Wednesday

I couldn't sign in to blogger all day. Ugh.
Another rainy and lazy day today. Yesterday I went shopping and bought Mike some easy eating snack type food. Ramen noodles, yogurt, olives, cereal bars, corn dogs, etc. Nothing nutritious but it's better than not eating at all. So far, so good. Tomorrow I'll be shopping for a recliner so he can have a comfortable place to rest. The only times he's been comfortable lately has been in the recliners at the hospital.

Tuesday Morning

Mike's temp is down to 98.9 this morning, yesterday it stayed around 100. The biggest problem right now is that for the last couple of weeks every time he tries to eat, he vomits. Not because of the chemo, chemo day and the 2 days after were the only times he didn't. He looks like he's lost about 15 pounds but the scale at the doctors office thursday said 5. Yesterday was a really bad day for me emotionally. Sorry about the non post.

Monday

Nothing new today.

Sunday

Quiet day today. It rained this morning, we spent most of the day napping.
Have been keeping an eye on Mike's temperature since last night. It's fluxuating between 100.2 and 100.8. (We're supposed to call the hospital if he ever has a temp of 101 or more). Could be fatigue from the trip. Other than that, everything's fine. The new pain pills seem to work better than the patch did.

Saturday

We're back from Mena. It was a pretty easy trip, 4 hours but it's a gorgeous scenic drive with no traffic. A bit tiring for Mike but not too bad, all he had to do was ride in the truck then hang out in the motel yesterday and ride home today. He doesn't seem to be having any side effects from the chemo so far. Hope I didn't speak too soon.

Friday Morning

Mike seems to be feeling pretty well still. But the 100mg morphine has him kinda spacey. It'll take a few days to get accustomed to I guess.
I have to go to Mena today for the camp closing. I was going to leave Mike at home and drive back today but I'm too nervous about leaving him alone for 10-12 hours in case he needs me. So I rented a room and he'll go with me. We'll stay overnight and come back tomorrow.

Thursday

Just got back from the hospital, whew, long day. Saw the doctor and he changed Mike's medicine from the fentanyl patch to morphine pill 100mg twice daily (plus the 15mg morphine pills he was already taking - as needed inbetween). The chemo went well as far as we can tell. A pretty easy procedure - they just put you in a recliner and have an IV drip into the I-Port. Takes about 2 hours.
They'll be informing us when the next appointment is. I *think* we'll have a doctors appointment in 10-12 days and next chemo should be in about 3 weeks.

Wednesday

Top of the mountain. Mena, Arkansas

Another quiet day. Mike went to his shop for a bit, I puttered in the house then took the truck in for service. Tomorrow is the 1st chemo, will report in after.

Tuesday

Quiet day today, it's raining. Mike is feeling pretty good, as good as it gets anyway. His medicine schedule got messed up at the hospital but he's back to normal now. Morphine doesn't seem to be all it's cracked up to be - he says it's no different than the tylenol3. Works okay if you stick to a strict schedule of 2 pills every 4 hours but if he gets off schedule or a lesser dose (like in the hospital) it's no good.
Our new appointment for doctor visit and chemo is thursday at 11:30 and 12:30.

Monday

I haven't posted a picture in awhile. Here's Mike playing in a waterfall in Colorado.

No news today. Mike's been resting. I'm catching up on household stuff.

Home Sweet Home

We're home! Whew!
Mike says he's feeling pretty good, maybe he can get some rest now.
Forgot to mention earlier, the collapsed lung was caused by the instalation of the I-Port. It's a rare (1 in a thousand) complication.

Sunday Morning

They removed the chest tube at 5am this morning. Everything seems fine and Mike is in xray right now for a scan. If it looks good, they're supposed to discharge him soon. I sure hope so, we're desperate to get out of here and go home. I don't think he's slept more than 5 minutes at a time in the last 2 days.
Mike's back already, says they'll let us know something in an hour or so.

Saturday Afternoon

We're still at the hospital. Tube is supposed to be removed tomorrow morning and we'll be going home tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully.

We never had the doctors appointment or chemo yesterday. They canceled everything and rescheduled it for the 24th.

Saturday AM

Yesterday when they were putting in the I-Port Mike's lung collapsed. They inserted a tube and checked him into the hospital. Scared us both to death. He spent a painful day and night. This morning he's a bit better. They'll x-ray and if everything looks okay, remove the tube. If all goes well they MIGHT release him this afternoon, but probably not. Most likely it'll be sometime tomorrow or maybe even monday. (They want to make sure he'll be fine because we live so far).
I'm just home to check on the dogs and shower and change. I'm bringing my laptop with me to the hospital, don't know yet if I'll be able to hook up. If I can I'll update when I know anything new. Otherwise I'll report in when we get home.

Thursday

Today I bushogged, first time I've been on the tractor in years. Since I met Mike he's done that kind of thing. Looks like I still know how, ha. Mike isn't feeling too good today so he stayed in the house. He's probably stressed for the big hospital day tomorrow. It'll be a long day and the first chemo. Neither of us is looking forward to it but we're hoping it'll help. Doctor says it'll ease the pain, I sure hope so.

Correction

Well, I guess I phrased that wrong. What I meant to say is that Mike is working on the box (urn) for our cremation ashes. We plan to both be cremated and both of our ashes will (eventually) be in the same box. So - he's making ONE box, for TWO peoples ashes, not necessarily put in it at the same time.

Wednesday

Yesterday Mike hooked up the tractor to the bush-hog for me so I can cut the driveway and out front by the highway. It's looking pretty shaggy. Then he worked in the shop for a bit. He's building the cremation box for our ashes. That's distressing to me but has to be done I guess.
I weeded, weedeated, and mowed until the mower blades got too dull. This morning I was planning on finishing mowing (after Mike sharpens the blades if he's up to it) and then bush-hogging but it rained all night, everything's wet this morning so I'll run my errands instead.
Nothing new medically.

Monday

Just got back from the hospital for the new CT scan. It went pretty easily except the long walk from the parking deck to radiology and back wore Mike out. We had to stop so he could sit and rest each way. Hard to believe just a few months ago he was hiking the mountain.

Sunday

Not much going on this weekend. Mike went to his shop yesterday and today. About an hour wears him out, but it's great when he feels up to getting out of the house. I did a little yardwork and housework. We both napped alot.

Forgot to mention earlier, chemo will be every 3 weeks for now. That doesn't sound too bad.

Friday

Yesterday was the first appointment with the new doctor (Dr. Agarwal) at the new hospital. ACRC at UAMS (Arkansas Cancer Research Center @ University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences - http://www.uams.edu/ ). They changed Mike's pain pills from Tylenol3 to morphine. Why the first doctor gave Tylenol to someone with cancer in the liver?! - who knows.
Monday we have an appt for a new CT scan at 2:30pm, the first on was chest only and he wants a full body scan. Friday we have an appointment for an installation of an I-Port (to inject the chemo) at 9am, Dr appointment at 1:30pm, and the first chemo treatment at 2pm.
Today I'm going back to the original doctor in Conway to pick up the films of the MRI and Bone Scan that were supposed to be sent to the new doctors office but weren't. Mike is resting, his pain patch wore out yesterday and the new one hasn't caught up yet so he's feeling pretty bad.

Thursday News

Just got back from the new doctor. The news is as bad as could be imagined. Stage IV, 3-4 months without treatment, a year to a year and a half with treatment. Treatment starts next week. More details tomorrow morning. I'm not up for typing right now.

Monday - P.M.

Here's a couple of pictures of our house I took today for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. (you can click the pics for full size).
Just got the phone call from the new doctor. The appointment is thursday at 1. Hopefully I'll know something new thursday evening.

Monday - A.M.

Nothing new this morning. We had a pretty quiet weekend. My friend Roxann drove over saturday, we had a short but nice visit and a hike down the mountain to check on the ginseng seeds Mike and I planted last fall. (They're growing - yay!!). Sunday I mowed all day, Mike went to his shop for a little while. First time in over a month, so that's good.
Today we're waiting to hear when our appointment with the new doctor for treatment is.

Friday

We spent the day in Conway for the new tests. It went well, nothing invasive or painful. When we got home we had a message from the doctor's office about the referral to the cancer specialist. We'll be going to UAMS in Little Rock for treatment. The bad news is it's far, the good news is it's where my neighbor Floyd is (for HIS cancer treatment. sigh). Floyd told me a couple of weeks ago that UAMS was the best cancer hospital around and we should try to go there. We should be getting a call monday about when treatment starts with the new doctor and hospital. In the meantime we'll be enjoying a weekend of NO medical events.

Thursday - P.M.

We went to the doctors office today for the biopsy results and he told us Mike has lung cancer that's moved into the bone. Duh! You told us that two weeks ago!! He referred us back to the hospital for a Bone Scan and a Brain MRI. He wants to see how far it's spread into the bone and make sure it's not going into the brain. (No specific reason for that except he says lung cancer has a tendency to go there). The appointment is tomorrow. After the results come back he'll refer us to a cancer specialist for treatment.

Thursday - A.M.

Off to the doctor, hopefully I'll have some new (and better) news this afternoon. That's Mike sitting in the arch in Utah.

Tuesday - No News

I called the hospital this afternoon like they told me to. They said they had the biopsy results but we'd have to talk to Mike's doctor about it. Called the doctor and we have an appointment thursday morning. So I won't have any news to report until thursday afternoon sometime. Ugh.