Dana arrives, yahoo!

Dear Family and Friends,

Dana arrived at Sac. airport this morning at 10. Nan decided to go with me to pick her up but really felt every bump along the way. Her back got worse and worse and finally she vomited a bit on the way home. After we got here she sat up for a few minutes, had a popcycle and a pain pill and headed to bed. We have not heard from her since and that was about 3+ hours ago. Dana has been to Safeway for her needed shopping and is busy in the kitchen. I had both a tomato sandwich and a grilled cheese for lunch, wow were they ever good!
We are relieved that Dana is here. She and Nan get along well and it will allow me to do some work away from home and office that I need to do. In fact tomorrow I am heading for San Anselmo and Santa Rosa, both 2 hours from the office but that is where the orders are right now to do. I can't remember when it has been so slow business wise, yikes!

Nate is busy powerwashing and calking the exterior of the house. He is doing a very good job and seems to be enjoying himself in the process. The rest of the week he will be roughing it on Lake Shasta with family members. Good for him, he deserves it.

I've been going through nan's desk, throwing away papers, paying what bills I can and starting to get caught up after being away for so long. I've just got to tell you straight. Without the financial assistance many of you have made we would be in a terrible situation. Your help has come at just the right times over and over again and let us keep our house, keep our car and keep going. Of course gas prices do not help but for two months we didn't pay any fuel bills, I took the train and that has helped. Still we have a much loved mortgage and costs of doing business which remain fixed. While we are not straight with IRs right now we are still heading in the right direction financially and with some time and more business we will survive. Again I want to emphasis how much Nan and I appreciate your help. It has made an impossible situation possible.

Nan continues to hurt badly in her back, side and incision wound plus is often close to nausea. She thinks that one of the factors might be a kidney infection, another might be the large dosage of Gleevec she is taking. Thankfully the TPN is providing basic nutrition to her and hydration as well. We've been keeping track of the In and Outs fluid wise and it appears that we are doing pretty well fluid balance wise. The blood test taken last night will help a lot in determining how we are doing and what needs to be changed. We dread another round of antibiotics since they always knock her GI tract for a loop but kidney infections are nothing to be overlooked either. If you remember I reported that Nan had some fever last evening. I was informed that until it is 101.5 it is not considered a fever. During the night the temps turned out to be normal and have stayed that way today so that is a good sign. The incision wound is being closely watched by the nurse and she is considering adding another med to the process to see if the sluf can be removed sooner so the wound vac can be installed. We all know that would speed recovery but the wound needs to be a certain way before the vac can be installed.

Nan has not felt that great for a couple days, I can tell in her comments and general appearance. Something or somethings are not quite right. She continues to eat some things, toast, watermelon, juices, hot herbal tea, ice water, jello, popcycles and along with the TPN's help she is gaining weight and looks stronger. However her mental state is often not as happy or up as one could hope for. She is a brave soldier and trys things to see if she can do them. Todays trip was a dry run to see if she could go to the GIST meeting in Sunnyvale on Sat. I think that based on todays extreme fatigue we will probably not try that so soon. She wants to see the other GISTers so badly and to thank them for their kindness but the trip might be too much this soon. Irene has been so sweet and supportive and we would love to see her again.

Our weather has been wonderful lately, cook, sunny and breezy, just right. We are enjoying being home again after so long away and have nice moments of job in spite of the pain and suffering Nan is coping with. She enjoys being in her own Sleep by Number bed we bought after the last surgery 3 years ago. She enjoys her recliner, her view of Willow Lake and her ancient big screen TV, now 18 years old. On many counts nan is doing remarkably well, she just longs to feel better, to be freer of pain and to be able to be more self sustained. She has come so far from the early days after surgery and is anxious to keep the recovery going.

Having Dana here will be very good, Dana enjoys cooking, reading, watching movies and revealed today that she knows how to play Gin Rummy! Nan was delighted in the news. Sharon taught Nan to play and she loves the game, usually wins, she has such a good memory and is so sharp at games, all kinds of games. check your wallet at the door before you enter, she is good!

Perhaps its time for me to work again, nice to talk with you and hope to talk with you face to face one of these days. For now better start working again.

Please pray for the many subtle issues nan is facing right now, pains, discomforts, infections, you name it. Please pray that God will restore her in His time with His healing power and might.

love

tim and nan and dana

nan enjoyed hearing from Jason and Nikki this morning, that helped her get her day started right. She enjoyed talking to Sharon and Pam as well.