Kevin successfully finished up his radiation today and after speaking with a bunch of specialists, it has been decided that he should go to rehab. The objective being for Kev to. be able to move himself out of bed and into the wheelchair, from the wheelchair to a car and take care of his bathroom needs etc. himself. If he came home now he would require round-the-clock care. Rehab is pretty intense – 3 hours a day – so an eval was required first. But that went well so tomorrow we are expecting him to transfer to the 8th floor. They think they can get him ready to come home in 7 days then after he returns home he’ll be followed up with home-visit PT. Kev is very happy with this plan and looking forward to gaining a little independence.
We also stopped the Temodar today. This was to position ourselves for a possible participation in a clinical trial. It is necessary to be off any chemo or radiation for 4 weeks before starting the trial. We have an appointment set up with them in about a week to see if Kev will qualify. We are taking a bit of a risk because if he does not get in then we just wasted a couple weeks with no treatment, but Kev’s oncologists and PA have already spoken with the trial’s physician and other than the fact that they currently have no openings, they think he will be a good candidate.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day
This will definitely be a weekend to remember. My sister Michelle flew in from PA to visit us for the 3-day weekend. We had planned a quiet relaxing weekend hanging out at the house. When Kev went back into the hospital on Wed, obviously we figured there’d be a slight deviation - probably involving a lot of driving back and forth to Houston, but we never thought…
Laura called me at the hospital on Thursday and said some of the guys wanted to build a ramp for Kevin over the weekend to help him get in and out of the house. I was speechless, mostly because I was still trying to figure out what we were going to do in the next five minutes, much less in a couple days. But it didn’t take me long to realize we would have to do something about the stairs in and out of the house and gladly accepted the offer. I was a little worried these guys had underestimated the scope of the project so told her if it didn’t work out not to worry we figure something out.
By Friday night, Kevin had spoken with Dan concerning design ideas and Alan had made a CAD model getting final approval from Kevin. When I picked up Michelle at the airport at midnight I mentioned there might be a few people coming over to work on a ramp the following day. Dave and Alan showed up early Saturday morning to borrow the van as I was heading out to the hospital. Michelle and Kelden were planning on coming up later and Nick was going to stay home to help the guys out. Next I knew, Nick was calling me about 7:30pm and telling me to check out the blog – I was astounded at the progress. Apparently there were more than “a few” people that arrived – I heard it was closer to a couple dozen. And a handful even stayed later (about 10 pm). When I came home about 11pm everyone was gone but it was also very clear the blog was way out of date – the ramp was essentially finished! On Sunday another good group showed up to finish the details, and were completed by early afternoon. The finished product is absolutely beautiful! It is beyond professional – your craftsmanship is amazing – and all in less than 2 days. If the Space Program gets cancelled, fear not, you have a second calling :-) You were so generous to give up half of your holiday weekend to work in the heat and build this for us. I’m sorry I was not able to thank each of you personally and I won’t be in the office much in the coming weeks; so please accept this huge THANK YOU from us. You are all wonderful!
And a BIG thank you to Laura for organizing all this talent and energy – I can’t imagine anyone else you could have accomplished that.
Laura called me at the hospital on Thursday and said some of the guys wanted to build a ramp for Kevin over the weekend to help him get in and out of the house. I was speechless, mostly because I was still trying to figure out what we were going to do in the next five minutes, much less in a couple days. But it didn’t take me long to realize we would have to do something about the stairs in and out of the house and gladly accepted the offer. I was a little worried these guys had underestimated the scope of the project so told her if it didn’t work out not to worry we figure something out.
By Friday night, Kevin had spoken with Dan concerning design ideas and Alan had made a CAD model getting final approval from Kevin. When I picked up Michelle at the airport at midnight I mentioned there might be a few people coming over to work on a ramp the following day. Dave and Alan showed up early Saturday morning to borrow the van as I was heading out to the hospital. Michelle and Kelden were planning on coming up later and Nick was going to stay home to help the guys out. Next I knew, Nick was calling me about 7:30pm and telling me to check out the blog – I was astounded at the progress. Apparently there were more than “a few” people that arrived – I heard it was closer to a couple dozen. And a handful even stayed later (about 10 pm). When I came home about 11pm everyone was gone but it was also very clear the blog was way out of date – the ramp was essentially finished! On Sunday another good group showed up to finish the details, and were completed by early afternoon. The finished product is absolutely beautiful! It is beyond professional – your craftsmanship is amazing – and all in less than 2 days. If the Space Program gets cancelled, fear not, you have a second calling :-) You were so generous to give up half of your holiday weekend to work in the heat and build this for us. I’m sorry I was not able to thank each of you personally and I won’t be in the office much in the coming weeks; so please accept this huge THANK YOU from us. You are all wonderful!
And a BIG thank you to Laura for organizing all this talent and energy – I can’t imagine anyone else you could have accomplished that.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
OMG!!!!
The guys from work (NASA/Boeing/Lockheed) came over today and built a ramp for Kev. Check out the link to the blog for pictures etc. This is just incredible - you guys & gals are amazing! We are deeply touched. I don’t think we can express how much this means to us – THANK YOU!!!!
The new plan…
Yesterday morning the oncologists came in told us the new plan. It's always nice to have a plan, something to focus on for the short term – a plan is much better than just waiting. The experimental trial is full so we’ll need to wait for an opening. In the mean time we’ll restart the Temodar and start a new round of radiation. For the Temodar, Kev was on a 3 weeks on / 1 week off cycle, but now they want to do 6 weeks on / 2 weeks off. His tox levels are good so they decided it’s best to max him out and try to slow this thing down. The radiation is targeted at the T1/T2 area of the spine (up near the shoulder blades). This is really more of a preemptive treatment. The T11/T12 area is what is causing his present nerve damage problems, but this was radiated with max doses earlier this month. The T1/T2 area also has a significant amount of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) and spinal cord compression. The concern is if this gets worse then he’ll have nerve damage in the upper body too. So it was thought best to go after it now while we’re waiting for the trial to open. They are doing an “accelerated” treatment this time - higher dose (400 centigrays/day) for fewer (5) days. We also decided today to have Kev stay in-patient through Wed when he finishes up the radiation therapy. This was based mainly because his case manager needs to secure a hospital bed for home use for him and they want him to meet with a bowel specialist prior to release and neither of these ladies will be in until Tuesday (due to the holiday Monday). So it just seemed to make sense to stay in-patient through Wed.
The new plan…
Yesterday morning the oncologists came in told us the new plan. It's always nice to have a plan, something to focus on for the short term – a plan is much better than just waiting. The experimental trial is full so we’ll need to wait for an opening. In the mean time we’ll restart the Temodar and start a new round of radiation. For the Temodar, Kev was on a 3 weeks on / 1 week off cycle, but now they want to do 6 weeks on / 2 weeks off. His tox levels are good so they decided it’s best to max him out and try to slow this thing down. The radiation is targeted at the T1/T2 area of the spine (up near the shoulder blades). This is really more of a preemptive treatment. The T11/T12 area is what is causing his present nerve damage problems, but this was radiated with max doses earlier this month. The T1/T2 area also has a significant amount of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) and spinal cord compression. The concern is if this gets worse then he’ll have nerve damage in the upper body too. So it was thought best to go after it now while we’re waiting for the trial to open. They are doing an “accelerated” treatment this time - higher dose (400 centigrays/day) for fewer (5) days. We also decided today to have Kev stay in-patient through Wed when he finishes up the radiation therapy. This was based mainly because his case manager needs to secure a hospital bed for home use for him and they want him to meet with a bowel specialist prior to release and neither of these ladies will be in until Tuesday (due to the holiday Monday). So it just seemed to make sense to stay in-patient through Wed.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Back in the hospital
First for the good news, Kevin has no pain issues at all anymore, granted he is still on his standard methadone protocol, but he is pain-free, alert and in good spirits. However for the past few days, he has been loosing control/sensation in his left leg, which was getting increasingly worse and then he noticed a similar, but to lesser degree, the same in the right leg, in addition to incontinence. So after speaking with his oncologist on Wed it was decided we should come into ER. The Dr had the MRI already scheduled prior to our arriving, but we still spent 6 hours in the ER, getting the final results around midnight. There were only preliminary readings last night and they called in the neuro-surgical team for consult. It was decided to move him to a standard room about 1:00 am, start him on high doses of steroids, restrict all food/drink in case they ended up in surgery today and wait for his regular neurosurgeon and oncologist to review the final readings and confer with each other.
Later this afternoon we were told the MRI shows the spinal tumors have continued to advance despite the radiation earlier this month and having just completed a cycle of Temodar (Temozolomide). This has further constricted the spinal cord causing the partial paralysis. There are two different kinds of tumors in his spine – the standard solid masses and leptomeningeal disease (LMD). LMD is apparently very rare with manifestation in only about 10% of all cancer patients. It was described to us as a plaque-like growth along the walls of the spinal cord. Because it is so extensive, it was decided that surgery is not an option. The oncologists has explained Temodar is the best chemo for central nervous system (CNS) metastases, but is concerned that there was no positive response after the first cycle -so he wants to pursue an experimental treatment, but first needs to confirm whether Kev qualifies. (Because of the whole blood/brain barrier thing, there are very limited drugs to treat CNS metastases). For now he continues with the high doses of steroids and PT is working with him to develop accommodations and we wait…
Feel free to call, his room number is 713-834-8775.
Later this afternoon we were told the MRI shows the spinal tumors have continued to advance despite the radiation earlier this month and having just completed a cycle of Temodar (Temozolomide). This has further constricted the spinal cord causing the partial paralysis. There are two different kinds of tumors in his spine – the standard solid masses and leptomeningeal disease (LMD). LMD is apparently very rare with manifestation in only about 10% of all cancer patients. It was described to us as a plaque-like growth along the walls of the spinal cord. Because it is so extensive, it was decided that surgery is not an option. The oncologists has explained Temodar is the best chemo for central nervous system (CNS) metastases, but is concerned that there was no positive response after the first cycle -so he wants to pursue an experimental treatment, but first needs to confirm whether Kev qualifies. (Because of the whole blood/brain barrier thing, there are very limited drugs to treat CNS metastases). For now he continues with the high doses of steroids and PT is working with him to develop accommodations and we wait…
Feel free to call, his room number is 713-834-8775.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Middlegame - Strategy & Tactics
Three years ago this week Kevin’s regular check-up scans revealed his latest reoccurrence. There were no outward signs - he didn’t feel sick, but then he never did. This reoccurrence was however very different from the others. This was not just one or two isolated tumors that could be easily watched and when became “undesirable” could be surgically removed. This time the cancer had spread far and wide. His oncologist explained that the Beast had made a very aggressive move that should be countered with an equally aggressive treatment plan. The good news was that the brain MRIs were clean.
We had known about the traditional and only “approved” chemo treatment for melanoma since the original diagnosis, but because of its very poor response rate and very bad side effects it was never recommended, but now since surgery was no longer a viable treatment plan we were left with few options. Still, his oncologist had reservations about the bio-chemo treatment (for the same reasons as earlier) and suggested we try an alternate first. So in early June, Kevin started high-dose Interlukin-2 treatments. Because of the potentially lethal side effects, the entire treatment was in-patient in the ICU. After a few rounds, his body couldn’t tolerate any more and there was no improvement in the scans so it was decided to switch to the traditional bio-chemo treatment. This too had to be administered in-patient due to the dangerous side effects. He spent one week in the hospital, two weeks at home to recover and then back again to repeat. Out of the three week cycle, only during the last 3-4 days did he feel well enough to venture out of the house. These treatments made him so sick, that he remembers very little from this entire time period - June through Sep 2005.
There was a positive response – many of the tumors shrank, but his quality of life had gone from 100% to about 20% because of the treatments and in Aug we were informed that now the MRIs showed the cancer had spread to the brain. But, it was explained, we should not despair. The met was in an isolated single location near the outer surface of the brain that could be radiated or if unsuccessful, could be surgically removed. They ordered a spinal tap and confirmed that there were no cancer cells in the spinal fluid. The Stereotactic Radiosurgery occurred later that month and subsequent MRIs indicated it was successful. Kev had some residual side-effects but was recovering nicely from the chemo treatments when a few months later, Feb 2006, he began experiencing seizures. The MRIs were inconclusive and the neurosurgeon was reluctant to open up his skull so we followed a medication route to treat the seizures and a “wait-and-see” approach. It took a while to work out the necessary doses, but this worked fairly well with him experiences only a few seizures through the spring. However in early July, the seizures came back strong and were uncontrollable – we were back in the ER and the MRI showed massive bleeding, swelling and tumor growth so it was decided to surgically remove the brain tumor. But not so quick...they needed to reduce the swelling before opening up the skull. So while keeping him in the hospital he received high doses of steroids for a couple weeks. The surgery was very successful and we also discussed a couple new experimental chemo treatments that would be available after healing from the surgery. This is where the blog picks up in late Aug 2006...
We had known about the traditional and only “approved” chemo treatment for melanoma since the original diagnosis, but because of its very poor response rate and very bad side effects it was never recommended, but now since surgery was no longer a viable treatment plan we were left with few options. Still, his oncologist had reservations about the bio-chemo treatment (for the same reasons as earlier) and suggested we try an alternate first. So in early June, Kevin started high-dose Interlukin-2 treatments. Because of the potentially lethal side effects, the entire treatment was in-patient in the ICU. After a few rounds, his body couldn’t tolerate any more and there was no improvement in the scans so it was decided to switch to the traditional bio-chemo treatment. This too had to be administered in-patient due to the dangerous side effects. He spent one week in the hospital, two weeks at home to recover and then back again to repeat. Out of the three week cycle, only during the last 3-4 days did he feel well enough to venture out of the house. These treatments made him so sick, that he remembers very little from this entire time period - June through Sep 2005.
There was a positive response – many of the tumors shrank, but his quality of life had gone from 100% to about 20% because of the treatments and in Aug we were informed that now the MRIs showed the cancer had spread to the brain. But, it was explained, we should not despair. The met was in an isolated single location near the outer surface of the brain that could be radiated or if unsuccessful, could be surgically removed. They ordered a spinal tap and confirmed that there were no cancer cells in the spinal fluid. The Stereotactic Radiosurgery occurred later that month and subsequent MRIs indicated it was successful. Kev had some residual side-effects but was recovering nicely from the chemo treatments when a few months later, Feb 2006, he began experiencing seizures. The MRIs were inconclusive and the neurosurgeon was reluctant to open up his skull so we followed a medication route to treat the seizures and a “wait-and-see” approach. It took a while to work out the necessary doses, but this worked fairly well with him experiences only a few seizures through the spring. However in early July, the seizures came back strong and were uncontrollable – we were back in the ER and the MRI showed massive bleeding, swelling and tumor growth so it was decided to surgically remove the brain tumor. But not so quick...they needed to reduce the swelling before opening up the skull. So while keeping him in the hospital he received high doses of steroids for a couple weeks. The surgery was very successful and we also discussed a couple new experimental chemo treatments that would be available after healing from the surgery. This is where the blog picks up in late Aug 2006...
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sleepy daze
Kev has been feeling pretty good. The pain problems are definitely under control. He has had to use very little of his “break-through” pain meds – the regular methadone doses are working well. He is still taking everything else – Celebrex (anti-inflamatory), Dexamethesone (steroids), Reglan (anti-nausea), Protonix (acid reflux), Lyrica (nerve pain), Senekot (laxative) and Temador (chemo) – at least through the end of the month when we go back to get an MRI of the spine and see the oncologist again. One area of concern though is that he is having problems with loss of sensation in his left leg. The other night when he was walking he fell over because of it. So Nick pulled his walker (from hip replacement days, 1 ½ years ago) out of storage and now he is using that instead of the cane.
He has definitely enjoyed his visitors this week and the meals are fabulous! It has been a huge help – Thank you all very much! Kev has been eating pretty well and getting lots of rest - even sleeping well through the night recently. He is not moving aroung much so I am going to try to get him outside this weekend – the weather should be beautiful.
He has definitely enjoyed his visitors this week and the meals are fabulous! It has been a huge help – Thank you all very much! Kev has been eating pretty well and getting lots of rest - even sleeping well through the night recently. He is not moving aroung much so I am going to try to get him outside this weekend – the weather should be beautiful.
Monday, May 12, 2008
1989 - The tree hugger
Kevin was digging through some old climbing stuff to show Nick a few weeks ago. I happened across some old photos and had the idea of posting some of these….
In the summer of 1989 Kev & I took about 6 weeks off work and toured the great climbing spots of the west coast, living out of the 4Runner. We also had a canoe with us and put it in whenever we came across a descent river. We visited Rocky Mountain NP (CO), and climbed Sykes Sickle on The Spearhead. On the hike out there was a full eclipse of the moon – pretty surreal.
We traveled on to Grand Teton NP - this photo was taken atop Baxter’s Pinnacle (we would return to GT many times) and climbed in Fremont Canyon (WY), did a single route up Devil’s Tower (WY) and then we’re totally rained out in the Cirque of the Towers, Wind Rivers Range (WY). We did a couple routes in the Black Hills of South Dakota and even took a very touristy side-trip to see Mt Rushmore (which, after spending so much time surrounded by very impressive natural rock formations, seemed almost graffiti-like).
Climbing continued at City of Rocks (ID) and Smith Rocks (OR). Then some more touristy activity as we drove through Redwood NP (CA) - Kevin always loves seeing the big trees :-) and a stop in Berkeley to see Ken & Shelly before heading back home to Seal Beach.
In the summer of 1989 Kev & I took about 6 weeks off work and toured the great climbing spots of the west coast, living out of the 4Runner. We also had a canoe with us and put it in whenever we came across a descent river. We visited Rocky Mountain NP (CO), and climbed Sykes Sickle on The Spearhead. On the hike out there was a full eclipse of the moon – pretty surreal.
We traveled on to Grand Teton NP - this photo was taken atop Baxter’s Pinnacle (we would return to GT many times) and climbed in Fremont Canyon (WY), did a single route up Devil’s Tower (WY) and then we’re totally rained out in the Cirque of the Towers, Wind Rivers Range (WY). We did a couple routes in the Black Hills of South Dakota and even took a very touristy side-trip to see Mt Rushmore (which, after spending so much time surrounded by very impressive natural rock formations, seemed almost graffiti-like).
Climbing continued at City of Rocks (ID) and Smith Rocks (OR). Then some more touristy activity as we drove through Redwood NP (CA) - Kevin always loves seeing the big trees :-) and a stop in Berkeley to see Ken & Shelly before heading back home to Seal Beach.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Homeward Bound
Kevin came home this evening – with 11 prescriptions! The drive home went fine - no nausea - and he seems to be feeling pretty well. I had to go to Walgreens and buy one of those pill organizers, you know the kind that separates out your entire week’s worth of pills – Sunday through Saturday. Except we use it for a DAILY dose – midnight, 8am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, 8pm, 10pm - 26 pills per day plus two liquids!
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Rounding the corner
Kevin is feeling better everyday, although this morning he did get nauseous while working with the physical therapists. The Radiation Therapy is focused on the T11 & T12 area of the spine since these tumors were the most threatening to his bodily functions – walking and bowels. The others in the spinal area are being left alone for now until they become more painful. The oncologists explained the presentation of tumors in the spine indicate the melanoma has spread to his central nervous system and will now be much more difficult to control. Because there are so many, surgery is not an option and radiation is all that’s possible. Everyone is talking about Kev being released but no one has any specific dates. Kev says he thinks he’ll be ready next Wed. – but we’ll see. Palliative care bumped up his methadone again the other day – now at 15 mg, 3 x day and they’ll probably bump it again tomorrow to 20 mg. One problem is, he is losing weight probably due to poor appetite even though he is getting all his nourishments via IV. He is down to 140 lbs and checked in at 150 lbs 12 days ago. Tonight they started him on steroids – the super drug – it will help with the nausea, pain and appetite. His spirits are very good and we usually take a couple of walks each day - it's amazing how he puts up with so much and just keeps going. He especially likes to go down stairs to listen to the piano player. And he wanted to make sure I made it known that he achieved a “personal best” today - urinating 800 cc in one go!
At the house, we are back on the grid. The plumbing is all connected and functioning. The inspector came out today and the back-fill was complete. A BIG thank you to everyone that brought dinners for the kids this week!! As Kelden said “that is soooo sweeet”. And Nick wants to know when Dan is going to come back and play – I heard stories of them using the propane torch to burn the dead fish that washed up and something about rotten oranges…
At the house, we are back on the grid. The plumbing is all connected and functioning. The inspector came out today and the back-fill was complete. A BIG thank you to everyone that brought dinners for the kids this week!! As Kelden said “that is soooo sweeet”. And Nick wants to know when Dan is going to come back and play – I heard stories of them using the propane torch to burn the dead fish that washed up and something about rotten oranges…
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Randomness
I awoke this morning to the screaming of one of our chickens. This is not a common noise and only occurs if they are being chased by a dog or cornered by a raccoon. I flew out of bed and ran outside ready to fend off the intruder only to find the coop closed up tight and one of the hens hanging upside-down by a leg like an acrobat in Cirque de chicken-coop. I can’t imagine how she got caught between the two boards, but there she was. I couldn’t find any significant damage i.e. no broken bones sticking out, but she refused to put any weight on the leg. Nick fashioned-up a chicky-walker device but she would have no part of it and preferred to nest up in a quiet spot under the back deck instead.
Kelden, Nick & I headed up to MDA early this morning because Kev has been more alert in the mornings and the kids had homework to do later. We arrived just as he was returning from Radiation and was not at all alert – so much for that prediction. He managed some conversations and mostly listened to us tell him stories. After he ate lunch and watched Spiderman 3 he perked up a bit and decided he wanted to take a shower. I was not about to let this opportunity pass up. The kids decided they were going to go off exploring the Center (MDA is huge and there are cat-walks that look-over the busy streets below and usually a good construction project to watch, not to mention Kim’s Place which is open only for teenagers - patients & families of MDA with pool table, foosball table, arcade games etc.) and I helped Kevin into the shower. It wasn’t too long before I realized the drain was not, well, draining, but I was not deterred. I threw a towel down to create a dam and to keep the water in the bathroom and hoped Kev wouldn’t notice the rising water. We almost finished before he commented that the water seemed to be pooling up, but I convinced him to finish up quickly and then we would tell the nurse. Kevin is on the 10th floor, obviously if his drain is not working there were bound to be others…The plumbers came fairly quickly with the wet-vac, cleared up the standing water and set to work on snaking the drain. Now this is a sound Kev is very familiar with and it was almost like a lullaby as he drifted off to sleep… The calls coming in over their radios confirmed this was a much bigger problem than just Kev’s room and in the end Kevin would get moved – to a much larger and heavily coveted corner room just 3 doors down – rm 1012, phone # 713-834-8784. In his pod, at least 2 others had to be relocated – maybe his preferred customer status & frequent visits helped him score the upgrade. I do hope this reoccurring plumbing theme ends soon…
Kelden, Nick & I headed up to MDA early this morning because Kev has been more alert in the mornings and the kids had homework to do later. We arrived just as he was returning from Radiation and was not at all alert – so much for that prediction. He managed some conversations and mostly listened to us tell him stories. After he ate lunch and watched Spiderman 3 he perked up a bit and decided he wanted to take a shower. I was not about to let this opportunity pass up. The kids decided they were going to go off exploring the Center (MDA is huge and there are cat-walks that look-over the busy streets below and usually a good construction project to watch, not to mention Kim’s Place which is open only for teenagers - patients & families of MDA with pool table, foosball table, arcade games etc.) and I helped Kevin into the shower. It wasn’t too long before I realized the drain was not, well, draining, but I was not deterred. I threw a towel down to create a dam and to keep the water in the bathroom and hoped Kev wouldn’t notice the rising water. We almost finished before he commented that the water seemed to be pooling up, but I convinced him to finish up quickly and then we would tell the nurse. Kevin is on the 10th floor, obviously if his drain is not working there were bound to be others…The plumbers came fairly quickly with the wet-vac, cleared up the standing water and set to work on snaking the drain. Now this is a sound Kev is very familiar with and it was almost like a lullaby as he drifted off to sleep… The calls coming in over their radios confirmed this was a much bigger problem than just Kev’s room and in the end Kevin would get moved – to a much larger and heavily coveted corner room just 3 doors down – rm 1012, phone # 713-834-8784. In his pod, at least 2 others had to be relocated – maybe his preferred customer status & frequent visits helped him score the upgrade. I do hope this reoccurring plumbing theme ends soon…
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Priceless
Nick spent the day at the sailing club. This weekend is Wheels & Keels, the annual antique/unique car/boat show – one of his & Kev's favorites. I heard they had Al Capone’s car there – they didn’t mention if any bullet holes were visible though. Kelden took the SAT exams in the morning and then she & I spent the rest of the day with Kevin.
Kev does seem to be improving. The acute break-thru pain is essentially gone, so mostly he has only to deal with the background pain. But he is still pretty drowsy from the methadone – usually we can get only about 15 minute intervals of him being “awake”. We did succeed in getting him to eat a few bites of ice cream, pizza, salad & jello today but his appetite is still very low.
On the home front: Our sewer system has officially been declared failed. After 4 snakings in 6 weeks, the plumber convinced us to give it up. So for the last week and half we have had no working bathrooms. Fortunately, the kitchen works just fine - it’s on a different line – remember the part of our house being 107 years-old? We actually have 4 different lines on the property – one being an old septic tank, but that connects only to an outside sink. Well, anyway the line that connected to the bathroom was an old clay pipe that roots got into and eventually it just collapsed. Most of last week our plumber worked with the city to get them to camera the lines and determine where they connect into the main and then he obtained a permit. He plans to start digging on Monday and by Wed we should have a completely new line (60 ft) from the house to the road and he will connect the kitchen into the new line as well. Nick rigged up a grey water system so I could do laundry last week and the sailing club (only a couple miles away) has full amenities – showers & bathrooms – very nice ones too. It reminds me of the MC commercial:
New sewer line - $6000
Memberships at the local sailing club - priceless
Kev does seem to be improving. The acute break-thru pain is essentially gone, so mostly he has only to deal with the background pain. But he is still pretty drowsy from the methadone – usually we can get only about 15 minute intervals of him being “awake”. We did succeed in getting him to eat a few bites of ice cream, pizza, salad & jello today but his appetite is still very low.
On the home front: Our sewer system has officially been declared failed. After 4 snakings in 6 weeks, the plumber convinced us to give it up. So for the last week and half we have had no working bathrooms. Fortunately, the kitchen works just fine - it’s on a different line – remember the part of our house being 107 years-old? We actually have 4 different lines on the property – one being an old septic tank, but that connects only to an outside sink. Well, anyway the line that connected to the bathroom was an old clay pipe that roots got into and eventually it just collapsed. Most of last week our plumber worked with the city to get them to camera the lines and determine where they connect into the main and then he obtained a permit. He plans to start digging on Monday and by Wed we should have a completely new line (60 ft) from the house to the road and he will connect the kitchen into the new line as well. Nick rigged up a grey water system so I could do laundry last week and the sailing club (only a couple miles away) has full amenities – showers & bathrooms – very nice ones too. It reminds me of the MC commercial:
New sewer line - $6000
Memberships at the local sailing club - priceless
Friday, May 02, 2008
Starting Chemo Again
Thanks to everyone for all the positive thoughts and prayers. Kev says it would be great to have visitors, so if you’d like to visit with him, he is in rm 1015 near elevator E at MDA. His phone# is 713-834-8787. He will be here at least thru next Friday when the Radiation Therapy is expected to end. He also enjoys the comments – there’s a wireless connection throughout the hospital and we can log in from his room.
Palliative care changed up the meds again. They’ve increased the Methadone and Lyrica to 3 x a day and they added Celebrex (an anti-inflammatory). The Oncologists has started him on a new chemotherapy – Temodar. He has had to stop the Ipilimumab for now but Temodar synergizes well with radiation so that’s the best alternative. He has taken Temodar before for treatment of the brain tumors and it had little side effects. They are administering it with Zofran (anti-nausea) just in case. Since the radiation is focused on the spinal tumors, the Temodar is being used for all the others.
Palliative care changed up the meds again. They’ve increased the Methadone and Lyrica to 3 x a day and they added Celebrex (an anti-inflammatory). The Oncologists has started him on a new chemotherapy – Temodar. He has had to stop the Ipilimumab for now but Temodar synergizes well with radiation so that’s the best alternative. He has taken Temodar before for treatment of the brain tumors and it had little side effects. They are administering it with Zofran (anti-nausea) just in case. Since the radiation is focused on the spinal tumors, the Temodar is being used for all the others.
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