Tuesday, Wednesday

And not much to report. Mary continues to lose the excess fluids and is now within 3 lbs of the weight she carried from early June to late July before the fluid retention started. I want her to drop the diuretics but she is waiting until we see the surgeon this Friday.

Every other Wednesday is Maids day. For the first time since the surgery in May, Mary took a big role in straightening the house and getting it ready for the maids. That was great because I was under the gun for work and was up until 1AM followed by telecon meetings at 7AM. Mary simply took on what she had been doing before all this started. Why, you ask, do we have The Maids come in? We have a Devil Dawg aka Cavalier King Charles. We don't have dust bunnies any more, we have hair gorillas. Our English Cocker barely sheds while the Devil Dawg can turn any dark fabric white in a flash. Our favorite instrument (after our iPhones) is a sticky roller.

Friday and Monday are both big days, with Monday being the champ. On Friday, Mary has another high resolution, biphasic CT scan. That is followed by a visit with the surgeon to take a look at the water retention issue. Its too bad they are in the same morning, the CT scan radiologist and surgeon will not have time to evaluate the CT scan before the visit with the surgeon.

On Monday, she sees the Oncologist and the Radiologist who ran her program. This is the big meeting where we find out if (a) the CT scan shows a tumor has developed somewhere in her abdomen in spite of the radiation and chemo. Or, (b) there is no tumor visible but the recommended course of action is chemo. And, (c), if chemo is prescribed, is is mild chemo or aggressive, hair falling out, weight losing chemo. Of course, there is a alternate to (b) and that would be there is no tumor visible and because chemo has not been proven effective against cholangiocarcinoma, no chemo is recommended. Only Monday will tell.

All in all, Mary continues to heal. I suspect the diuretics are adding some stress to her digestive system and that is why I want her to stop. However, she does still have her nausea meds so she is treating her tummy discomfort using those. As I said, we see the doc on Friday and we'll get an answer then. By then, she may be within 1 lb of her pre-bloated weight.

Other than too many early morning phone calls and late night work sessions, we are doing just fine. In fact, Mary has now started to use her Facebook account so if you would like, you can find her there. To find her, search for Mary Hughes and then filter by school for ASU. There are only three and you'll recognize her picture, I hope.