Nan recovering slowly, 2006 taxes paid, friends call!

Dear Family and Friends,
8:38 pm in room 3117, Nan is resting quietly with brief waking moments as the nurse hangs her tpn for the night. Sure more complicated than what we do at home. When I returned about 8 Nan was mostly awake and not liking it much, was feeling pain and her last Dilautid fix was at 4. The nurse said she had turned down a dilautid in between. Right after she got her 4 mg of Dilautid it was time to take the AMN pills, hard when you are awake, impossible when you are asleep. The clever nurse made a slurry of the powder from the pills and a bit of water and Nan took that down easily followed up by several drinks of water from a bottle she held herself, all signs of progress.
Now I have the lights turned out so she can get some rest. Later I will change her tummy bandage which has needed it all day long, I think we may move to doing it twice a day. Right now there is a lot more coming out the little fistula than before, probably caused by the large tumor which is next to it. How I hate these tumors. Take them away and Nan can recover, deal with them and they just keep growing larger taking up more and more valuable space in her little body.
I slept here last night, went to bed about 9:30 in my little luxury cot under two hospital blankets and my trusty breathing machine. I only woke when Nan needed some water as she slept well the entire night only waking when she needed further pain meds. I did not roll out this morning until 7:30, felt good to sleep in and have Nan so close by. I think she felt more secure this way too, so I'm back to sleep here again tonight. Somehow Discovery Bay seems a very long ways away when she is this ill.
This morning I kept an Oakland appointment for a FHA appraisal and then drove back here to the hospital, stayed a while and then drove to DB to pick up the checkbook and back to Brentwood to Ken's office where he had 2006 tax year prepared. It was less than I expected and I gladly wrote a check I would never have guessed I could write due to Nan's diligence in getting her papers filed with the Social Security system and getting the disability check. I still have left toward purchasing the new medicine when Nan beats the staph infection in her blood.
It was a huge answer to prayer that the money would be available to cover last years taxes. The worry about those taxes has hung over me for many months and it is another thing that I can safely say God provided. How I appreciate Kens' hard work preparing these taxes, since we run a business our taxes tend to be much more complicated with extra forms to file and issues to deal with. An amazing fact emerged as we prepared for the tax filing, our medical expenses, airline tickets, hotels, medical bills and meals came to about the same amount as was kindly donated to Nan's recovery fund during 2006. No wonder all our credit cards are maxed out, it cost a lot to live in Boston, to travel to City of Hope, to deal with this terrible disease. Once again God has provided just what was needed.
Today I got to talk to a number of clients but even more enjoyable was talking to our friends and family. I got to converse with Art a couple times today as he made the trip back from Indio to Tracy and now Discovery Bay this evening. He is tired but safe. He had to divert his planned route due to Highway 5 being closed near the tunnel down south. I also got to talk to Sylvia who has just returned from Christian Womens Retreat where she helps with the leadership. This is the wonderful retreat that our friend Pam started many years ago. Sylvia was just checking in on Nan's progress and it was good to get to talk to her. I also got to talk to my brother Jerry as he is in town for a fortnight waiting for the next train north that will need a engineer. Nikki called as she was driving home from work and its always fun to get to catch up with her busy life. I also got to speak briefly to Steve today who was working very hard on a construction job locally. This evening I caught up with Pam and we reviewed Nan's current condition. Pam really helped a lot by staying with Nan on Sat night. How we hated to see her drive away.
Now Nan is waiting for a promised extra hit of Dilautid to calm her painful knee and stomach. I just changed the bandage and the tumor seems larger every day.
So once again I draw this method of communicating to a close. I have discovered that its hard to be alone for hours at a time when facing such challenging health issues for Nan, a call or a visit really lightens the load for a time. Nan took a couple calls today, one from Mary and one from Irene. Although she could not do a lot of talking she could listen and respond a bit and I know she was touched by the calls. We have found that her phone is not holding a charge very well right now so if you have called and not gotten through it could be a technical problem with the phone or Nan cannot respond quick enough, so let it ring a few more rings before giving up. She has to think through what she is hearing and then respond, wrestle with the phone to get it open, all very hard jobs for her right now.
Please pray for staph removal, fevers to diminish, clarity of thought to return and pain reduction. Oh and yes tumor reduction would be nice too.

Thank you my friend for caring enough to read these words and to pray for Nan.

love

tim and nan