A turn for the better, we'll take it.

Dear Family and Friends,
I am writing from a waiting room outside Nan's room. She is heading to lala land after a very big day. When I first spoke to her this morning she told me that her temp was 101.5 and that they had just weighed her and she was 99.6 lbs. I found no good news in either piece of information so I arrived sort of bummed out and expecting nothing good. However when I arrived she was starting to feel better, the temp turned out to be 100.1 and it quickly dropped to normal. The doctor covering the hospital for the weekend was very helpful and willing to refer to a GI specialist and a urologist. He corrected some incorrect info regarding timing of the Gleevec, they had it at a schedule of every 8 hours yet Gleevec needs to be taken with food and needs to be three times a day at mealtimes. He also explained what was being done to help Nan regain her health. He was very helpful. He said that he wanted Nan to try a regular food lunch and shortly later a grilled cheese sandwich and watermelon arrived. Nan ate 1/2 of the sandwich and all the watermelon. She had had jello for breakfast but the broth really caused a burning sensation in her stomach. The cheese sandwich and water melon worked well and she kept them down.
Pam Burgess and her two sweet children came for a visit and brought a cute dolphin table centerpiece and a nice card. Later Nikki and Keanna arrived and were able to stay most of the day, our dear friends George and Yvonne Miller came to visit from Tracy and got us all caught up on the news of the area and the church. Mary from Discovery Bay Travel came mid afternoon and visited for several hours.
Nikki suggested that I go with Keanna and her to eat so we did, while we were there Nan called asking for a small amount of spaghetti. We brought it back and she ate a lot of it, better than the food they had brought to her in the room.
Nan is doing much better this evening, not perfect yet but better. During the day the doctor said that because of a lowering red cell level Nan would receive two units of blood. Well as of a few minutes ago the blood has not yet arrived so perhaps in the morning.
The GI doctor came by for a visit and laid out several possibilities of medical conditions Nan might be suffering from. He arranged for an endoscopy in the morning, I have misspelled it for sure. This process involves sending a very small scope down through her throat into her stomach and just looking around to see if they can find any obvious problem. We are pleased that she will have this procedure done as it may help answer the questions about what is making her lose her cookies. We have also been assured that the radiologist has been contacted regarding the blood in her nephrostomy bags.

So another one of those mixed days but overall positive for Nan. She is tired this evening and will be asleep by the time I get back to the room. We have already had our prayer together. I will be heading home soon. Highlights of this day have been Nan feeling better, Nan eating and keeping it down, Nan calling and asking for spaghetti, visits from Pam, Sheena and Bryce, Nikki and Keanna, Mary, George and Yvonne and the many calls from family and friends. We even got some cards at the house that had been forwarded to us from Brigham and Womens and Nan loved opening them.

Thank you for your prayers for Nan and we would appreciate it if you could keep praying for her as well as many others that needs God's special healing.

We send our love,

tim and nan