Home from Graduation

Tired but happy, Jean, Kay and I got home from Portland about 5:15 PM today after a 3+ hour drive in the pouring rain and met Brett for dinner at home. We are so grateful for the chance to see our daughter graduate. Not just graduate, but graduate with 150 credits, planning to sit for the CPA exam this summer, and with a job in hand. Jean you are fabulous.

We had a wonderful visit with family, thanks in large part to terrific planning and execution by Jean and Marc, with big time assistance from Marc's whole family, from many of Kay's girlfriends, and with support from many others, too many to try to name here.

We pray for a quiet and restful week while we give the first course of chemotherapy time to work. We hope that this week will see Kay's blood counts remain strong, that she will be able to have her external bile drainage tube removed soon, and that she will continue to recover from the biliary tract infection completely.

I hope to slow down on the posts this week, and get back to a bit more work at Sound Family Medicine. Also just a time to be thankful for and enjoy our time together as a family at home.

Ed

No BS

Jean got her BAA (Bachelors in Business Administration with a double major in Accounting and Finance) today from the University of Portland. What a sense of price, joy and love to see her walk down the isle to graduate. Kay was able to attend. Although the primary goal has been to fight this cancer, the secondary goal has been to celebrate Jean's graduation by putting on a nice graduation party, and attending the graduation ceremony. Well today Kay went to the graduation ceremony.

I have heard the story more than once of Kay and her 14 year old friends using a wheel chair to be able to go to the front of lines at Disneyland. Well today we got a wheelchair from the hotel, Jean called UP to arrange for us to get priority parking, Kay sat on the main floor and I sat right behind her in the first row of seating, and this allowed Kay to have enough energy to sit through the ceremony.

After the ceremony we came back to the hotel to rest, then off to a sports bar 2 blocks from the hotel where we watched the Mariners come back from a 4-3 deficit in the bottom of the 9th inning, another 7-4 deficit in about the 13th inning, and finally win in the 15th inning. Oh, we also had a nice dinner, great conversation, and more good family fun with Horace, Bill, Fay, Keith, Jean, Kay, Marc and me.

Last I took Dad and Bill back to the airport, and now we are dissecting the entire weekend in the time tested Colmar style.

This accomplishment has been possible through contributions from countless friends. I won't try to list them all, but we have had tremendous friends helping every step of the way.

Once I find a cable to download photos to the PC, I'll post a pictorial of the whole weekend.

Pray for good rest, and a week of getting back to a routine without setbacks or complications.

Ed

Hillmans put on a great party

Tanya, Mel, Jane, Dave, Matt, and Ray put on an feast for royalty and a wonderful celebration at Tanya's home in Beaverton today. We stuffed ourselves on barbecue chicken, bratwurst, slow-cooked homemade maple syrup baked beans (Dad and Bill felt like right at home - baked beans on Saturday night) along with potato salad, fabulous hors-d'overs, designer cupcakes and cheesecake.

Kay has had an incredibly long day. She slept poorly last night, was up early, and this morning awakened to find that the external bile drainage tube had bile leaking profusely around the tube, making a mess and making her at risk to get really bad skin irritation. Dr. Levine called her and agreed to come in this morning to replace the external tube with a larger size tube to try to keep all of the bile draining into her bag. He was able to do that, and after the usual details of hospital discharge Kay was sprung free by shortly after noon. Mary Rose Sprague stayed with Kay all morning, and took her home. She and Cheryl Wiederspan helped Kay to get ready to drive to Portland. Kay was so exhausted she needed a power nap, and then a bath, to finish packing, and finally got off by about 3 PM. Peter and Cheryl loaded her in the Land Rover, headed south, and made it to Tanya's in time for the after-party. We all had seconds on the great food, had a photo op, and sat and chatted.

Now back at The Nines Hotel, resting before bedtime, and planning to rest Kay up, and have lots of family visiting for Keith and Fay, as well as for Dad, Bill and me.

We all really enjoyed the multiple copies of the Tacoma News Tribune Patty and Paul brought down. The photo of Kay finishing the race last year on the inside page left several of us with moist eyes.

Pray for rest, a better appetite for Kay tomorrow, and satisfying visiting tomorrow.

If I can get the photos on my laptop, a photo gallery of the party and graduation tomorrow.

Ed

The News Tribune today

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/728384.html

Check out this article in the local newspaper about Kay and her running team.

Ed

Tired but in good spirits

I've talked with Kay a couple of times so far this morning. She sounds exhausted before the day even starts, but is excited about getting to Portland. The big disappointment this morning was the after all the manipulation of the external bile drainage tube yesterday, bile is leaking around the tube today, and making a big mess of everything. As you may know, bile is a darkly pigmented yellow/brown liquid that is quite caustic to skin, and having it leak all over her abdomen would be not just messy but could lead to very sore and macerated skin. Bottom line is that Dr. Levine is coming back in soon to try to replace the tube with a bigger one that will occlude the drainage tract, and prevent leakage. He can do this without sedation or general anesthesia (Kay is tough, but I don't envy her this procedure) and still feels she can leave the hospital this morning. Mary Rose Sprague is sitting with Kay this morning, and is going home to pack up for Kay and have her ready to leave for Portland right from the hospital.

I've had a nice morning, breakfast early with Brett, Dad and Bill. A walk in the rain, and now a little rest. We saw Fay, Keith, Jean and Marc too. Jean thought to pick up her gown today, and all is set for a weekend of celebration of Jean's accomplishments. We are so proud of and happy for her.

More after the party today if I get a chance. Maybe even some pictures then.

Ed

The Nines

What a day. We started with discussing the situation with Dr. McCroskey Kay's situation, and he told us that the bacteria in her blood was one that should be able to treat with an oral antibiotic. This was exciting, as this meant Kay might be able to come down to Portland for Jean's graduation party, and the festivities in Portland this weekend. This was dependent on her getting a better stent placed.

NPO all day, and at 5PM off to have GI try to place the stent using an endoscope through the stomach. After an hour of waiting, Dr. Moussan and Levine had me in to let me know that the stent had migrated proximally up into the common bile duct, was no longer working, and could not be seen from the duodenum. No luck replacing the stent from below. This was really disconcerting, as it meant Dr. Levine, the interventional radiologist was going to have to try to remove the smaller stent either by pushing it into the duodenum, or pull it out through the abdominal drain site. Then try to replace it with a larger stent from above. After 2 hours of work, he was able to successfully do this. During that time I sent Brett to Taco Bell for dinner (Kay had us salivating for Mexican food) and we watched the M's on ESPN online. The wait seemed to go on forever, but we were just ecstatic to hear the procedure was successful. Kay will need to still wear the external drain bag for a few days, but the good news is if the night goes OK I think she will get released, and ride down to Portland with Peter and Cheryl.

Brett and I checked into "The Nines" hotel downtown, and are about to crash.

Thanks for all your prayers. Cheer for Jean this weekend.

Ed

Waiting

I'm sitting in the Good Sam radiology hallway for news on how the stent placement is going. Prior to the procedure Kay was totally focused on making sure she has Mexican food ordered for her first meal since midday yesterday before room service orders close at 7 PM. She has tacos de asada, broccoli, guacamole, root beer, milk and cheesecake ordered. She went under sedation smiling.

It is hard to just wait here, knowing that I could simply pull my Dr. Pullen rank and cruise back and see what's going on. I am convinced that the static of having me looking over their shoulders would simply add more pressure to a difficult procedure, and that Kay's doctors already are trying extra hard, so I am waiting in like a good husband in the hallway chairs.

I'll try to make a quick post late tonight after I find out how this procedure goes. For now it's sit, pace, sit some more.

Ed