It’s been a pretty decent Thanksgiving.  It was great in that we spent time with some of my family that we haven’t seen in a long time.  We also participated (much more so than anticipated) in a once-in-a-lifetime, over-the-top Bangladeshi wedding celebration/reception.  The holidays were not so great in that the battle keeping food down rages on, even on Thanksgiving day.  The turkey gave its life for a mere 20 minutes of stomach-stuffing enjoyment.  In general, Maggie just feels yucky and tired all the time. Continue reading →

Titrate to Comfort – it’s likely you’ve never heard those words before.  What they mean, semantically, is “raise the dose of pain meds until the patient is comfortable.”  Makes perfect sense.  Just what you’d want, right?  However, what it means emotionally is much more difficult to accept.  Titrate to comfort.  Those are the standing orders we have from Dr. Loukas. Continue reading →

We are finished with the 3-Ringed circus here at MD Anderson and are headed home soon, baring some unforeseen anarchy.  We had a colonoscopy scheduled for this morning at 10AM which was pushed back to 12PM then moved forward to 11-something-er-other.  It was subsequently canceled on the table due to lack of prep.  All the hours of prep wasted and suffering through hunger and indignities in vain.  I’m extremely frustrated with the situation and am struggling not to direct my anger toward any specific person.  So far so good, though.  I think my lack of killing someone is something called “maturity.”  It’s very unsatisfying. Continue reading →

Yesterday we acquired a new symptom we’d never had to play with before – diarrhea.  Further complicating the particularly unpleasant situation was MD Anderson’s processes and procedures that A) created more than a two hour delay between the onset and treatment, and B) required us to save the, uhm, “output” in a small tub for subsequent examination and testing by the nurse. Continue reading →

It’s been a long day and we aren’t done yet.  It started ridiculously early after an ok night of ups and downs.  They took blood, put in the catheter, and started new drugs.  Finally, at around 6:45AM they took us down to put in the line to our liver.  By noon we were back in the room and by 2PM we had started the chemo.  And we’ve only got about 50 hours or so to go from here. Continue reading →

We’ve checked in and started the onslaught of fluids.  We spent the day with doctor’s meetings, consultations, blood tests, and walking.  LOTS of walking.  No surprises other than when (tomorrow morning) and how long (done on Saturday.) Continue reading →

Friday evening was great.  Maggie was in great spirits, in no pain and chattier than I’ve seen her in weeks.  It was fantastic to have my sweetie back.  Mom Mary brought us a steak and potatoes supper and my mom, Nickie, drove in to visit.  We had a great time.  It was almost like old times again. Continue reading →

We are headed home soon.  The pain is fairly under control finally, although it’s far from gone.  Dr. Loukas arranged to have us take a to-go pain pump with plenty of pain-killer for the trip to and from Houston.  We are hanging out up here at the hospital just long enough to make sure the new pump is working and that it’s set at a good dose.  Then we are back to the house.  Yay. Continue reading →

We’ve been struggling for weeks now to get this ever-increasing pain under control and been unsuccessful.  Yesterday morning, lightening struck again.  While I was at HEB filling a new prescription for fentanyl patches, Maggie called and said “I’m in the garage and need to go to the emergency room.”  Yikes. Continue reading →

We just got back from Houston and are glad to be home.  Maggie had CT scans early this morning to wrap up our visit at MD Anderson.  We return for our 8AM appointment on the 17th for the first part of our trial. Continue reading →