Earl is back home!

Earl was released yesterday. His potassium must be very low. Lower than what pills would take care of. Doctor wasn't sure Earl would absorb enough from pills (everything runs right thru him), so wanted to give him another IV of potassium yesterday. It stings if given too fast, so they had to slow it down so much, it took about 7 hours to do the small bag. He was signed out and ready to hit the door when they unhooked him!

I went down to move the car around shortly after they called transport to come get him. Earl was dressed and sitting on the bed, ready to go when our pastor, Dr. Glenn Cummings, came in to see him. If he had gotten there five minutes later, he would have missed Earl. We certainly appreciated him coming to see Earl. Even if it was just to escort Earl down to the car.

As we headed home, we hit the 5:00 p.m. traffic jam on I-40/75. Lucky for us, we only had to go one exit to get off on Pellissippi, so we got home about 5:15 p.m.

Earl is feeling much better. Just very weak. Still dealing with the diarrhea.

He is very glad to be back home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lillian & Earl

Earl may get to come home today.

I see the number of hits has jumped up over 40 hits in last 24 hours. I appreciate everyone who stops by to check on Earl. I know all of you are praying for him. Thank you so much!

Doctor said last evening he might release Earl today. Hope so!

Lillian

Earl in hospital

Around 11:00 p.m. last night I began to try to get Earl up out of his recliner and get him headed to bed. When he stood up and tried to walk, he was so unsteady on his feed he could not walk. When I asked him if he needed the wheelchair, he said yes. Right then I knew we had problems.

I decided I wasn't waiting until morning to get him some help. So, Liana and I gathered up a few things for him and wheeled him out to the car and headed to Park West a few minutes before midnight.

He was taken into an exam room at 12:25 a.m. Gregg drew several vials of blood for lab, but was unable to get the site to work for an IV. He tried twice more with no luck. He went and got Mark, who tried twice, still with no luck. Then they called in David, with 30+ years of experience. Finally, on his second stick he was able to get Earl ready for an IV. This was a total of seven times he was stuck! Earl's veins are in such bad shape from all the chemo! These guys tried really hard... just didn't have much to work with.

They did go ahead and start Earl on fluids, while they were waiting for lab results. The results showed the kidney and bladder infections are back again. He is also dehydrated, but not as severely as we suspected.

This makes, I think, six times he has been treated for the urinary tract infections since March or April. What makes it really hard to know what is going on is that he has no burning or stinging. Then we assume what back pain he is having is related to the cancer, since pain is expected with that. Or is it kidney pain from the infection? We are going to have to figure out some way to know when it is this infection and not cancer pain. But how?? We'll work on that for sure.

After conferring with the Oncology doctor on call, Earl was admitted and got into his room about 3:30 a.m. It took an hour or so to get him settled and hooked up, etc. Liana and I were both wired, but too tired to settle down. It was around 5 a.m. when she went home. I read until little before 7 a.m. when I finally began to drift off. A sleeping chair was brought in and I slept about 45 min. before they brought in his breakfast tray. Looked pretty good. Scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuit, juice, coffee and mandarin oranges.

Earl has been getting fluids all day, as well as antibiotics and potassium. Also getting another antibiotic pill three times a day... every eight hours. The IV antibiotic is levaquin. This is the stuff that his mother took that made her talk out of her head for three days recently. May get interesting if it does weird things to Earl, too!!

For now, we wait. Haven't seen a doctor today. Nurse says it is sometimes very late when doctors make rounds. Earl is hoping he will get to go home tomorrow, but we don't know anything now.

Please pray, pray, pray!
Our love and thanks to you all.
Lillian

Earl update

I called from work to check on Earl right before 2 p.m. and talked to his assistant. I found out he had not even attempted to work any today. That isn't like him, so I left immediately and came home to check on him. When I got here he was having a hard time talking. His mouth was so dry, he couldn't talk plain because his tongue was sticking to his mouth. Said he thought he needed to go to the hospital because he was dehydrated.

I called the oncologist who instructed that he drink plenty of fluids and come in for blood work at 9 a.m. tomorrow. They will draw blood and immediately go ahead and hook up an IV and start fluids. It was too late to take him in to get fluids at their office today.

Depending on results, they will make recommendation as to either admit him to hospital or give him fluids in the office. I hope they can get him hydrated without hospitalization.

Lillian

Rough weekend for Earl - Prayers needed

This has been a strange weekend for Earl. When I came in from work Friday afternoon, he was sitting in his recliner. Seemed fine. Sleeping is not unusual for him at this time of day, so I let him sleep about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I knew he should have something to eat, but when I tried to wake him, I about gave up. He kept going right back to sleep regardless of me talking to him, etc.

After 15-20 min. I did get him to get up, but he was very unsteady on his feet, so I stayed right with him while he walked to the back of the house. When I asked him if he wanted me to get his walker, he said it would probably be a good idea. Up into the attic to get his walker down. He used it the rest of the evening. He parked it on Saturday and went back to his cane.

He ate some beef stew and not long after that he started complaining about his stomach hurting. This continued until after he went to bed very late. The pain moved down into his lower abdomen later in the evening. He even took a couple of pain pills for the stomach pain.

Saturday morning, he was still hurting and took more pain pills. He gradually seemed to feel better as Saturday passed. Sunday, he slept late and didn't get up until late morning. When he tried to eat some scrambled eggs and toast around noon, he took a couple of bites and immediately headed for the bathroom.

He threw up the worst looking gunk! It was dark gray stuff that looked like brackish swamp water. No telling how long this stuff had been sitting in his stomach. Probably the cause of his pain on Saturday. He felt much better afterward, but did not eat much. Headed back to bed.

He has continued to sleep a lot today. At one point, he stopped at my office door across the hall from our bedroom. He kept leaning up against the door frame and closing his eyes like he was trying to go to sleep standing there!! He went back to bed and slept most of the afternoon.

He woke late afternoon and read the newspaper some. Wanted to go the church for the Thanksgiving dinner this evening, but was just too weak. Finally decided he would have some chicken noodle soup. He does seem to be feeling better. He's up and just went down the hall toward the living room. Hope he isn't up all night, because he slept so much today. Didn't stay long, he's back on the bed under his electric throw.

Earl came in on Wednesday with the report that his CA19-9 from a couple of weeks ago was up to 90+. Doctor thinks this will come down some since this series of treatments. Earl will return to Doctor on Dec. 1st. I don't know if they will start another series of treatment or just do blood work.

The 5FU pills made his fingers split and become very sore the first 14 days he took them. He began using lotions and whatever he could think of to try to promote healing. He finally realized that the Melaleuca MelaGel seemed to help the most. He has applied that every day of this 14 days of pills and his fingers have not split like they did the first series. He takes the pills 14 days, then is off seven days.

His hands and some of his fingers are swollen along with his feet and lower legs. The fluid buildup is related to the chemo. He continues to run low grade fevers about once a week or at least every 10 days or so. The fevers last about 24 hours and usually go away when treated with Tylenol. A couple of times they have been over 103 degrees.

He continues to have back pain most nights and is taking strong pain meds to relieve it so he can sleep.

He has gained a few pounds, but I'm not sure if it is true gain or fluid buildup. He is still only 154 lbs. and so very thin. He has learned to give himself the shots to help control the diarrhea. He is supposed to take them every 4-6 hours, but I don't think he remembers to take them more than a couple of times each day.

I'm sorry I haven't been updating this much lately. It's just the same old things all the time. Not much progress to really report. It seems to be a step or two forward and about 10 steps back. I'm trying to keep my life on track and must work to keep insurance going. It's very hard some days to get up at 6:30 and get ready for work when I didn't get to sleep until after 3 a.m. vigil with Earl. Liana has been a tremendous help. She takes Earl for his treatments, which allows me to go to work. She also helps with his Mother. I don't know how I would be managing without her help.

With his numbers creeping upward, prayer is about all we can ask of you. Please continue to pray for us. We need your prayers so very much. It is very hard to see him going down so rapidly and have courage that things will be better. He continues to remain positive that he will beat it again!

His daughter and her husband will be coming down from Richmond, VA on Friday. I know it will perk him up to see her.

Thank you for all your prayers.
Lillian

Earl fever & treatment

Earl had a very rough night. Fever 102.7 about 2 a.m. this morning. Pain in back was worst he has had to date. Fever gone by morning. No idea what is going on.

He got chemo today and started back on the 5FU pills tonight. They make his hands sore... split fingers, etc.

His left arm started swelling during chemo today & they had to switch to the right arm. Now both arms are hurting from the chemo. Last treatment made his arm hurt for about 24 hrs.

Dr. can't help him if he doesn't get treatment. So, he endures it. At least his white count is holding fairly well. It was low enough one time that they skipped a week.

I was up with Earl until 2:30 or 3 a.m. so we didn't get much rest. Hope we don't repeat again tonight!

Ryan in hospital twice

From Ryan's Mom:

11/9/08: Ryan got out of the hospital this afternoon.

11/7/08: SOME GOOD NEWS: RYAN IS STILL IN THE HOSPITAL, IMPROVING SLOWLY. HIS DOCTORS HAVE REVIEWED THE SCAN RESULTS, AND HAVE FOUND THAT THE CANCER HAS BEEN SHRUNK A BIT. RYAN WILL BE GIVEN ABOUT TWO WEEKS OFF, THEN THEY WILL TRY ONE MORE TIME ON THE CHEMO.

11/6/08: Ryan's cancer is small cell lung cancer-------can also be known as 'oatmeal' cancer---------treatable, but not curable.

11/5/08: Ryan still in hospital. Well, the news was not at all what we wanted to hear. This last bit of chemo has not done what they were hoping for. The infection at his port site has to get cleared. They removed the port this afternoon. They will possibly put a new one in when his infection is cleared up.

His oncologist is contacting others across the country to see if there are any experimental (clinical?) drugs that can be tried on Ryan. Will relay more as we find out.

Just before we found out about Ryan, we had a call from Annie (Ryan's sister). They had a fire last night in the new house. What a mess. Everyone, dogs included made it out ok with no injuries. Most lucky on that account. We took our 27 1/2 foot travel trailer up there this am so that they will have somewhere to sleep. Could get a motel, but didn't want to leave all their stuff unattended.

11/3/08 10:38 p.m: The latest is that they are now thinking of taking the port completely out, and his white blood count was at .3 should be 3,000. Will have the results of his scan sometime tomorrow. We really do need some good news for a change.

11/3/08: Ryan is back in the hospital again. Site infection where the port is------may have to have a new one put in.

Also, white blood count down again. He has now lost about 97 lbs. A few days in the hospital should help get him back on his feet.

They are going to do the scan earlier than scheduled, so that they can see if the cancer has been stopped--------that's the news I really don't want to hear at this point.

10/30/08: Ryan was in the hospital overnight---blood levels had dropped once more. They built him back up, sent him home, and now we wait and see. Yesterday and today have been a bit owly with him. Nauseated, vomiting, etc. That should go away here in a couple of days. Seems to go with the territory.

Earl - Update

Earl went in for chemo #2. Diarrhea, weight loss (154 per their scale), potassium low.... no chemo, no 5FU pills this week (supposed to start the pills again on Thurs). He did get large bag of fluids today.

Dr. ordered shots every 4-6 hours, which insurance has denied. Exceeds their limit! So we'll have to pay for them! Drug store did not have them in stock and will have to order. If drug store doesn't have tomorrow, Dr's nurse will call around and check other drug stores in an effort to locate supply.

CA19-9 from three weeks ago was 68.... up from 58. This was before he started the Oxaliplatinum.

Dr. wants to get the diarrhea under control before proceeding with treatment.

Earl - More weight loss

Earl is still trying to work most days. He seems to feel pretty good most of the time. He is still having serious problems with diarrhea. He has lost down to about 150 lbs. That means he has lost about 15 lbs. in the last two weeks! He is wasting away so quickly.

If anyone has any ideas as to what he can try to gain weight, I'm sure he would welcome your suggestions. I read on the Internet last night that Patrick Swayze, who has pancreatic cancer, gained 20 lbs. drinking muscle building shakes. We are going to check into that tomorrow.

The 5FU pills are doing a real number on his fingers. He has split places (some 1/2" or more) on the ends of almost all fingers. His right hand seems to be worse and, of course, that is the hand he uses to work. It is very sore. He took the last dose (14th day) on Thursday. He will be off them for seven days. Hope his fingers will have time to heal.

He will get the second treatment of the new chemo, Oxaliplatinum, tomorrow. For a few days after the treatment, he cannot drink or touch anything cold. Causes severe pain!

Thank you for all your prayers. God is the Great Physician and we believe in His miracles.