No news

We didn't get any phone calls from Stanford so we assume the results of the ultrasound images of the liver taken late yesterday are nominal. If they weren't nominal, I am sure they would have called Mary back in right away. Mary has to go back on Monday for a blood test so I am going to be asking her taxi team if they can help out. She will also have a visit with the hepatic specialist (Dr. Daugherty) next week and while I will likely be there, the taxi team may have to deliver her to and from LG. (By the way, I forgot that our telephone lines automatically roll to our cell phones if the house lines are not working. Such is the benefit of VoIP phone service.)

Mary corrected my memory, it wasn't the surgeon, Dr. Visser, who said the situation was weird, it was the surgeon quoting the GI hepalogist (Dr. Daugherty) after being given a rundown by the surgeon. What does this all mean? The liver was 'cooked' by the radiation therapy, properly quoting the surgeon. And, the possibility exists that the cooked liver has a malfunctioning plumbing bit: collapsed duct, vein or artery. However, the ultrasound done late Friday was negative for such a problem. Or, at least we think its negative for such a problem because they didn't call today.

Mary is still bloated even though she started the diuretic drugs this morning. Mary's sister, Reenie, said those drugs take a day or two until they really kick in and start to work. Once they do, I think we'll be revisiting that old favorite, "Yellow River" by I.P. Freely.

The docs are concerned about her electrolytes, hence the blood test on Monday just to be sure. This is after taking a total of six or seven blood vials in the emergency room on Thursday evening. They like her blood. And, all the blood test results are nominal.

Again, remember, that cholangiocarcinoma is a rare cancer and the lack of experience/protocols makes almost everything a journey into the unknown. In some recent reading I have learned that there are about 2,500 cases a year in the USA and only 10% are eligible for surgery. That puts Mary in a very select group of 250 people. And, she is select of the select because she not only has had the surgery, she has survived: 1) the surgery itself, 2) the regenerating the liver and 3) the subsequent radiation.

All we can do is one day at a time.

On other matters, I spend 2 hours and 15 minutes with Comcast today trying to get the internet service up and running. The TV signal is fine. I'd love to post the transcript because it is so ridiculous. (I have a phone data card so I can text chat with them even though my service is down.)

Things like,

Me: "Comcast had me buy a new modem about six weeks ago because they claimed it was the problem--the same problem we have right now. I thought they were wrong, but I spent my money anyway and bought a new modem BUT that didn't fix the problem. Instead, Comcast service people came to the house to fix it and they did. And, now, after six weeks, it stopped working."

Comcast: "Do you have the old modem? Maybe we can hook it up and it will work."

followed by

Comcast: "Are you aware you can rent the modem from Comcast for a small fee per month? And, if it stops working you can simply drop by any Comcast office and exchange it."

Me: "There is nothing wrong with the modem. The problem is at your end, its the 2nd time in less than 8 weeks we see this problem. Besides, I once rented a modem and after a few years I realized I could have purchased one and saved a bunch of money."

Or, Comcast says, "We are showing you have two modems on the system, one numbered 009945432345 is up and running and the other 0044556783458 is offline. Which one is not working?"

Me: "Ummm, your people got the new modem working by coming to my house. You mean they didn't delete the old modem? Oh, and the one ending in 3458 is the new and only modem I now own. And the one that has worked for the past six weeks without any problem."

Comcast: "Have you done the proper install procedure for the new modem?"

Me: "Yes, about seven weeks ago and I couldn't get it to work. Comcast came to the house about six weeks ago and it has worked ever since until yesterday."

Me: "Given that Comcast came to the house to get the modem working, could you look up the history file on what they did and we can simply do it again?"

Comcast: "What is the serial number, make and model and the mac address of the new modem?

Me: "Scroll back up this text dialogue (which at that time had been going on for almost an hour) and copy the info you gave me at the beginning of this session. It was correct then, and I am sure it hasn't changed in 50 minutes."

The nut of it is, somehow my old modem data was not purged from their system and on Friday their system put my old modem on line and disconnected the new modem. Nice eh? And now, they have to send someone here to get it working again.

We are in the Verizon land line area. I wonder how their DSL works.