Hey Doc, What's For Lunch?

Hi everyone.

It is October 13 (Thanks Giving Day), ten days from the day of surgery. I'm sure that by now you are wondering what has been going on in the recovery room of our Lori. I am happy to announce that Lori is growing stronger by the day and is quite capable of being a real nusiance in the hallways of the ward. She is able to move herself around with relative ease and has pretty much weaned herself off of the morphine and is seeing the world through the eyes of a rehabilitated junkie once again.

Yesterday marked the day of Lori's first taste of food. They claimed to have served her a consome, jello and a cup of the house tea. In reality, the consome actually smelled like chiken soup, but the jello is terribly bland and the tea tastes like reheated mop bucket water.

Today Lori was hoping to have an actual bowl of chicken noodle soup. But I don't think she got to. She did manage to get another broth, a jello that I'm sure you could use as a tile grout and some ice cream that was actually already past its expiration date by Lori's observation. She said it tasted old, like it had that freezer skin outer layer taste to it. MMMMMMM yummy.

We have also reached another milestone in Lori's recovery. Today she got her staples out and the incision is healing very nicely. Cindy Smith (a very dear friend of Lori's) was present at her side to witness the removal of the staples. I would have loved to have been there for that one, but hey, you snooze you lose, right? Lori got the staple remover as a keepsake,they were just going to throw it out anyway. What a memento. I know exactly why she got it though. She wants to pinch me with it, I'm sure.

Lori wants me to tell all of you how very much she appreciates all of your visits, your cards, your flowers, shawls, prayer blankets and baskets of beautiful gifts that you have lovingly given her. You are all so very important in her life, and although it is not often enough said, you must know that you are loved. Thank you all so very very much.

As we see it, if Lori continues to heal at the rate that she is going,it should not be long at all before we can bring her home to relax in the comfort of her home. The doctors say that she could not go home till she can eat. Well, it might be hospital food, but it's still concidered eating, so we are nearing our release date at a very good pace.

Well, thats my update for now. I hope you all enjoy my musings and are able to slip in for a little visit to help break up Lori's day.

I am sincerely

The ole boot

"Flowers"

Nana tells me that I am supposed to post a photo of these lovely flowers. Here they be:





And as always, here is an amusing youtube video for your enjoyment.



--Kyra

after the surgery

Hi everyone. This is Lori's husband. More than likely known to most of you as "the ole boot". And here is my update as requested by lori.

Sorry that I havn't done this a little earlier,but I have been a little tired from the late nights and have not been able to get near the computer.
On October 03 ,as you all know,Lori had her surgery for her cancer. The original plan for this surgery was to go in,look around and remove the cancerous areas. The immediate culprit for eviction was the tumor on the pancreous, the head of the pancreous and possibly any little offspring that charlene had during her visit.
Once this was done a little replumbing and poof,Bobs yer uncle ,we are done.But, unfortunately,I am sad to say,this was not the case. After goin in,the surgeon found
yet another little spawn of charlene on the side of the liver. A biopsy of this little bugger was sent to the lab and was also labelled malignant.
While the surgeons were inside they looked further and diagnosed that the cancer had also spread to the lymph nodes.This unfortunately,is a little more serious than we wanted to hear and had an unwelcome affect on the surgical proceedings.
After discovering the additional complications,the surgeons had to inform us that they could not complete the surgery as planned. The cancer had spread further than they had anticipated and they had to do a lesser procedure than hoped for.
The surgery that was completed included the redirection of the bileduct from the large intestine to the small intestine to alleviate the pain that Lori was having which will help in her recovery.They also used alcohol on some of the nerves to deaden them in an attempt also to relieve more agony while Lori trys to restrengthen herself for the upcoming battle.
The truely sad part of this is that charlene and her little demons remain unwelcome guests in the temple which is Lori. The Drs decided that because of the degree of the spread of the disease ,the eviction of charlene and her demon spawn would not help the outcome and would only increase the post surgery pain and recooperation time.
At this point we must now look ahead to the possibility of alternative methods to
deal with shrinking the tumors to a manageable size and possibly turn the tables to remission.
We are now looking at our options and concidering chemotherapy as the next step in
this battle.
At this writing,it is Oct 06 and Lori is recovering well. Her post surgery pain is lessening each day and she is able to take short walks down the aisles with the aide of a walker and a very handsome and loving husband.Each day seems to bring some strength back and motion and movent comes a little easier.
At this point,I would like to say how very impressed we have been with our Drs and nurses throughout our ordeal. With each little piece of information gained,a new part of the team came on board in full force. We have in Manitoba a truely magnificent team of Drs, nurses,coordinators,secretaries,and volunteers that have shown the true meaning of professionality and compassion to us and all of those that I heve met and seen during these past few weeks leading up to today.
The communication between the different areas involved in putting together an attack plan on charlene and her demon spawn was absolutely incredible. Appointments,scheduling,bloodwork, mri's,surgery, all made at breakneck speed due to the severity of the situation.None of this could be done without dedicated , professional,and caring people,which we seem to be fortunate to have an abundance of in our Manitoba Health care system.
Well, this is my first ever blog entry and I hope that this puts clear where we are in serving official eviction notice to charlene and her demon spawn.I will try to keep you posted more frequently as to Lori's condition and any new ideas,plans or concerns .

I am sincerely

The ole boot

Recovery

I still don't know what's going on, but mum's recovering from her surgery. She's not as screwey as she was in Friday, which is nice.

Thanks for all the comments, as well. It's good to know that so many people are rooting for my mom.

I promised her I'd sabotage the crap out of her blog, so here's something I think that EVERYONE can enjoy.



--Kyra

Hi Urrvabody

Don't get all excited; this is Kyra, Lori's firstborn.

Here's the deal: I don't know what the deal is. Mum had her surgery yesterday and when I got to the hospital I was informed that it "didn't go too well": something along the lines of the cancer had spread to her lymph node? Please don't get all excited, or read too much into this particular blog, because I have no idea what's going on. All I know is that they couldn't get rid of the cancer.

Here is a video for your enjoyment. If you care about our family, you will watch the entire thing.




--Kyra

Last Post Before Surgery . . . .

Surgery time is finally just around the corner.

It's hard to believe that it has only been a little over five weeks since my GP told me I had pancreatic cancer. It feels like it has been five months.

Charlene gets evicted tomorrow!

As I said in an earlier post, my People will be updating this blog in my stead for the next two weeks at least. I may write something up and ask them to post it, but generally what they post will be their own words. Having them take over the blog will be interesting for me, as well, because I won't have access to a computer for a while and I'm already wondering what sorts of things my People will write.

When you post a comment on the blog, my husband will automatically be notified. Also, he has access to my personal e-mail account and will be checking it for me. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail, and I'm sure he'll get back to you.

One more sleep!

-- L

Two More Sleeps . . .

I am still having good success with the Percocet. No side effects so far and the pain control is great! Being relatively pain free is sure helping me prepare for surgery because I have more energy and actually feel pretty good both physically and mentally. Getting good sleep helps immensely too, and I have had dreamless, deep sleeps the last two nights.

I have already made a list of things I will be taking with me into hospital and have started packing. When I start packing too soon I have a tendency to take way too much stuff with me so I have selected my smallest suitcase and vow that when it is full, that's it - no more stuff!!! If there is anything I desperately need, my People can always bring it to the hospital for me.

Today will be my last day at work for a while, and we really don't know how long I will be away. This surgery seems to have a different healing timeline for everyone so it is very hard to estimate exactly how long I will be off work. Also, I don't know much yet about what will be happening after I have recovered. I know I will be having chemotherapy at some point but until the surgeons get Charlene the heck outta there and see exactly what kind of a malignant thing she is, what kind of damage she may have caused by squatting in my ribcage, and most important, if she has sent any nasty offspring to other parts of my body, they can't really make firm plans for follow up and chemotherapy.

So at the moment, I have only one major thing to concentrate on - the surgery. And all I really have to do is get myself to the hospital on time, let the medical members of my Eviction Team do their thing, then follow their instructions for getting myself healed up.

Easy!

Two more sleeps.

-- L