Mom had good night and is feeling better today. Kristen stayed with her last night. They have walked this morning and she is sitting up in a chair. Dr. came in and said they would try clear liquids again today and hopefully the bowels will wake up and get active. Won't be coming home today but maybe tomorrow. Dr said it is not an unusual thing for the bowels to be lazy especially as much as they had to manipulate them during surgery. This happened one other time during one of her surgeries. She does have some bowel sounds so they think it will be ok eventually. She is a little mad about not going home. I am back at work today and have to go to Charlotte for a couple of days for the hospital but plan on going over to Winston from Charlotte if she is still there on Wed. Jerry is going today to spend the night and if by chance she gets to come home, Jerry will follow them so he can help get her in and out of the car on the way home.

Day 5

Not a good night last night. Started out pretty good and about midnight she got sick and threw up most of what she had to eat all day. She was coughing when she threw up and had been given her meds all at one time so they think it was a combination of all that made her throw up. She only did this once and has felt ok since. Dr. is going to do stomach xray today to check the bowels out to make sure they are getting active again. Have been up all night so I am glad it was me and not Dad here. Should be taking her for xray soon. Blood work looks ok today but she will definetly NOT be going home today. He said still probably tomorrow. Heading back to hotel to shower and pack. I think Kristen is coming today to stay with Dad until tomorrow. Continue in prayer.

Sat 28th- Dr. made rounds and is going to get rid of the pain pump. Mom has been up a couple of times and PT came and worked with her some on walking and getting up. Dr. says maybe she can go tomorrow but more likely she will go home on Monday. She had solid food today and has tolerated it well. She's been a little grumpy today only because she is being made to do things that is uncomfortable and makes her hurt. Her soreness is getting a little better each day. Her Hgb is a little low 9.6 down from 11.5 but Dr. said her body is trying to concentrate on healing instead of making red cells. She has had no bleeding but through the port blood draws they have to waste 20cc when they access her port so that doesnt help her Hemoglobin get back up. Checking it again tonight by a fingerstick and hopefully it has gone as low as it is going to go. We don't want a blood transfusion for sure. Dr. didn't seem that concerned with it but did mention to me. Mom said to be sure and "blog her thanks" (haha) to everyone that has prayed for us. Getting ready to go eat some dinner with Dad. Thanks for all the many prayers.

8am--Friday 27th
Mom had a good night other than waking up at 1am and wanting to talk the whole night so that is what we did. She is now snoozing away at 8am waiting on Jerry and Dad to get here. I washed her hair and she said she felt like a new person. Don't know why baths and hair washing makes you feel so much better but it does. Not as sore today but ran a low grade temp all night. Her temp this morning is good so they are going to take it every 4 hours to monitor it. Her incisions look good and they removed her oxygen this morning. Discussing her diet for the day to see if she is getting liquids or not. She has not had anything yet but ice chips. She did ask this morning when she can go home and we are thinking probably Sunday or Monday if everything stays the same. They have to bring her back up on the coumadin and have not started that back yet. Dr Shen hopefully will begin that today when he makes his rounds we should know more. More later.

9pm- Dr Shen made his rounds and wants to start some solid food tomorrow. Mom had clear liquids today and is asking for food. Temp has stayed down but she seems a little disoriented this evening saying crazy things to everyone. She thinks she is at the hotel and not the hospital. She still has her Morphine pump until the morning and it is going to be gone so she will get back to herself after that hopefully. Dr seems to think it is from that also. Some comments are quite funny and some not..ugh. She'sleeping now because I made her stay up more so would sleep tonight since she stayed up all night last night. Dad is at the hotel resting and soaking his back in the hottub. He felt a lot better today and I know it is where he has had 3 days rest. Jerry was here all day today so I went to the hotel and showered and went out shopping for about 2 hrs. Just to tired to do a lot of running though. Going to sleep some while Mom is sleeping. Next update in the am.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

1100am
Updates today won't be as often as yesterday but I will send them when there is anything new. Dad slept all night and rested well. Mom had a good night with no major issues. We arrived at the ICU at 830am this morning and she is doing well. She has already been up in a chair for 1 hour and according to her had a "good" bath by her nurse Kia. She knows the 4A ICU staff by name and they know all about us....lol She must have talked all night because Kia her nurse already knew about our whole family by the time we got there,. Kia is a twin so Nanny told her all about Ethan and Dylan then when I got there I had to show pictures of them. Anyway she is doing great. No fever or bleeding and is wanting to get the NG tube out of her nose. She had some sips of water and did ok with that. Dr. Wilson (Shen's Associate) came by while we were there and they are going to get the NG tube out and move her to a room later today. She is pretty sore and having to cough is pretty painful for her. Everthing is stable at this time. Rick and I are going to take Dad somewhere to eat this evening for turkey I guess. Missing my girls on this Thanksgiving Day!

8pm- Mom is in her room finally. Pretty much has all the tubes and gadgets out of her. Still has nasal canula for Oxygen, pain pump, and catheter until tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a hard day for her because they are going to get her up most of the day. She is complaining about her shoulder hurting and her Dr. says it is referred pain from the Liver and should go away in a couple of days. It has todo with the liver being cut and the brain knowing it has been cut...shew the body is so complicated?? Gonna do some more research on this subject. She has talked on the phone a little. Her throat is sore from being intubated during surgery. Not much pain until she has to cough and then it really hurts. I am staying with her tonight and I have already taken Dad back to the hotel for the night. He felt pretty good today so if we can get him another day or two of rest then the better for him. Rick and I took him out for Steak dinner today and it was delicious. Thanks Rick.
All is stable for now. Another update probably in am.

Surgery Day....scheduled for 830am.
Surgery started approx at 930am.
First update: 1030- was very good. They are proceeding doing it Laproscopically and she is doing well. Another update in about 2 hours and they think it may take 3-4 hours. Waiting for 2nd update should be soon.
2nd update: 1200 - Mom is doing well still in surgery though. They are still doing it laproscopically but she has a lot of adhesions from all her prior surgeries so it is taking a while to get the liver piece out. It may be at least 2 more hours if all goes well.
Update #3 1330- Still in surgery but doing well. Had to stop and do ultrasound on stomach area where there is so much scar tissue. Should be finished in less than 2 hrs and Dr, Shen will be out to talk to us. Shew long day...
Finally 4pm out of surgery. Dr. Shen said she had a large amount of scar tissue from her previous colon surgery and it took him 3 hours just to see the liver. He removed a portion of the left lobe and said she still had 70-80% of her liver left. She will be staying in ICU tonight just because of the length of her surgery but will be awake just to monitor her closely and should go to a regular room tomorrow. Overall Dr. Shen was pleased with the results. He completed the surgery Laproscopically and said she had 4 tiny holes and 1 larger about 2-3 in. that he removed the liver through. She is in recovery now and we may get to see her in a couple of hours. Continue to pray for us. She is going to be ticked when she realizes she is in ICU...but she will just have to do it one night.
630pm- Mom's in ICU and resting well. In some pain but has a pump to help that. Not very alert but knows everyone and asking questions. Dad and I are going to hotel for him to rest since Mom is pretty much sleeping. We had a huge family here today and thankful for that. My mom's sisters, Kathy and Athaleen were here. Cousins Connie and Regina, My brother Jerry, Sheree, Brooke, and my girls Jana, Kristen, Allison also here. Regina and Kathy brought us yummy snacks, drinks, playing cards, magazines to entertain us while we waited...so nice and really appreciated it.
930pm-- At hotel - just talked to Mom's nurse and she is still doing well. Had to up the pain meds to get her blood pressure to come down, it had been up a little since surgery. /they want her to wake up a little more and are working on getting her off the oxygen thru the night. She has NG tube but will be removed when she gets a little more alert. Overall doing good for as long as she was asleep. Dad is resting very well(snoring) and I am not far behind him....nite and more updates in the morning.

Bone Scan Results

Great news today about Mom's Bone Scan. It is negative so surgery is scheduled for Wed 25th. We are so thankful that the results were back today. I don't think we could have been sane if we were to wait until Monday. I know Dr Shen was tired of me calling today. I started at about 10am this morning and didn't stop until his office finally called with the results. Like I said before,he will probably be sorry he gave me his business card.
So for now we pray for a good surgery on Wed. The meetings yesterday with Anes. and Internal Medicine went well and they are still attempting to do the surgery by Laprascope.

Bone Scan

Mom's bone scan is scheduled for Thursday 19th. We hope to know result on Friday. Please pray that it is ok. Life just gets more and more difficult and you feel there is nothing you can do. I just hate the word "Cancer" because a lot of times there is NOTHING you can do to make it go away. As I strived to cope with Jana being diagnosed with childhood cancer many years ago (1987) I realized then the only way to survive is with the help of God, family and friends. It is of this time every year that I reflect on this awful disease with Jana's being diagnosed at Thanksgiving and now my Mom. Thank God Jana has been cancer free since. There were many, many people that supported us through her ordeal and many of the same are supporting us through my moms. This I am thankful for and continue to pray for everyone. Will post results of bone scan as soon as we hear anything. Vickie

The Surgeon Appointment

Wow what a day. Our appointment was at 1pm today and we are just gett ing back at 9pm. Met with a Resident 1st after waiting about 1 1/2 hours for him. He goes over her history which is 15 years worth of strokes, heart valve replacement, colon cancer, numerous scans over the last few months. The Resident says he will converse with the surgeon and they both would be back to talk to us. Another hour passes and I go to see what is going on. Dr Shen (the surgeon) is in consultation with the nuclear medicine doc over the PET CT scan done on Mom yesterday there. The Liver showed the same as the CT previous (a 2.5cm place on the left lobe of liver ) . Another area in the left chest near the rib cage also reacted on the scan. AFter many consultations with Radiologist Dr. Shen decides the place on the rib cage is probably not anything but he feels Mom needs a BONE SCAN to rule out the place . By this point I about ready to explode even though I realize Dr. Shen's concern. He pretty much said that he would not do surgery if the bone scan was positive and that was the only way to confirm it. So, by this time it is about 4pm and we start trying to scheduled for bone scan next week(don't know exact day yet) because everyone had already left the office to schedule. They are to call tomorrow with the appt. We did schedule surgery for NOV 25th...yes the day before Thanksgiving because Dr. Shen was booked up until mid Dec if we didn't take that date.
*****RECAP of Today*****
Bone scan next week and if NEG she will have surgery the 25th. If Bone Scan is positive she will not have surgery and then decide about chemo. I had Dr Shen pull her blood work from last week and none of her bone enzymes are elevated so hopefully it is not significant. Dr shen said that sometimes the scans react with bone contusions where injury or bruising has been in the past and the bone scan would tell him for sure if it is cancer or not. One positive thing about today is Dr. Shen will try to remove the cancer in the liver by laprascopic or robotics if possible so she will have quicker recovery. He was also quite impressed with her history and how well she looked for all she has been through. He said most would not have survived all she has gone through medically already. Then it rained all the way home....down poured at times until I could hardly see to drive...but we made it and we wait once again but with a date at least if needed. Until then, we pray.

11/2/09 Monday

Results of Mom's appointment today with Dr. Akilulu were most as we expected. The good news is that the area in her chest that was questionable is NOT cancer. On the other hand the place in her live r IS cancer. It is approximately 2.5 cm and only 1 spot at this point. Dr. A was more encouraging today as he said if the surgeon can remove the tumor from the liver successfully then they would treat to cure. Meaning 6 months of chemo after surgery. If the surgeon feels she cannot tolerate the surgery based on his examination then the other option is to "burn" it out by laprascopic surgery and then chemo for 6 months. The best survival rates are from those that have it surgically removed and then treat so this is what they are shooting for. Dr. A wants a PET CT scan done before she sees the surgeon. We have the PET CT scheduled for Monday 9th 3:00 and the surgeon on Tuesday 10th at 1:30 at Bowman Gray. Dr. A did say today that the quality of the Beckley scans were not good and he felt the liver should have been picked up before now. Imagine that! But anyway Mom did at least talk about the chemo and seemed favorable. Dr. A told us to take one step at a time and we would deal with chemo when the surgeon decided what type of procedure he could do with her. Her surgery would be scheduled in the next 2 weeks if the surgeon decides he can do it. More updates as I get them. Thanks for all the prayers and support.