I AM BACK!!!

Thank you all so much for being here for me, Eddie and my whole family. I can't tell you how much friends and family mean when you are going through such a time as this. The flowers were so plentiful that I shared them with others in my room at the hospital and some continue to bloom here at home. Cards are still coming in and they make me cry and laugh. All emotions I need to get out. So thank you. Friends of my Mom brought her to Redding about the time I got out of ICU and others met she and Eddie in Williams when it was time for her to go home. The strength of love and friendship continue to amaze me.

Seems I didn't spend one night in ICU but five. Didn't spend three to five in the hospital but eleven.

The epideral was performed as expected and caused my left leg ,except for my toes, to become completly paralized for a couple of days. Suffered from really low blood pressure, high heart rate, serious signs of congestive heart failure. Then dehydration, then when they pumped the fluids in they had to reverse the problem that caused. Planned heart cath had to be put off several times because they couldn't do that until the last chest tube was removed and that had to be posponed several times.

At least I can report that the heart cath. showed absolutely nothing wrong with my heart. Thank you God. Seems all the susspected heart propblems were caused from the surgery. Leakage of enzymes (?) or something. During all of my problems my cousins, Terry and Lee had to have heart stints placed and Dal had a by pass before I went into the hosp. Needless to say I was pretty nervous about the results of the cath.

Eddie and I counted up one day and we saw no less than 12 doctors within the first 4-5 days.

The Dr. removed the first chest tube at 3:00 AM on his way home after a surgery. He actually woke me up to do it. Not a bad thing though as I didn't have to spend the day all stressed about when he was going go do it. As usual anticipation is worse than the actual event. I can't even begin to tell you all of the unexpected things that happened. I don't even know where I am in my recovery. I have been seeing a nurse pract. here for the past week and she is reporting to the Dr. in Redding. She says I am healing very well. They had me on Norco when I came home but changed me over to Morphine which is working much better. Oh ...yeah they broke a rib during surgery too. Not unusual I am told.

I do have to say that the care at Mercy Geneal Hospital in Redding is just great. At least it was for us.

Again I love you all K.


My next Dr. Appt is on April 30th. It is a post op chek up. From now until then is just the healing process. I can't do any kind of chemo etc until I am fully recovered from the surgery.

What's Up

It's Ed
I am sitting beside Karen's bed at the moment. They gave her a little xanax because she was a bit anxious about the angiogram coming up. Last night they took out the final chest tube and scheduled the angio for 12:30 today. That is in about 15 minutes from now. The infection seems to be uder control . Karen started a post here this morning, but went night night in the middle of it. All in all thing are a lot better today. When she got rid of the chest tube and heard the angio was back on , it was like someone gave her a happy pill.
The Doc came by last night with the lab results from the lymph node biopsies. The only one that was cancerous was the swollen one that we knew about. They removed 8 surrounding ones and they were all clean. This is all better news than we've had for days. I will update this as soon as possible after the heart procedure.
I am still trying to find a way to put a "tee" connector in the, morphine drip without them being able to detect the added usage.
More Later
Ed

Another Setback

Hi Again
Well, yesterday was a bit dissappointing. In the morning the doctors determined that there was still too much drainage to remove the remaining chest tube. Also there are indications that Karen may have an infection in her lung. They have taken blood and sputum to decide for sure what to do next. Hopefully today she will get the appropriate antibiotics to take care of the infection and the drainage will minimize. Of course all this put the Angiogram on hold. Karen had a pretty tough time receiving this news because she was really looking forward to the apparent progress.
Karen's Mom has been here since Sunday and will be going with me to the Hospital today. A little moral support from Mom will certainly help.
Not much else to say for now , all we can do is be strong for her and pray that she gets a break soon.
Yesterday I got the gadgets to allow Karen to use her laptop in the Hospital so you might be hearing from her soon.

Karen's Latest Trials

Hi all, this is Ed. It didn't take K too long to recover enough to give me hell for not maintaining this blog.
She went into surgery on the 1st. Since they were not able to extract a sample cell to determine that it was actually cancer (the petscan has a tiny chance of being wrong) the plan was to remove a small section of her lung and the suspect lymph node, biopsy them on the spot and procede from there. We of course were hoping , first, that it was not cancer. Next if it was, it would be small cell and not very invasive, at lastly if it was non-small-cell, it would be the type most responsive to treatment. Well, so far since this all started, every time we have been given hope that something could be the lesser of the bad possibilities, it has always been the worst. This was not much different. There are 3 types of cells possible in Karen's case, one responds well to Chemo, another responds well to Radiation and another doesn't respond well to either. You might have guessed by now , it is the latter that our girl has.
The Doctors removed the major portion of her left lung the enlarged lymphnode and some fatty tissue around her heart. The lymp node though, was wrapped around the nerve that controls her diaphram so they were not able to be certain that all the cancer was removed because of the danger of damaging the nerve and leaving her unable to breathe on her own. Also other lymph nodes were removed for microscopic analysis. We will get a full oncology report soon and a course of treatment will be established. But wait!!
Even before she got out of ICU, it was determined she has congestive heart failure, but an immediate heart cath wasn't possible because her blood pressure was unsafely low and her heart rate was in the 130 to 150 range.
Her blood pressure is finally under control and the heart cath is scheduled for this evening, 4/8 , at 5pm.
Normal recovery from her operation is tough enough, but with all they extra challenges stacked on top, this little girl had a pretty tough time. I don't know if anyone less honery could handle it.
Her progress lately has been better. Yesterday we got her up and walking a little way down the hall 3 times.
Karen still has one chest tube which will be removed this morning , and as I said earlier the cath is scheduled for this evening.
Karen wanted to make absolutely sure that everyone knows how much she loves the thoughts,prayers and good wishes she has from you. And those of you that know us well, know that I follow orders from the boss. So consider yourselves thanked and loved back,,,please.
This is one tough little girl who is clearly aware of the challenges to come. She is not kidding herself at all. We ,she and I,have our times to be tough and laugh but have allowed ourselves to crumble and hug. God loves that gal and made her stronger than anyone I know. Her attitude continues to be positive and her expectations of what the future will bring are realistic. As long as there is a battle left , you can bet she will be fighting.
Love ya all

Surgery Day

Had the alarm set for 7:00 but got up at 4:30. Go figure. If I had gotten up before 4:00 I could have had coffee. Now all I get is a couple of pills, my inhallers and a sip of water to wash it all down.

Yesterday was a good/bad day.

Good because my kids and Eddie were all here. Eddie, Conni and I went to Hayfork to run some errands and then to the laundramat I wanted to wash my quilt.(Guess what Mike did! He stayed at the house and watched a game.) Anyway the laundramat is in the same building as Ropin' Rhonda's, the local bar. Eddie was going to go to the junk store and suggested Conni and I go in and have a drink while the quilt was washing. Hmmmmmm, it's my birthday, I nervous as a cat, and I'm thirsty. GREAT idea. ONE drink and I was so relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Came home and slapped Mike up side the head just for fun a few times.

Good because so many people called to say Happy Birthday and good luck. I told my cousin Carol that I can't imagine anyone with this desease not sharing with friends and family. It has honestly been what has kept me grounded and helped me through this first month. Talking and writing this blog.

Bad because everything made me cry. When I read my birthday cards, when Mom, then Gilbert and Isaac, Joe and Carol, and A. J. all called to sing Happy Birthday to me, when one of my Drs called, just thinking about what is in store for me today because it is the most scary surgery I've ever been through, On, and on, and on!

Good because Mike and I cooked a really good dinner.

So now were down to today......Surgery Day. I feel more relaxed so far this morning for some reason. Dr said I can take a xanax with my meds this morning to help me cope until he gives me all the really good stuff before surgery. My have to have an epedural if they have to take the upper lobe. I think it is to help with pain after surgery because he said he probably won't give it until towards the end of surger or until I am awake. I will be in ICU tonight and that's a new one for me.

So guys what will be will be after today. We will take it one minute and one day at a time and at least we are going to know what we are dealing with. Eddie will update this as he can and keep you posted.

Again I love you all K.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And wisdom to know the difference.