Kay continues to be a strong, she has walked a great deal today, and is just exhausted. We hope this leads to a good night's sleep. I plan to go home tonight earlier, because if I can be well rested tomorrow it will make taking Kay home a better experience for all. I got out of the hospital from 12-5 today, and made good use of the time. I went to the office, got a patient care schedule set up starting next week. Very limited hours, but many patients were really concerned that I had stopped scheduling new appointments for a couple of days, leading to anxiety on some patient's part. Now at least they know I have not stopped working, just cut back for a while. Then I took care of a few administrative and patient care details, and got Kay her initial oncology appointment for Friday afternoon, checked some insurance details, and got to the YMCA for a good workout. Only planned thing that did not happen was a nap. We hope to start chemo early next week. As I mentioned earlier she will be getting an indwelling "port" to use to give chemotherapy placed in the morning tomorrow.

Kay had quite a few visitors today, too many to mention by name, but she enjoyed the company, though is pretty exhausted now. If she goes home tomorrow we will need to see how she is feeling re visits at home. I'll keep info re this "posted" here.

As usual Jean and Brett have been here a lot today. Keep Brett especially in your prayers as he is commuting to and from Seattle for visits each day (pray for safe drives) , living alone there, and with school, homework, visiting Kay, and the commute really burning his candle at both ends. Tonight he needs sleep, and I think he is committed to having rack time to get it. He is sitting with me in a very nice family room here at St. Joes Oncology floor, doing his math homework. Pray for restful sleep for him.

Overall a very positive day. I'll keep you informed when the the gas passes.

Love to all.

Ed

A new day dawns

Well today got off to a pretty good start. Kay is feeling tired today, she thinks the adrenaline of all these new challenges is wearing off. I think she is anemic, sleep deprived and sedated. We are probably both right. Anyway, Dr. Safarri's visit helped put a bright side on the morning. He is a kind and positive person. He declared Kay to be progressing in her post operative recovery faster than most patients, and we may go home tomorrow. Kay figures all this training she has been doing has her fit for a different type of marathon than she was training for. God works in mysterious ways.

One pretty cool think that happened yesterday is that Colleen Gray and Stan Shaw somehow got photos, letters, and all sorts of stuff and had a big poster printed for the hospital wall. For some reason an iPhone photo does not seem to work to post to this page, so you'll have to see it another time.

Tomorrow Kay gets a port to use for her chemotherapy, and the plan is to see Dr. McCrosky next week to start the chemo then. I think we will be able to do this at the Cancer Center in Puyallup.

Brett is back at school today at Seattle Central Community College, and Jean is going to be in soon to visit. On the agenda for today is lots of walking. The deal breaker for going home is to have adequate bowel function to "pass gas." Kay asked if she could have a bean and cheese buritto, but not to be.

I had a good talk with Becky Sullivan yesterday. Becky and I are long time friends, and she has always been someone I can talk with about important issues in my life. She was my residency director at Madigan another lifetime ago, and her support as a "physician friend" is something I appreciate.

I think Fay and Mary may be coming up to visit next weekend. That should be a good time as it will be after we get settled in at home, and before Kay starts chemo. I really don't have anything witty to say this morning, but appreciate all of your prayers and support. Oh, I did learn from Jean yesterday that you guys can comment back. It was fun to read the comments. I read many to Kay, and we enjoyed that. Learn something every day.

Ed

Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed. I made an early call to my brother Bill in ME this morning at 5 AM here, and forgot that they had already been to Easter sunrise service. I remember as a child going each year to sunrise service on a hillside looking east over never-ending fields and hills to see a glorious sunrise as we shivered in brilliant sunshine. (at least that is my memory 50 years later) Quite a difference from our sunrise services here where we know it is sunrise because it is no longer raining in the dark. Needless to say our family missed Easter services at Celebration Lutheran today, but Paul came this afternoon and we had an Easter prayer here in Kay's hospital room.

Kay has been an even more vocal witness than usual since her diagnosis of cancer. She has really felt the grace of God enveloping her in His strength.

Of note Jean for the second year is participating in a Relay for Life next weekend in Portland. She is raising funds for cancer research, and if anyone wants to contribute to her effort, you can use the link below. Feel no pressure at all, but if you feel able and moved to contribute, go for it.

Ed

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09GW?px=5290486&pg=personal&fr_id=14869

First night behind us

Kay had a good first night post-operatively. Her pain is under pretty good control. She got about 4 hours of sleep and rested much of the rest of the night. Her naso-gastric tube came out a 4 AM, and she is now able to take clear liquids. Blessedly no nausea at all from anesthesia, and her spirits are good.

We have such good friends. Love has been showered upon us, via e-mail, phone calls (thanks to all for keeping these from being too overwhelmingly many and forgive me if I don't get to voice mails, i think the VM box may be full) Andrew Desmond and Marc Hillman have been the point support people for Brett and Jean, and Kay would definitely call them King Cobras. Paul Freese and Peter Weiderspan sat with me during surgery, and were great support. I appreciate Toot Reid and Scott Bailey, who came and sat patiently, quietly supportive, and not needing my attention, which was to say the least scattered widely. The news during surgery was such a roller-coaster. First promising, then discouraging, then news the surgeon would be out to talk to us sooner than expected, but not knowing why. It was very emotional.

I had a good talk with Kay when she woke up at 4 this AM. She wanted to know more details while she was more alert, i.e. not on so much pain medication. We discussed that more tumor was left behind than we had hoped would be the case, but that things are really not different. We are still relying on chemotherapy, Kay's own tough immune system, and God's grace and all of our prayers to help her heal.

She is especially focused on Jean's upcoming graduation now, and we will be facing the dilemma of trying not to postpone her first course of chemotherapy, yet letting her participate in some way to the graduation celebration. Peter W. is going to help us do this electronically if needed.

I'm going to close now. Thanks for all your support and prayers.

Ed

Surgery done

Kay is now in recovery room and we just met with Dr. Safarri. He was able to remove a good deal of the cancer, but unfortunately had to leave more cancer in Kay's abdomen than he had hoped. This means that intraperitoneal chemotherapy will not be effective, and that she will be getting IV chemotherapy. This is likely to start in about 2 weeks.

This is difficult news, but we are going to hang tough, give Kay our full love and support. We know you are all going to do the same.

I don't plan to post again today.

Ed

News after 1 1/2 hours of surgery

The last message was cryptic. Dr. Safarri is finding more cancer and the surgery is going to take quite a while. Although this does not sound very encouraging, we are remaining hopeful, and praying for the best.

Ed

Kay's Favorite Gift Pre Surgery