Dad went to his urologist on Friday and they have given him another antibiotic to help with the pain he is having. Hopefully this will kick in quickly and take care of this issue. Everything else he said was good. Had no problems with the chemo. This morning he did the survivors lap at the cancer cure run that Aunt Cathy is a part of. Dad said he got some pictures and will email them to me so I can post them. Tonight they are at a BBQ at Chuck and Aunt Charlene's. Dad said he is feeling pretty good considering it is an "after chemo" weekend. I didn't get a chance to ask mom how she is feeling after her falls so I will report on that with the next update. Enjoy your weekend.
PS. Apparently several people didn't like the gray back ground; it was too drabby. Hence, the change to the BRIGHT yellow. Hope you like it. :-)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Good News, Bad News
So are you the type that wants the good news first or the bad news? I never really know how start and end these blog spots so I decided today to start with.... the bad. So the bad news is mom fell twice in the same day. Now you may be asking yourself how does one fall when one is in a motorized chair. Well, mom has always been a bit challenged in the area of gravity and dad has saved her on several occasions through out her life time. One time she even fell off a cliff and dad caught her foot or hand (I can't remember which)and pulled her back up.
So the first fall was out in the parking lot of the apartment. She had come home early to go to dinner with some friends. She honked for dad to come meet her at the car with her chair like he does every night but he never came. She called his cell phone and he didn't answer that so she decided to try and walk to the end of her car and then she could climb on to dad's scooter that was on the back trailer. I don't think she realized when she got there she would have to take the gate down and get the scooter down which in and of its self would be an impossible task for her to do by herself. Well, her arthritic knees gave out and she face planted it on the pavement (her words, I would not choose such crass verbiage). She was bleeding on her face and has a purple and black eye, scraps on her legs and arms, bruises everywhere and got a pretty bad headache. Some neighbors saw her fall and got dad and they all helped her get up and into her chair. She also broke her glasses which dad tried to fix with super glue. Some of the glue got on her lens but I think he got it off.
So mom and dad go to dinner with their friends. Come home and mom is coming out of the restroom and for some unknown reason, her chair "flipped" her out of it. She landed with her head on her bed, her chest on the puppy stairs to the bed and her foot stuck under her motorized chair between the wheel and the foot rest. Dad came to help. If you don't know, these chairs are very, very heavy. Dad by himself could not move the chair and just kept hurting mom more. She was sure he was going to break her leg. He finally realized he could take off the foot rest and release her foot that way. She finally maneuvered herself into the bed and just stayed there. She scraped her chest and her legs some more and added more bruises.
Now for the GOOD NEWS. Dad had treatment on Wednesday and asked a lot of questions. He did find out that he is in stage 4 cancer, which wasn't surprising. His red cell blood count was very good. His oxygen was great, normal is 95% and his was 98%. The doctor told him that he is just going to have to get use to the shortness of breath because it isn't going away. There was also something about his AEC or something like that. It was also very good. The doctor also thought that the tumor on the liver was shrinking. Dad's weight is maintaining. He needs to put some more on though. He is still having problems with the pain in the private area so he had an appt with his urologist today but I haven't talked to him yet to find out what happened there. All in all it was a very good and uplifting report for dad.
Keep your prayers and emails and donations and whatever else you have to pass along to mom and dad coming. They appreciate each and every one of them.
Blessings, The Douglass'
So the first fall was out in the parking lot of the apartment. She had come home early to go to dinner with some friends. She honked for dad to come meet her at the car with her chair like he does every night but he never came. She called his cell phone and he didn't answer that so she decided to try and walk to the end of her car and then she could climb on to dad's scooter that was on the back trailer. I don't think she realized when she got there she would have to take the gate down and get the scooter down which in and of its self would be an impossible task for her to do by herself. Well, her arthritic knees gave out and she face planted it on the pavement (her words, I would not choose such crass verbiage). She was bleeding on her face and has a purple and black eye, scraps on her legs and arms, bruises everywhere and got a pretty bad headache. Some neighbors saw her fall and got dad and they all helped her get up and into her chair. She also broke her glasses which dad tried to fix with super glue. Some of the glue got on her lens but I think he got it off.
So mom and dad go to dinner with their friends. Come home and mom is coming out of the restroom and for some unknown reason, her chair "flipped" her out of it. She landed with her head on her bed, her chest on the puppy stairs to the bed and her foot stuck under her motorized chair between the wheel and the foot rest. Dad came to help. If you don't know, these chairs are very, very heavy. Dad by himself could not move the chair and just kept hurting mom more. She was sure he was going to break her leg. He finally realized he could take off the foot rest and release her foot that way. She finally maneuvered herself into the bed and just stayed there. She scraped her chest and her legs some more and added more bruises.
Now for the GOOD NEWS. Dad had treatment on Wednesday and asked a lot of questions. He did find out that he is in stage 4 cancer, which wasn't surprising. His red cell blood count was very good. His oxygen was great, normal is 95% and his was 98%. The doctor told him that he is just going to have to get use to the shortness of breath because it isn't going away. There was also something about his AEC or something like that. It was also very good. The doctor also thought that the tumor on the liver was shrinking. Dad's weight is maintaining. He needs to put some more on though. He is still having problems with the pain in the private area so he had an appt with his urologist today but I haven't talked to him yet to find out what happened there. All in all it was a very good and uplifting report for dad.
Keep your prayers and emails and donations and whatever else you have to pass along to mom and dad coming. They appreciate each and every one of them.
Blessings, The Douglass'
Monday, June 22, 2009
Keep Praying
Mom and dad could use some prayer and encouragement. Dad continues to lose weight. He said he even ate 1/2 a bag of M&Ms in just a couple of hours - the Costco size bag!! He hasn't had much energy and gets winded pretty quickly. His hands are always cold. Dad also believes he can feel the tumor that is on his liver. For awhile he thought it was shrinking but now he thinks it has gotten larger.
I think the stresses of everything they are dealing with, health as well as loss of income, are starting to make them more irritated with each other. The little things are starting to be frustrating and emotions are fragile. Dad mentioned that he and mom realize his time on this earth is very limited and they should be making the best of the time and not fighting.
Steve, Kaity and I drove over to spend a bit of time with them on Father's Day. Several times dad mentioned this could be his last one and how much he appreciated us coming over. We were going to go out to lunch but decided to BBQ instead. Dad is a really good BBQer. He and Steve had TBone steaks while we ladies had hamburgers. We watched some racing and did some visiting and then headed home.
This week is a treatment week. This is the first time he has gone 3 weeks between treatments and it does seem to affect him in a negative way. He has a list of questions to ask his doctors and is really looking for some answers to what is happening. Pray for boldness and persistence that he would get the TRUTH to his questions. We will let you know what he finds out.
With appreciation and thankfulness for such caring friends and family.
I think the stresses of everything they are dealing with, health as well as loss of income, are starting to make them more irritated with each other. The little things are starting to be frustrating and emotions are fragile. Dad mentioned that he and mom realize his time on this earth is very limited and they should be making the best of the time and not fighting.
Steve, Kaity and I drove over to spend a bit of time with them on Father's Day. Several times dad mentioned this could be his last one and how much he appreciated us coming over. We were going to go out to lunch but decided to BBQ instead. Dad is a really good BBQer. He and Steve had TBone steaks while we ladies had hamburgers. We watched some racing and did some visiting and then headed home.
This week is a treatment week. This is the first time he has gone 3 weeks between treatments and it does seem to affect him in a negative way. He has a list of questions to ask his doctors and is really looking for some answers to what is happening. Pray for boldness and persistence that he would get the TRUTH to his questions. We will let you know what he finds out.
With appreciation and thankfulness for such caring friends and family.
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