In the middle

Monday was up and Tuesday was down, so Wednesday is somewhere in the middle.

Mary ate breakfast (Oatmeal) and then headed back to the bedroom lounge chair. For lunch, I prepared one of the frozen thingys--lean cuisine pizza bread--which she ate completely. I fixed a sweet potato, sauteed chicken and green beans for dinner and she ate a good portion of that too. Breakfast and dinner were at the dining room table while she took lunch in the lounge chair.

Here is a Thanksgiving picture of Kamie (left) visiting with Mary in the master bedroom with Mary in her lounge chair--for those wondering what I mean by a lounge chair. For regular readers and visitors to the house, you've seen this before.

From 2009-11-26 Thanksgiving

Mary did well all day although she had dizzy spells while standing a couple of times. We chalk those up to being on her heavy duty narcotic.

I ran errands today while Mary stayed home. She just is not comfortable riding in any of our cars so rather than create stress on her back, she stays home. I was successful in accidentally finding some cheap sweatshirts she can wear around the house--Walgreens of all places--with "Los Gatos California" emblazoned across the chest. She finds these totally style challenged but extremely comfortable given occasional discomfort/pain in her back, ribs and incision area. As she says, Stacy and Clinton (hosts of cable TV Channel TLC fashion show "What Not to Wear") would hang her up by her toenails but given her need for comfort, Mary will sacrifice.

We put on new fentanyl patches tonight from the batch with the 2011 expiration date. Three days ago, it was one patch from the 2010 batch and one from the 2011 batch. We'll see how she feels tomorrow.

We had a nice visit from Jane H, our neighbor, earlier this week who gave us some dried apricots from a local Santa Clara Valley fruit farmer. Yes, there is at least one still in business.

Finally, we happened to find a video produced by Stanford of a lecture given by Mary's surgeon about a month after her liver surgery this year. Click here to see the video of Dr. Brendan Visser. It runs slightly more than an hour and he shows a number of video clips of real surgeries so be prepared, this isn't for everyone. Dr. Visser did a laparoscopy to remove Mary's gall bladder in April and he used a full open surgery to remove 78% of her liver in May.

Happy New Year to all! Let us know how you are doing.

Up and Down

Monday was up, Tuesday was down.

Mary felt pretty darn good on Monday. So much so, she was out in the kitchen with me preparing a ravioli dinner for us on Monday evening. She did get tired--standing and bending--so I finished the preparations and we enjoyed a very nice meal at our dining room table. She had joined me at the table for all three meals on Monday and was active in preparing all of them from setting the table to helping me cook the oatmeal for breakfast. Basically, I have no built in meter for when a dish is ready to serve. When I get close, and given that Mary is up and active, I ask her to come and confirm the dish is ready. By now I have mastered fried eggs, steaks, chicken, fish and a few other things, but oatmeal was new to me and I really didn't know when it looked "done". Same was true for the ravioli on Monday night.

We put new fentanyl patches on Sunday evening and used the last one from the current box and the first from a new box. Turns out, the expiration date on the old box was April 2010 and the new box is August 2011. We are now wondering if the older patches have less punch which is why Mary had such a bad week last week. The patches are put on in pairs every three days and there are five patches in a box. Sunday night was one 2011 patch and one 2010 patch. Wednesday night will be two 2011 patches and we'll see how she does.

I ran a bunch of errands on Monday and although Mary was feeling much better, she stayed home and read the paper. We get the New York Times on Fri-Sat-Sun and we don't throw them into recycle until we've had a good chance to read all three days. Mary also spent time reading one of her books. That was a really good sign because she hasn't been very interested in reading anything for a week or so.

We did watch the Vikings lose to the Bears on Monday night. Hard to believe how that team started the season at 10-1 and is now 1-3 the last four games. Not a good sign going into the playoffs!

Notwithstanding the fentanyl patch freshness theory, today (Tuesday) was a downer. Mary did come out to the table for breakfast and I served a fried egg, toast and tangerine. She ate the egg, nibbled on the toast and ate a few wedges of tangerine. For lunch, I had purchased a number of microwaveable frozen thingys that Mary likes for quick meals on the theory that Mary's system seems to like warm food better than cold food such as sandwiches, cold serial, etc. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling up to eating any of the frozen items or even a sandwich. I prepared the old reliable of saltines, apple slices and peanut butter for her lunch which she while remained in her lounge chair--its the one cold dish that seems to agree with her.

For dinner I had taken a breast of chicken out of the freezer to cook for dinner. By dinner time, Mary wasn't interested in that or anything else. As a result, she had half a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup (Healthy Request), again delivered to Mary in her lounge chair.

Today was really quiet for Mary although I ran to Stanford to pick up the next prescription for fentanyl. The also included scripts for her nausea meds, Zofran and Compozine. From there I hit Costco for household sundries and discovered that weekday shopping is a veritable feast! On weekends the food sample stations are working, but usually they are preparing the next batch of whatever so you have a choice of hanging around and waiting or simply moving on. During the week, each stand's food preparer was ahead of the crowd. Man, what a spread!

And yes, I did see the older couple with nothing in their cart but soft drinks purchased at the food stand. They had positioned their cart to block access to the front of their favorite sample station, were standing at the side to block access from that angle, and proceeded to grab and eat as many samples as the demo lady would (could?) put down. I watched them as I walked up and down the aisle and they hung at that one food station, blocking access and snarfing everything she prepared for at least 15 minutes.

I shouldn't complain, but the time I got out of there, I was stuffed too. I hadn't eaten lunch, figuring I'd grab something while running my errands, not realizing what would be available while shopping while shopping at Costco. A feast!

A tribute to 2009

Courtesy of the irreverent JibJab gang. Click here if it doesn't play.

PS: Mary is doing great today!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Not a great day, again

Mary ate very little today, mostly toast, crackers, an apple, some soft cheese and for dinner, half a can of chicken noodle soup (Campbell's). She said she felt queasy most of the day but not fully nauseous. And, she was not coming to the table for meals so I know she was feeling poorly. The back pain came and went all day long and as I just put her to bed, it was gone.

We haven't talked about it but I am going to strongly suggest she call the Oncologist's office and find out what the IR folks said about her transferred test results. Mary was clearly better a month ago at Thanksgiving than she is right now. The difference could be Reenie's cooking versus my cooking but I don't think its only the chef.

Mary didn't sleep as much today. We hosted our neighbor Jane who stopped in for a nice visit. Mary also read a bunch of the paper and she watched most of the 49ers-Lions and also the Cowboys-Redskins. I am not sure you call any sporting event that includes the Lions a "game". Given their performance the last couple of years, its a sure thing they'll lose. Unfortunately, its almost the same for the Redskins.

Mary was not up to our usual Sunday morning outing to Farmers' Market and the Onion. I buzzed to market to pick up fresh veggies and fruit while Mary rested at home.

All in all, a very quiet day. I did, however, manage to record another incident with Demandit Dawg. Enjoy!

Here's to a great Boxing Day

It was a very good day for Mary. The British have a name for the Feast of St. Stephen on December 26th. They call it Boxing Day and you can click here for a wikipedia definition. And, of course, you know the Feast of Stephen from that great, almost 200 year old Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas.

As for Mary, today progressed from marginal to much better by the end of the day--far better than yesterday which was a total bummer for Mary. Today, Mary woke up about 10am because she had difficulty sleeping and reported that the last time she looked at the clock was 4am. However, when she woke at 10 she immediately said she felt better than yesterday.

I fixed her a fried egg, over easy, toast and tea for breakfast. She came to the table to eat--a big improvement over yesterday. However, after breakfast she went back to her lounge chair and slept for almost two hours. At some point she ate lunch of fruit, cheese and luncheon meat and then read the Friday and Saturday New York Times (we have it delivered Fri-Sat-Sun) followed by a shower. She then took her afternoon nap.

Dinner was shrimp salad. I prepped all the fixings and then Mary came out to the kitchen and tossed the salad and plated the meal. It was so very good to see her in the kitchen preparing a meal and sitting at the dining room table eating dinner. Yesterday, she never left the bedroom and I served all of her meals there.

The back pain comes and goes, mostly it was gone today. Her stomach today was very good and she ate well all day long with no retention problems like yesterday.

Mary even wondered if she had a mild flu bug given her difficulty of yesterday. Who can say?

The bummer in all of this is that Maurice and Ingrid had made plans for a wonderful Christmas dinner for us at Ingrid's new place. Unfortunately, yesterday was totally out of the question and today Mary didn't get up to speed until very late in the day and at that point Ingrid was back to work.

All in all, a much better day than yesterday...but still a long, long way from "normal."

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

As for us, Mary had a great day on Christmas eve. We went to downtown Los Gatos for a short shopping trip, had hours of video chats with the grandkids and then I prepared a superb steak, mushroom, beans and baked potato dinner. Mary ate heartily--always a good sign.

Here are the pictures from three hours of video chatting with all the grandkiddies.

Clicking on the picture will take you to our picasa album. For iPad users, click here.
As for today, Mary has not done well at all. Food hasn't stayed with her and most of the day has been spent either resting in her lounge chair or in bed. I did put on a new fentanyl patch last night as she went to bed, perhaps the dose of fentanyl is a touch too strong when a new patch goes on. That would explain Tues this week too. Monday and Thursday nites were new patch applications.

Merry Christmas to all!

Punishment for improper thoughts...

For those who have visited the house this past 18 months or so, you know we have some very nice area "persian" rugs rolled up and stored in the living room. This started when Wolfie (RIP Feb 2009) began losing control of his bladder and perhaps the last remnants of his brain box and began using carpeting as a substitute for grass. Clearly, the indoor/outdoor thing had escaped him. Wolfie had just turned 16 when he died in February and the problem had begun the prior spring/summer. Well, about the time Wolfie began his carpet bombing, we acquired Cujo-ette aka Idjit Dawg. We had been assured that Idjit Dawg never messed in the house. That may have been true but once she saw Wolfie with his precision targeting, she mastered the technique too. Hence, we have three very nice persian carpets professionally cleaned, rolled up and stored in the living room: One for the dining room, one for the library (aka TV room) and one for the master bedroom. As an aside, the living room rug is still properly laid out and in use...thanks to Ingrid's idea of using a dog exercise pen strung across the opening to block the dogs' access to the living room.

Unfortunately, the two surviving dogs, from time to time, also lose track of the indoor/outdoor thing. There a few not-so-expensive rugs on the floor and they have not practiced their carpet bombing on the cheap stuff. For now they create puddles on the ceramic tile when the mood suits them.

Given our upbringing in the midwest we know that "God will punish us" for thinking improper thoughts. I can recall this now because Garrison Keillor has talked about it from time to time in his stories of Lake Woebegone and it fully refreshed my memory.

The improper thoughts? The thought that maybe, just maybe we could unroll and place one of the stored rugs. We had been accident free for several weeks now and today I had thought that maybe we should unroll one or two of the rugs and put them in their proper place for Christmas. Either Mary or I have these improper thoughts from time to time. They usually creep into our consciousness after a few incident-free weeks.

The last time we had the thoughts was just before Thanksgiving and our visitors' arrival. The idea of having the dining room rug in place for the Thanksgiving feast was just so attractive. In fact, we went beyond impure thoughts and actually spoke aloud about placing the dining room rug. As soon as we discussed it, BOOM! Doggie puddles on the ceramic tile! We did not have the dining room rug out for Thanksgiving.

Tonight as I was doing my dogs-to-bed & trash-to-the-street routine, I found another doggie puddle. This, of course, was divine retribution for today's thoughts about putting a good rug out again. To add just a touch of salt to the wound, the Maids did the whole house cleaning today so the freshly scrubbed floor is now properly doggie baptized.

I did the discipline thing with Shawna (hold her head near the puddle and express anger) only to observe that Idjit Dawg ran out to the dog run as soon as I started and stayed there in the cold of the evening. After a few minutes, she came back in but would not come to me when called. I think the wrong dog got the discipline action. (How to you call a deaf dog? With hand signals which she saw and totally ignored.)

As for Mary (the reason you are on this site), today was a bummer of a day. Breakfast did not stay with her and she spent most of the day dosing and sleeping. After the rejected breakfast she only ate saltines until her sister suggested a grilled cheese sandwich. Mary thought that sounded good. The problem being, of course, that Mary's kitchen would never stock Kraft American cheese--sliced--the proper cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich. After a quick trip to Lunardi's to get the cheese, I successfully grilled a pair for the two of us. Today was such a downer of a day for her, she didn't even join me in the kitchen area to supervise the cooking (which I think she does out of self preservation). I flew solo and managed to create an edible sandwich. Amazing!

Mary felt more intense back pain in addition to her unstable stomach today. She is feeling the back pain through a full dose of fentanyl plus Celebrex so that is not necessarily a good thing. Don't ask--No, she has not called the doctor.

We are looking forward to unwrapping presents with our grandkiddies on Christmas eve. At 4PM we'll be on video chat with Danny and Sarah in Denver. And, at 5PM another video chat with Charlize in Tucson. We haven't set a plan yet with Madelyn and Emma in Pasadena. This technology stuff is wonderful! We buy the gifts on line, ship them to the kids directly and then can see the unwrapping as it happens via video chat! Amazing! For those who want to know, we use either iChat (Apple software) or Google Talk (for Mac). Hey, this beats the blizzard that trapped us in Denver in 2006 when Sarah was a newborn. I am amazed Casey still talks to us.

Our Tree

We finally got the tree decorated yesterday. Considering Tom and I set it up the day after Thanksgiving, and Reenie, Tom and Mary started decorating while I was at work the Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving, getting it done was an accomplishment!

Merry Christmas to all!

Finally figured it out

For the life of me, I could not figure out why the picasa photo application in the left column of this blog was not working. Today, I conquered it and now it works! It is a simple way to get to our photos. Nothing special, just a small victory over the software gremlins.

Roberto and his team have been working non-stop for the past two days prepping our landscaping for the next growing season--pruning, triming, new plantings, new gorilla hair, etc. Roberto always does this the last two weeks of December because of his billing practice. He only bills me once a year, in December. Originally, I found this to be terribly inconvenient but after 16 years of practice, I simply budget for it. After all these years, I finally asked him why he does it that way.

"Meester Pat, some of my clients are my savings accounts. You are one of the best, you always write the check the minute I give you the bill."

He does the major prepping just before he delivers the bill so there are no issues that need to be dealt with that would hold up payment. Works for me! And for him. I should also say that his team works on our yard and several of the neighbors' yards weekly during the year too.

Mary's fentanyl patch needs changing every 3 days so last night was a fresh dose. Today has been "sleepy time gal" for her. I think the drug is simply knocking her out on the first day of a fresh patch and day 2 and 3 she is more alert but still sleeps a lot. Strong narcotics will do that! Nothwithstanding the sleepiness, she is eating three good meals a day. Fried egg, toast and fruit for breakfast, a cube steak sandwich for lunch and we're doing sloppy joes for dinner. Thankfully, food intake is not a problem. She weighs herself daily and its fluctuating plus or minus a pound from day to day. Very consistent.

Looks like we'll have Christmas dinner at our friend Ingrid's place this year. Ingrid's son, Maurice, is home from his 3rd year of law school and he loves to cook so it should be a very nice event. We are hoping MaryR and her daughter Emilie will join too.

The house is full of Christmas music. I have my iPod in a speaker system playing in the large open space (TV room, Dining Room and Kitchen) while Mary's iMac is playing songs in the master bedroom. We both love the songs of the season filling the house.

I've been remiss

We've had a couple of good days after the difficulties of Thursday and Friday last week. Mary decided to go to the full adult dose for the fentanyl on Friday evening and since then her stomach is handling it while the painkiller is taking care of the back pain. It seems like she needs to ramp up the narcotics so her tummy can tolerate the narcotics in her system.

Mary came out with me on Saturday running errands, albeit briefly. On Sunday, we made it to Farmers' Market followed by a visit with MaryR at the Onion. Today we ran a few more errands and Mary came along with me for those too. I must admit, she sent me to the supermarket for groceries--alone--and I managed to find and buy everything we needed without calling her once for instructions. Of course, the butcher started the conversation by saying "Its my job to keep you out of the doghouse" and he did!

As for the daily errands, we get back to the house mid-afternoon and Mary then takes a late afternoon nap. She wakes up about 5PM and has a snack to keep her tummy happy. Shortly after that, I start prepping dinner. The short form is that we had ribs (takeout), salmon and cube steak for dinner the past three nights.

Today was my first day of shutdown so that was pleasant. One of our errands was to deliver a Christmas present to the UPS Store. Turns out that Mary ordered a gift for her oldest granddaughter and managed to ship it to herself. Nothing like the effect of a good narcotic to turn someone around while on the web! There is a reason we don't let her drive.

We do have a new name for Idjit Dawg. ID was looking me the other morning and I realized she had a ethereal but evil look on her face which leads to her new name. "Cujo-ette!"

My annual physical was this morning. All my tests and metrics are perfectly normal. That is good news! For those keeping track, I am on blood pressure medicine (HCT), baby aspirin and vitamins. The only thing amiss in my medical situation is a lack of exercise. I'll start the treadmill this week and build up over time. Start easy, go slow but get off my a_s and do it!

We've chatted with all the kids the past couple of days: Mary's daughter in Pasadena, son in Tucson and another son in El Paso. I talked with my daughter in New York City and did a text chat with my son in Denver. As most of you know, none of our offspring are here in Silicon Valley so its good to have a good chat now and then. Christmas season will do that! We are lining up video chats for Christmas. My son suggested they have the grandkiddies open the gifts we sent while we are on video chat so we can see the reactions. I think that is a superb idea and should be a lot of fun!

All in all, things are progressing nicely.

Merry Christmas from Snow Land!

Mary and Pat.

We have the continuing white stuff and cold. Real Bing Crosby
landscape. All parking lots are shrinking from ponderous snow piles.

Mary, I am glad you have a comforting lounge chair. I know it's
a real drag to be comfortable in only one place and sleepy all the time.
I bet have you a primary comfort position in that lounge chair as well.
Sounds like the prognosis is for a coupla more months, so don't push it
too hard. Healing is present, just slow.

Pat, two weeks off should be a good settling time for the both
of you.

> The grand experiment in Albany hit a snag with the sentencing of
> the former state senate leader, our primary political backer, to
> multi-year sentencing for fraud. I do not know how deep the
> back-pocket deals go into the university and IBM Alliance structure.
> But I'd be real surprised if it stops with Bruno. The man is 80. You'd
> think that all this is a little excessive. But it is New York.
>
It was just a year ago when Bruno and Governor Patterson and at
least a quarter of the legislature and all their lieutenants drove in
rank-and-file black limos and occupied the central rotunda to usher in
the agreement of cooperation (and a million Federal dollars) with NIST.
(The million dollars was never traced to any of our projects or
deliveries to NIST.) Ah, it feels like Chicago.

> Love, Milt

A little more pain on Thursday

Mary reported more pain today. I asked her if she wanted to increase the fentanyl patch because she is authorized to do that. Recall, the patches she was given are adolescent sized so Mary could go to two full patches which is one adult dose. She said she'd rather stay at the 3/4th level where she is right now. She woke with pain this morning and had a couple of tough bouts during the day.

I did get home earlier because I left the office at 6PM. I fixed a chicken, broccoli & potato dinner and Mary ate a complete adult sized portion! That was a really good sign given how little she ate yesterday. I did leave early this morning because I needed to have a blood test taken before my 9AM meeting so I left the house before I knew how she was doing. That was a bit of a concern because before I left she did move from the bed to her chaise lounge because laying in bed was hurting too much.

One more day and then I am on a two week shutdown. And, I am really looking forward to that!

Wednesday was calm

My "big project" at work came to a close tonight shortly after 8PM (only an 11 hour day). The next two days are more normal and I will be able to get home to fix dinner on Thursday and Friday. Then we have a two week Christmas shutdown so that will give me plenty of time to pay attention to our girl.

Mary scrambled eggs for herself tonight but then said they didn't taste good so she didn't eat much of them. She did have a pear and when I got home (almost 9PM), I fixed her hot milk and warmed up the cookies she made when she was feeling good. Some time ago, we bought a Nespresso machine and its companion milk frother "Aeroccino". Well, the Aeroccino is a great little device to make a cup of warm milk in a minute or two. This leads to an evening snack or late dessert of a cup of warm, frothy milk and one or two of Mary's home made cookies. The cookies come straight out of the freezer and head into the microwave to warm them up nicely. The chocolate chip are gone and we are working on the toffee cookies now.

When I left this AM, Mary was still in bed and said her back was hurting. After her morning Celebrex on top of fresh fentanyl patches last night, she reported the back was much better during the day. All in all, another quiet day as a result of the compressed vertibrae coupled with the fentanyl which makes her sleepy.

No word from Stanford so we continue to assume the IR docs don't think there is anything they can do to improve the situation.

That's all for now.

Late on Tuesday

Mary had a pretty good day overall, she reported. I had a long day at work so I left here while she was still sound asleep and got back 12 hours later. I did talk to her during the day and she reported she was doing fine, with just a little back pain now and then. She did feed herself breakfast and lunch. For lunch, she warmed up the chicken soup she made from last night.

On Monday night when I got home, Mary was in the middle of prepping chicken noodle soup--home made. She was dicing celery, carrots, chicken, mushrooms, etc., and then cooked them up in a broth. She also had the big pan boiling away to cook the noodles. She got the noodles in the boiling water and then acknowledged she was out of steam and her back was hurting from the leaning over the chopping board. At that point I became chef and she took the command chair to talk me through the rest of preparing dinner. Soon after she ate she headed back to her chaise lounge in the bedroom to give herself some relief from the back pain.

Tonight neither one of us wanted to cook so we did take out. We hadn't had a good, sinful hamburger for a while, so Happy Hound did the honors. With french fries and deep fried onion rings! Really sinful! But, great joint food!

I reported I had some kind of swelling with skin discoloration at the end of last week. My doc prescribed some antibiotics which I started taking on Friday afternoon (4 horse-sized pills per day). As early as Saturday morning it was evident the swelling was on the way down and the skin color was returning to normal. As of today, the area looks as if nothing happened. I know, I know, I will finish the entire 7 day course of antibiotic treatment the doc prescribed.

The bottom line on Mary is that she does seem to be getting stronger and less pain but overall she is still nowhere near a normal status. The woman who baked dozens and dozens of cookies over two days in preparation for Thanksgiving has not yet returned. For example, she didn't have the energy to fold the laundry after I ran the washer and dryer over the weekend. All we can do is be patient and let nature heal our girl's bones.

Monday Report

Mary is feeling pretty good although the fentanyl does cause her to nod off now and then. Yesterday after our visit to Farmers' Market and lunch at the Purple Onion, Mary set up in her chaise lounge and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours. In a different room, I watched football highlights (Go Vikings! Go Brett! Go Adrian!), and found myself nodding off as well. In other words, a very relaxing, quiet day.

Mary bought fresh halibut at the market and I baked that along with cooking fresh green beans and baking potatoes. Although I found dinner quiet tasty, the fentanyl is affecting her taste buds so she didn't eat all that much. It isn't an appetite problem, its that the narcotic is affecting her taste buds and causing most foods to simply taste bad. Mary's weight is staying constant so that is good news.

Mary's daughter, Lara, called yesterday. Mary really perks up when she gets phone calls from friends and family. My guess is that being home alone all day with Idjit Dawg and the sedentary Miss Shawna is a little too quiet.

From 2009-09 Chari and Tim Visit

Mary is not driving because the fentanyl is a very strong narcotic and she can tell her concentration and reflexes are not 100%. Its the safe and sound thing to do--not drive.

During a phone call with her son, Tim, on Saturday, the next steps were clarified for me. I thought the IR doctors would be calling Mary in for a consult. I was wrong. Instead, the Oncologist forwarded all the tests (x-ray, PET-CT Combo scan, MRI, bone scan and blood test results) and if the IR folks thought they could be of benefit to Mary's problem, they would then ask her to come in for a consult. In other words, there is no plan for Mary to see a doctor about this back pain. If you read the links I listed previously, you know the healing cycle is 8-10 weeks. And, in the case of a compressed thoracic vertebrae, doing nothing may be just as good as doing something.

My touchstone on this was years ago while in Stockholm and broke a rib or two from falling while walking on ice. The doctor said, "I can put you in a torso cast that will totally constrain you and in 8 weeks you'll be healed. Or, we can do absolutely nothing and in two months you'll be healed. Which do you want to do?" From the reading I have done and depending on the nature of Mary's compressed vertebrae, it may be the best thing is to do nothing. We shall see!

The current plan for the doctors (assuming no request from the IR docs) is pretty straightforward. A six month checkup with the radiation doctor is set for mid-January. This is the guy who, as the surgeon put it, "cooked Mary's innards." Then another followup with the surgeon sometime in mid-February. Then the oncologist in the middle of March and that includes a scan (CT? MRI? PET&CT combo? bone? who knows?) to check for metastasizing cancer.

From time to time, Mary can still feel the back pain through the narcotic so she is not ready to give up the patch. Between what we have in our possession and the script written by the doctor on the last visit, she has almost a month's supply. That is a good chunk of the six to eight week healing period.

That is all for now! Keep the prayers and good energy coming. She has to get past this bad back thing!

Marge & Dave's Christmas Party

Marge & Dave's Christmas Party

And a good time was had by all!

Definitely an Improvement

But a long way to go yet.

Mary prepped dinner last night but then ran out of energy to finish it. She had made turkey meat balls, had the sauce ready and had the pasta in the boiling water and then she hit the wall. Fortunately, even I can prepare a spaghetti meal when that much of it is already done.

Today I fixed fried eggs & toast for breakfast and turkey sandwiches for lunch. Mary has been at low energy all day even though we slept until 10AM--a long rest! I had experienced a couple of short nights during the week so I was really tired. Mary said she was surprised when I woke her up just before 10AM, she thought it was closer to 8AM. Oh well, if the body wants rest, let the body rest.

I visited my doc yesterday. In the wee hours of Thursday morning, I woke with horrible chills--so violent the shaking woke Mary up too. Mary touched me and instead of finding me hot with a fever, she said I was ice cold. Anyway, Thursday night I noticed a good sized spot with swelling under the skin and the skin was a bright red color--but no pain. There was no broken skin to indicate a bite or a scratch. Friday morning I saw my doc and she put me on antibiotics (4 a day) for seven days to knock it down. This morning, after only two pills, it looked so very much better. I will definitely finish all 28 pills to make sure its gone.

Tonight, we are headed to Marge and Dave's for their annual Christmas party. Mary has been looking forward to this for some time, and was really excited about it when the Oncologist gave her a 3 month pass to live life! Heck, Mary even bought a new dress to wear because she has lost two dress sizes since this all began.

Please feel free to write, email or call (during reasonable daytime hours, say 9AM to 9PM, Pacific Time). I am seeing Mary is becoming more outward and hearing from friends would be a good thing.

The Visit with the Doctor

He is convinced that the source of Mary's back pain is a conventional compressed vertebra and not a metastasized cancer--x-rays, CT scans, bone scans, MRI, PET-CT scan combo plus her CA-19-9 all lead him to that conclusion. CA-19-9 is a blood test looking for markers that indicate cancer and it has been declining regularly over the past few months. As a result, he does not need to see Mary until March. No chemo, no blood tests, no nothing from the Oncology folks for three months!

As for the pain, he wrote additional script for the fentanyl patch which will carry Mary forward for a while. He is also requesting Mary have a visit with the IR (Interventional Radiology) folks to see if they can do something to help her with the pain. For example, they might be able to do a needle procedure and inject a cement to help take the pressure off the compressed vertebra so it would have a better chance of healing. (This is described in the National Institute of Health link below.)

For those who are interested, here are links to a couple of sites with information about compressed vertebrae. Click for the National Institute of Health or University of Maryland Spine Center (with pictures!) The cure tends to be simply to let it heal--about 8 to 10 weeks, apparently.

Mary was feeling a bit better last night and made dinner without my help. It seems that having her on the three quarters of an adult patch is the right amount for her back pain.

If Mary weren't hit so hard by the narcotics, this wouldn't be so bad. But we are constantly walking the fine line between the level of pain in her back versus the problem of her stomach's reaction to the narcotics.

All in all, this appears to be very good news--its basically a broken, but very painful, broken bone.

It's not #3

All the scans and blood tests came back negative for option #3, cancer.

That leaves #1, injury, and #2, osteoporosis, as the culprits. The
Oncologist is referring her to an IR specialist. IR = Interventional
Radiologist. They do ultraprecise procedures while the patient is in
the CT Scanner or whatever. It may be that injecting a cement into the
bothersome vertibrae will solve the problem.

More later.

www.Lamey-Hughes.com

Tuesday was a D-, Wed too

Mary finished Tuesday night pretty much the same way as the day started. Very low key, low energy and tentative because of either back pain or stomach difficulties. She did eat a good portion of her dinner so that was good, and she ends the day with a glass of warm milk and the cookies she baked for Thanksgiving that are waiting patiently in the freezer.

This morning, Wednesday, she started stronger but that was driven by the Maids service due every other Wednesday. She didn't feel strong enough to vacate the house on her own so I came home from work for a long lunch hour. When I arrived, she asked me to put another 1/2 patch of fentanyl on her because the back pain was more intense. That means she is on three quarters of an adult dose and by the time we got back to the house she said the pain had lessened.

We left the house as the Maids arrived at 11:15 and returned at 1PM after they had gone. We took the dogs with us so they spent most of the time waiting in the car while we ate at the Purple Onion. On the way home, we stopped at the local park but Mary sat in the car listening to the radio while I walked the doggies. I got to use two blue bags during the walk because the dogs were successful!

I am really looking forward to tomorrows visit with the Oncologist. We need to set a plan to identify the source of this pain and then get rid of it.

Monday was a C+, Tuesday a D

Mary did some work in the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen, prepped the rice for dinner and even went out to get the mail from our mailbox. Overall, a quiet but ok day. By the time I got home, she was tired and was ready to eat so I sauteed the shrimp, Mary prepped the carrots and about then the rice cooker declared it was ready. A nice meal overall and a comfortable quiet day.

Tuesday has not been as good. Mary woke with bad back pain. She took her morning meds: Celebrex, PepcidAC, Diuretic 1&2, Blood Pressure medication and of course the transdermal patch provides the fentanyl. After a morning nap, she felt better but not enough energy to really get the day going--kind of a real lazy, hang out day. She has eaten very lightly. She is planning for cube steaks for dinner and I hope she can eat a healthy portion.

Tomorrow is the Maids for house clean up and Thursday is the trip to Stanford to visit the Oncologist again. We expect she'll be seeing an orthopedic specialist next.

Call it a B- Sunday

Mary did pretty well today. Breakfast followed by Farmers' Market followed by lunch at the Purple Onion--if you can call a pumpkin muffin and a cup of tea lunch. We went home and Mary rested for a bit.

Then we hit Pet People Los Gatos, Whole Foods, Chocolate Dream Box and Lunardis. Mary made all the stores and lead the shopping expedition in each so that was a really good sign. In addition to regular groceries, she picked out some quick food she will eat if she gets that "My stomach needs something now!" feeling this coming week. All of her meals stayed with her today but she did have that uncertain feeling from time to time.

Unfortunately, the Arizona Cardinals didn't read all the press coverage and managed to beat Brett Farve and my Vikings tonight. Oh, well, it will make for a good playoff tension as things move forward.

One last thing. Santa Clara County has started its annual Fantasy of Lights in our local Vasona Park. It is a really cool light show for the holidays. It is also a pain in the you know where to get around Los Gatos after the park opens at 6:30PM for all the folks trying to see the display. We were out early enough today, but last night when I tried to make a quick run to Whole Foods, the traffic was so thick I couldn't believe it. However, it is a great show. Here are a couple of amateur videos from prior years, here and here.

After giving up on the Vikings--caused mostly by dinner of fresh grouper, bake potato and green salad getting in the way--we watched a couple of shows on folks who like to decorate their homes for the holidays. While none of the houses in the show was this house, the effort and technology shows here. This has a high resolution version so if you have high speed internet, be sure to click on the high resolution version.

We have a favorite video, and although I haven't found a high resolution version, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra music coupled with the synchronized lighting is amazing. You can read about the set up by clicking on the more info button next to this clip. And, here is another clip, different house.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been described as Pink Floyd meets White Christmas. The two songs I like are Wizards in Winter (a TV Clip here) and Carol of the Bells (a bootleg from a concert and Carol of the Bells starts at about minute 3:30 on this clip). Mary and I did attend one of their concerts at the HP Arena and it is quite a show as you will see in that 2nd clip. I am sure you can find better recordings, but these are free...

We had rain this morning and as I write this, I can hear the real rain and storm starting. Winter has arrived!

Damn if you do, damned if you don't painkillers

I think Mary would be doing great right now if it weren't for the side effect of the pain killer. She is having great stomach difficulty. Lunch and dinner did not stay with her today, although breakfast did. And, she could not eat last night's dinner and the little she did try didn't stay with her. Bummer.

Yes, she is on a transdermal patch. But, narcotics and her digestive system have never gotten along. The experience with Vicodin and Oxycodone in the past few weeks proved that--again. Now that she has been on the patch for five days, it appears there is a build up and its enough to trigger her stomach problems. And, she is on the adolescent dose with the patch, not even the adult dose. We'll call Monday when the Oncologist is back on duty. Perhaps we should try the other option which is a different narcotic with yet a different form of application. We shall see.

Right now she is on fentanyl and it worked great (or so we thought) after the surgery. But, that could have been due to the IV delivery plus the heavy dose of nausea meds she was on. We really don't know.

On the bright side, she is experiencing no back pain--none or only incidental at the most. So that part is good.

This weekend is so quiet after the buzz of our Thanksgiving visitors. Heck, we got up about 8:30, I fried some eggs, prepped some fruit and toast and we had a nice breakfast. About 10, Mary said she wanted to sleep a bit so she laid down. I decided to be quiet so I sat in our TV area and played a movie with very soft sound. I don't remember the movie but I do remember waking up about an hour later. Mary woke an hour after that. After lunch I did the kitchen clean up followed by the dry cleaner run (without Mary) because she decided to lay down again--and at some point Mary's lunch was rejected. Later in the afternoon, I made a Whole Foods run for a quick dinner. Mary ate well, but later it rejected too. She did hold down a glass of warm milk and a couple of cookies some time later but that is not a great diet, obviously.

Here is hoping Sunday is a better day for our girl.

Stepping lively!

Today, of all days, the doctor was running close to on time. And, for the first time ever I showed up a bit late. Notwithstanding that, I managed to find Mary in the warren of examination rooms (Aisle D, Room 2) while the doc was still talking to her.

To control the bloat, he has put her on low level dosage of the two diuretics she has been taking to minimize the problem. During this last cycle, she gained about 7 lbs of fluids in six days and then they put her back on the diuretics to take her down again over the next 10 days. It is very uncomfortable for Mary and there is no reason to go through that cycle so he wrote scripts to cut the dose in half and use it as a preventative.

Mary told him she had the PET/CT scan yesterday so he stepped out to review the PET/CT scan and talk to the radiologist. This isn't the final verdict, but it would seem that the preponderance of results (x-ray, MRI, bone scan & combined PET/CT scan) are pointing to a compressive fracture in a vertebrae as the source of her pain rather than a cancer/tumor. We will hear the final word next Thursday but the immediate reaction is relief! For sure! You betcha! Its a heck of a deal!

At least, that's our opinion until we learn about all the problems associated with compressive fractures of the vertebrae and all the nasties that might be attached to that diagnosis.

Finally, the transdermal patch of fentanyl is working wonderfully. Mary's stomach is pretty good, overall now. And, the back pain is pretty much not there at all. A great place to be. The surgeon's nurse was a bit surprised to learn Mary was on the adolescent dose and that is was so effective for her pain. Oh yeah, narcotics hit our girl very, very hard.

Thursday Wrap

Because Mary arrived early and started early, they finished early too so we left Stanford just before 6PM.

She announced she needed food--not a surprise given her last meal was at 8:30AM. We decided on Mandarin Gourmet in Palo Alto--it is just three blocks from the main entry to the Stanford campus. We had pot stickers, orange beef and salt and pepper prawns. Mary ate good sized portions with gusto and has had no tummy difficulties since dinner (it is now 10PM). This was Mary's first meal at a real restaurant in several weeks. She hasn't been feeling strong enough, without pain nor confident of her stomach to eat out until tonight. It was a real treat to take her out tonight!

Overall, Mary had a great day. Because of the fasting for the scan, she could not eat and we were concerned she'd have problems because of an empty stomach--recall, yesterday was all day grazing to avoid stomach problems. Turns out, not a bit of a problem!

Tomorrow Mary sees the surgeon. Perhaps we'll learn something about the PE/CT scan results.

At Stanford--the PET/CT scan is in progress

I made it to Stanford to meet Mary before she headed into her PET/CT scan. Mary arrived even earlier and they took her in to the prep area and I didn't get to see her. Its a two hour procedure with IV's in both arms while they take images her various parts. The machine is in a trailer outside the building complex and doesn't have a waiting area. I'm killing time (doing work email after this) in the Cancer Center cafe area.

They told me it takes almost two hours after the start of the appointment to complete the procedure--if she is a good girl and doesn't move during the imaging part. That means we'll be done here about 6:30PM. We don't know when the radiologist completes his report, but everything at Stanford is on line so we are sure the surgeon will take a good hard look at the images before he sees Mary at tomorrow's 11AM appointment.

Mary had a pretty good day. The pain was minor at worst and that is associated with a poor sitting posture or an unusual abdominal move. Otherwise, she says she has no pain at all. Her tummy was ok even though she was not allowed to eat after 8:30AM. She did use some antacids but not excessive--she reported. I hope this means we've finally turned the corner to her getting stronger again--thanks to the transdermal patch which eliminates her stomach as part of the intake procedure. Recall, the Oncologist said he orders chemo treatments when patients self-report 80% of normal feeling. And, Mary said she felt like she was at that level before she started Gemzar in early October. She hasn't been anywhere near 80% (more like 8% at times) since the 2nd week of the now-cancelled Gemzar treatments.

All I know for sure is that she will be a very hungry girl when she gets out of that contraption. She requested a take out dinner to be picked up on the way home. If we pick it up in Palo Alto, I'm guessing she'll be nibbling before we get on the freeway. Ok by me.

A much better day

Seems the transdermal patch is delivering just about the right amount of fentanyl to keep the pain away almost 100% of the time. And, Mary's stomach is a bit touchy but the various nausea meds are keeping that on an even keel. She has been eating all day (grazing as its called) and the food has stayed with her. That is quite an improvement over the past three days. Her energy level is still low but she is far better than the past couple of days. The patch seems to be doing the job!

The PET/CT scan is set for tomorrow (Thursday the 3rd) at the end of the day. This could be tough as they do not want her to eat for 8 hours and we'll see if she can really do that given today was a grazing day. Thanks to Bill for volunteering to take her there. Given she is on a pretty powerful narcotic, we don't think she should be driving.

On the assumption that the Thursday scan is successful, we should learn a bit more about the likely diagnosis for the source of the back pain when Mary sees the surgeon for another follow up on Friday. The surgeon follow up is for the recent bloating (about 10 days ago) that is now gone given Mary is taking diuretics again. Thanks to MaryR for driving duties Friday.

Finally, Mary has another visit with the Oncologist a week from now on Thursday. At that time we should learn if they have decided this is a form of cancer or if they refer her to the orthopods and pain docs. If it is a cancer, the immediate action would be further radiation therapy. If it is a not, we'll have to wait and see. Thanks to Terry for driving on Thursday.

Half a good day is better than a whole bad day

Mary had a great morning and up through lunch yesterday. The back pain is way down and she was feeling very chipper until early afternoon. Reenie, Mary and Tom were even decorating our Christmas tree until Mary's stomach went south.

She is on a transdermal patch so the Fentanyl is seeping into her blood stream very slowly. Each patch lasts 3 days. And, they put her on the minimum dose--the kids dosage--to see what it would take to knock down the pain.

Mary just came bouncing out of the bedroom at 7:20AM. Not really bouncing but just to see her moving is a treat. No back pain, no stomach pain and ready to say good bye to Reenie and Tom who are on a 10AM flight to Minnesota today.

It may be that her lunch yesterday was simply too rich for her digestive system. Tom, Reenie and Mary had more of the turkey enchiladas. On Friday, Mary had no difficulty with them. Yesterday, she did.

Now we are waiting for the call from Stanford to schedule the PET/CT Scan. Actually, Mary says she has the number to call so she will do that today. We don't know how the patch is affecting Mary's ability to drive yet so I may ask the taxi team for help for the various visits in the next 10 days. One TBD, one on Friday and one Thursday the 10th.

We will really miss Reenie and Tom. The love and moral support have been just fantastic. And Tom's handyman skills got a great deal accomplished around here--heck, he even cleaned the garage. In addition to Tom's contribution were Reenie's skills in the kitchen. Reenie and Mary were trained by the same Mommy and they are both outstanding in the culinary department.