Monday morning blues

Dear Friends,
Nan is more subdued today, she had a restless night but was in the chair this morning from 6:30 to 7. After a host of doctors and soon to be doctors have dropped by every few minutes she requested a chance to walk. So our nurse located the special walking device and unplugged Nan from just about everything and Nan stepped up to the device and walked out of her room into the main room and would have gone further but the nurse reminded her that she had to walk back so she turned around and walked back to the bed. Then she sat down by herself and rolled onto her back, totally exhaused. Since that time more doctors have come to visit, they are all kind and some come by to check in just out of personal concern. They stop and encourage her and then she sleeps some more. She has talked on the phone, checked out a couple emails from family and friends especially enjoying reading the one from Jason and Jo who are in South Africa.

Right now she is trying to sleep but normal business in the main area is fairly noisy and its hard to sleep over that for long. The bleeding output is down again but it has not stopped yet. I think we are in another day of holding to see if the body can heal before the next decision is made. Her hematicrit is now 32 which is her highest in years and that should help her heal, help her heart to be happy and help her have more energy. I tell you she was pretty impressive in the walker device. This lady has come so far, so far indeed.

Her creatin is gradually climbing but at a slow enough rate that they are holding off on dialysis for another day which is nice for her. Hard to rest when you see your blood out in tubes going to and from your body to a huge machine with whirling wheels and motor sounds.

I lose my cheap room for one night tomorrow night and have to move to another room for a night and then back again into the cheap room. Sure helps to be able to cut costs like this.

There is one person that I don't think we have mentioned in the blog. He is Travis who is the patient and program coordinator for clinical trials at Dana Farber. He has been so helpful over the past few months and has often gone out of his way to help us as we have dealt with being so far from home. Just wanted to mention him and thank him. Dr. Ng has been so faithful about visiting Nan's room every day since surgery. It is a long walk to reach Nan's room from where Dr. Ng works and yet she comes faithfully and we love to see her. Dr. Morgan has been our hero through our entire time of coming to Dana Farber. His gentle touch and extensive medical knowledge has served us well and we appreciate him very much. Michelle, the physicians assistant to Dr. Bertagnolli, our surgeon, comes every day and we love her visits of hope and interest. The nurses that give personal help and attention to Nan are the best and time and time again have been advocates for Nan's health and recovery.

The reason I like to stay so close by is with Nan's improvement from critical to stable status the nurses do not have to hover over her like they did earlier and are often helping other patients. I can catch little things like her being covered enough to stay warm, or to get her suction device if it slips away from her or hear her when she wants to say something. In fact it is a very good sign that nurses no longer feel they have to hover over her like 3 weeks ago. She is a much improved patient now.

All Nan wants is HOT TEA. She tries it on everyone that comes in, hoping to catch someone who does not know she can't have fluids. When she does get to drink she will be a whole lot happier. At this moment I am seeing a warning flash on the screen that says room 59 has low heart beats so I checked with the nurse next door who also has her stats on that computer monitor and says she is fine. I really don't care if I ever see a monitor readout again warning of heart misdeeds, as I have seen thousands of such messages in the last 4 days about Nan's heart.
Cardiology was here, looked over the stats and basically have said, don't worry. Right!!

Nan is so sleepy today, perhaps it because during the night she was in some lower back pain so she was given a tiny amount of pain control, any pain control meds really send her back into sleepiness.

Well speaking of sleep, I'm going to try some myself. Short nights and long days are getting to me a bit. Today we look forward to a care package from Julie, Jason's wife Jo's mom. She has been so sweet to us with emails, calls and now a care package coming. Thanks!

For now we need to keep praying for the bleeding to slow and then heal to a stop. It has not done so yet.

I just asked Nan if she wanted to convey a message to you all, she took her right hand and did a wave, she wants to tell you Hi!
until later,
thanks for your love, your prayers, your emails and your support,

love

tim and nan