Monday evening - positive action is taking place

Dear Friends and Family,

Nan is once again sleeping but a lot is taking place right now. Our beloved nurse is bringing in IV pumps to handle all the things they are about to do for her. It has become clear that she has a PH which is upside down. Something called acidophus (sp). They are bringing in IV bags of TPN for nutrition, bicarbonate for the PH and several other things that I don't even know about yet. He said he would need three pumps to handle everything.

Dr. Robert Davies, a nephrologist, came by this evening and gave Nan a good physical once over, looked in her eyes, listened to her chest and lungs, her tummy sounds, commented on her higher than normal rate of breathing which he says is associated with the wrong PH levels. Now we are seeing the results of his visit, big time action. He was a real confidence builder to me. Answered questions, listened to my concerns and laid out a plan of action. He said Nan will feel a lot better in the next couple days.

Since arriving Nan has been mostly asleep but not all the time. She says she feels slightly better than yesterday and even humored me by getting up and walking after trying every argument in the book not to. Her baby blues do not cause me to sway from the right thing to do anymore. Not when its for her good. She ate about 5 pieces of melon tonight and a cup of tea and then declared she was full, too full to eat anymore. She only ate that much so she could take her Gleevec and Rapamune. This evening she has had me run her legs and her feet. We have only dumped her colostomy once this afternoon so that extreme flow may be getting back to more normal. The Dr. said she was dumping magnessium and potassium big time somewhere and they are testing the outputs to see where it is going. Her creatin is down to 2.0 right now so that is progress.

I sure want to thank Irene Wing for coming up and sitting with Nan today, she was wonderful help to both of us. I had to be gone for awhile this morning and having Nan watched and cared for was special. I also want to thank Nan's wonderful relatives who have been so supportive all the way through the entire ordeal. Barbara and Gerard have been so very helpful and supportive, what would we do without them and their generosity, same goes for Laura and Milton and Aunt John, David and many others whose names I do not have at the moment. Thank you for all your help, thank you thank you thankyou.

Sounds like Dana is going to be able to come help Nan in a few days. We can't wait for her arrival. She helps Nan is so many ways and it sounds like Nan will be here in good old room 3117 for a few days until they get everything leveled out. I finally feel like the medical staff have a good handle on what to do to help Nan. One thing I thought was very interesting was advice from Dr. Davies, that we use the new yogurt that is being advertized as having active stuff inside. We just happen to have a fresh 4 pack in the frig at home so I'll see if I can get it over. He says sometimes using that special yogurt will slow the colostomy down as the body begins to work better on its own. Worth a try!!

I am starting to wrap it up here. Have a lot of work to do but have not touched it yet. Bummer! But we have had a good evening, sure glad I was here to help her walk, to rub limbs, to empty bags, to kiss fore heads, to just get to be in the same room with this brave lady. We send our love and a special thanks to Loree and Nate, special helpers who have made this day go better for me.

Out of nowhere Nan yelled, bucket and she threw up a little bit, yesterdays grilled cheese sandwich. Not todays fruit. Very strange indeed. Doubt we have figured everything out yet!

We are grateful to God for His presence with us and seek His help, His healing, His peace and comfort for this night. I am sorry this is coming so late but this is the first time I have felt I had the time to write.

Please pray that God will work through the various things that are being done for Nan this evening to help her reclaim her health and strength. So till the next time we send our thanks and our hopes for your happiness. Our friends Bob and Carrol had a fairly good day at the Chemo clinic today with good numbers and a tolerable day. We are thankful for their good news.

love

tim and nan