Meeting with the transplant team and the last round of chemo

Monday we met with the transplant specialist to discuss the timeline and what to expect at transplant time. If everything goes as planned, we are hoping for him to have his bypass at the end of January or first week in February. This is the non-invasive off the pump bypass---you know dad the latest and greatest.

Tuesday he was to start his last round of chemo, except that he had a fever and wasn't feeling up to snuff. Dr. Kazhdan immediately wanted him back in the hospital to which he refused. So instead he had a chest XRay, and met with the infectious disease specialist in his office. He agreed to let Dad stay at home, but made Mom learn how to give Dad IV antibiotics. So he now is getting IV antibiotics twice a day. Dad is getting started on some Robitussin for some congestion, but otherwise has no fever. Needless to say, his last round of chemo has been delayed, which delays his bypass and the transplant as well.

Dad had a great New Year. It is the first he can remember that he hasn't had anything to drink. We spent New Year's Day watching football, lounging and relaxing with family. He goes back to Dr. Kazhdan's office on Monday for more labs.

At least Dad didn't spend New years in the hospital! HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Santa was good!

Santa answered all of our wishes this Christmas. Dad was at home for Christmas, he was mobile and not in any pain. What more could we ask for? Oh, well there is the remission that we are constantly praying for.

We were able to enjoy a nice Christmas at home with Dad. None of us had planned on being home for Christmas, so rather than the usual turkey or ham we had Christmas chicken! Santa brought Dad the Angel of Health, hopefully this angel will start working soon. The best part was that we were able to enjoy Christmas without the anxiety and constant worry of tests, vital signs or pain. Dad was able to watch his grandson tear through presents and play the afternoon away. Mom even got a surprise. Her family was going to arrive the day after Christmas for the holidays. After lunch, while we were sitting around talking, the doorbell rang. Robert answered and we could hear from the tone of his voice he was confused. Out of no where all of Mom's family come screaming out of the hall----SURPRISE! After reminding them of Dad's heart and checking to make sure he didn't have another heart attack everyone greeted one another and spent the evening with family enjoying life.

Today Dad is out for a small outing, changing the lenses on his glasses for stronger pair. Monday should be a busy day, more appointments, including meeting with the transplant specialist. Now that he is more mobile and not in any pain he is anxious to get into the office. He always says his desk job is for the birds. Anyone who knows Dad, knows that he can't just sit behind a desk reading and sending emails. He wants to be in the action. He is hoping this will happen very soon. Anytime we talk he is still so overcome with the outpouring of calls and prayers he receives daily. Everyone from family, friends, colleagues, customers and even his bosses call and send him cards and prayers for his speedy recovery. It must be working, because watching him walk, he sure is speedy!

We have some new pictures that I will post soon. We all hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas, ours sure was!

I'll Be Home for Christmas

Santa must be listening, and he decided to grant Dad's wish early. Dad's home!!!

We don't know what caused the pain that put Dad in the hospital. We know why he was put in the ICU... pain medication overdose. But now he's better. There's no infection anywhere, so everyone agreed to send him home for Christmas. He hasn't needed, nor requested any pain killers. He still has an occasional twinge in his leg, which scares him, but it's nothing he can't tolerate or manage.

Thankfully, Dad will spend the Holidays at home. Thank you all for all of your prayers, especially during that scary time when Dad was in the ICU. At least we know our prayers are answered. Merry Christmas everyone.

Anyone have any sweets? Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

So Friday was just a terrifying day for all of us. But the great news is that Dad is back to his usual self. Friday night he was placing his orders for food, including sweets. Mom made the ICU nurses some fudge, to which Dad conned them into bringing him 6 PIECES! They also included the milk. Saturday he ate breakfast, lunch and dinner and was anxious to get back to a regular room. They finally kicked him out of the ICU around 5pm back to the Ritz Carlton of hospital rooms. Dad's room is a suite, complete with an en suite that has its own refrigerator, microwave, TV and DVD player, desk and chairs. The bathroom has a vanity including a vanity chair, blow drier and vanity mirror. Then the room has a couch, 2 chairs, another TV and DVD player.

Today was a little disheartening for Dad. There seems to be conflicting reports on his latest MRI, whether he has a new fracture at L3 or not. The floor doctor thinks this "new" fracture is the cause of the pain in his legs. Dr. Kazhdan doesn't, since the fracture was already there, there is no compression on his spine and everything else looks the same. Tomorrow morning she will talk with the radiologist specifically to see what "new" fractures they are referring to. In the meantime the back doctors will come back to look at him. The bad thing is that his bones can't tolerate surgery in this fragile state. So he is has highs and lows in emotions right now. Dr. Kazhdan did get him up to dangle his legs, which he was able to do without extreme pain. He did start to feel tingling and slight pain again, but they didn't press the issue.

Since his scare on Friday, he hasn't had any pain medication, and hasn't been in any pain. Dr. Kazhdan is going to start to decrease the lyrica dose, in hopes that this is what is causing the swelling and pain in his legs. Some of the information I pulled had a few people have this adverse reaction to lyrica. As well all know Dad has to be special, so maybe this is what is causing all the problems. Time will tell, since lyrica and baclofen have to be slowly tapered off.

In efforts to make his temporary home feel more like home, mom brought a small Christmas tree to decorate the place. Every morning Dad has been listening to Christmas music, so we will just have to bring the music to him. It would have been nice if he could have heard the children caroling in the hall the day he was in ICU. They were 2nd graders and came to sing Christmas carols but weren't able to go into the ICU. We enjoyed it in the waiting room though.

More pain and transfering to the ICU

Thursday Dad was still feeling a good amount of pain. He was great lying flat, but the moment he would try to dangle his legs he would have severe pain his legs would shake. They repeated the MRI to get a better look at his thoracic and lumbar spine to make sure there was nothing new causing the pain. Even though he was receiving a large amount of pain medications he was still feeling pain. They still don't know why. When the floor doc came to check on him, Dad told him he was still in pain so they increased his pain medication dose. Thursday night he was in so much pain he could even empty his bladder. He had a restless night, wanting to get up and go home. The only problem was that he couldn't walk.

This morning they called mom early to ask her to come to the hospital quickly. Overnight Dad spiked a fever and when his day nurse got there, she found him unresponsive. Mom rushed to the hospital, and both her and Dr. Kazhdan were shaking him trying to wake him but nothing worked. They gave him a medication to reverse the narcotics, but that really didn't work. They were so concerned they transferred him to the ICU and put him on CPAP, which an assistive breathing device to help his lungs stay inflated. It looks like a fighter jet pilot mask and sounds like Darth Vader. When they put the CPAP on him he finally responded, disoriented to what happened and confused why everyone was fussing over him. When I got there from work he was awake, no longer feverish and apologetic for scaring everyone. He was talking and more like himself than Thursday. Visiting hours in the ICU are limited, so Mom and I left since they closed. When we got back at 12 pm when they opened, we found him unresponsive again. His arms were weak, we would talk to him and he wouldn't respond. We would shake and touch him and he wouldn't respond. I opened his eyes and he wouldn't wake up. His nurse came in a shook and shouted at him, and he woke up, looked around and feel back to sleep. His nurse thought he was just in a deep sleep. But mom and I knew that there was still something not right. We kept trying to talk to him, to see if he would stay awake and he wouldn't. We told the nurse again that he wouldn't wake up. He came and gave him another dose of the medication to reverse the narcotics. Dad hadn't had any pain medications, but he was still not responding. When they gave him the dose, he didn't wake up quickly, as he should have. It wasn't for 5 minutes that he finally woke up and wanted the mask off mad and disoriented for all the fuss. This time he stayed awake. He was able to come off the CPAP and was able to eat. This is great, because the alternative was to stick a tube down his nose to his stomach to feed him. He is now back to his usual self, making jokes and giving everyone a hard time.

He did get blood today and they are checking everywhere for an infection. He is on 4 different antibiotics and his fever is gone. He hasn't had pain medication all night since midnight and has had medications to reverse the narcotic effects. Even with all this, he is in no pain. His legs no longer hurt. Strange, yes! The original plan was to keep him in the ICU for 2 days then send him back to the floor. But since he is back to his usual self, they are thinking of sending him back to the floor, i.e. a regular room tomorrow. In the meantime he is placing his orders for breakfast, which includes sweets. It is such a relief to see him back to normal- he really had us scared.

Everything looks great as long as he is lying down.

So Dad got settled into his room. He was actually comfortable enough to have an appetite, which is much improved. He hasn't wanted to eat much lately because he has been in pain.

The neurologist came in to see him and didn't think there was anything wrong with him, of course this was while he was flat in bed. As soon as Dad tried to stand he was able to see how much pain he was in and how weak his legs were. They did ultrasounds of his legs to make sure there wasn't any clots and drew some blood on him. In the meantime he is going to be tucked in for the night until morning when they can look at all of these studies in the light of day.

A little trip to the ER and getting rehospitalized

So from my last posting, you all are aware of the swelling and pain in Dad's legs. Monday the pain was so bad that Dad actually requested to go to the hospital since none of the pain medications were working. They spent the entire night in the ER, from 11:30pm to 6AM. They did get his MRI done, and thankfully there isn't any new issues with his back. They were able to give him some IV pain medication and then sent him home.

Well Tuesday was more of the same....his legs are really hurting and swollen. He was lying down for the entire day since his legs were hurting him so bad. He tried to rest as much as he could, but with the pain, that was hard to do. They increased his pain medication dose, but that didn't make much difference. It has been frustrating, since right now Dad is a bit of a guinea pig. Let's try this.. nope didn't work, how 'bout this? Tuesday night was really bad for Dad, once again, he didn't get much rest and was in a lot of pain.

Today he went to Dr. Kazhdan's office for labs, which was very difficult to move. They still don't know what is causing the pain- it could be a blood clot in his legs, it could be because of the chemo, no one knows. When his legs are elevated the swelling goes down, when he stands, the pain returns and the swelling returns. So today he goes back to the hospital to be readmitted. We aren't sure how long he will be there, I am hoping we can get him back out in time for Christmas, but obviously we have to find out what's wrong and get him walking again. As soon as we find out more, I will let you all know.

Holiday cheer and a little numbness

Dad has been working hard each day, going to the office when the doctors appointments allow. He finished chemo last week and finally made it to the main branch. He also made the office Christmas party, or was at least able to make an appearance for around an hour. It is hard for someone who has a broken back to stand for a long period of time, or to even sit for a long period of time.

The house was decorated yesterday to get ready for the holiday cheer than will soon be descending on Dad's house. Thankfully, Tia Mary and Joe-Joe were able to help mom. The grandbaby has the stomach flu and I really don't think Dad wants to battle that in addition to everything else- although I know he is itching to see Jacob.

Today Dad went in for his regular check up and blood work. Unfortunately Dad starting to feel a little numbness in his legs, so this means another MRI for him. He was in a bit of pain when we spoke last, but they were trying to get the MRI today. The numbness might be from nerves that are compressed from his broken vertebrae or it might be a result of the chemo, since chemo can cause a pins and needle sensation. We'll let you all know when we know more.

He works hard for his money

Dad has done really well with chemo these last two weeks. Today is his last day of this round of chemo. Over the weekend Mom decided to move Dad's bed back to the bedroom, which was a little different for him since he was use to getting out of bed on a certain side. Now he is suppose to get out on the opposite side. This might have aggravated his back a little since his back was hurting him at the beginning of the week. It is better now, he just has to be very careful.

Dad went to work this week at one of the branches and was greeting customers. He was rejuvenated being back at the office. He was hoping to make it to the main branch, but that didn't pan out yesterday.

All in all, Dad is doing great. Now we are just getting ready for the holidays. Thankfully, some of our family is bringing Christmas to Dad next week. This is great since Dad isn't able to travel much with his back. We will get the house decorated and be able to celebrate with family just like the good old days.

We hope everyone is doing well, and getting all their Christmas shopping done. If anyone is wondering what Dad wants for Christmas it is to be healthy. So anyone bending Santa's ear, make sure to let him know.

Happy Holidays!!

Well, as most of you know, last week before Thanksgiving Dad narrowly avoided being readmitted to the hospital. The physical therapist had been working really hard with Dad and Tuesday he was hurting pretty bad. Wednesday, they noticed his knee was swollen again as well as his ankle. This was pretty painful for Dad, so much so that is was very time consuming and difficult for him to walk. He was so upset and depressed he was convinced he would be put back in the hospital just in time for Thanksgiving. He even told mom to have Dr. Kazhdan meet them at the hospital. Thankfully, Dr. Kazhdan was able to get in touch with Dad's primary care doctor to have a look at his knee. In his office, they were able to drain some of the fluid and give him a couple of new meds to keep the gout from causing swelling and pain. So Dad really had something to be thankful for--he was otherwise doing great and he would be able to spend Thanksgiving at home and not in some hospital room. Turkey day was great- I was at work, but Dad was able to enjoy it with Mom and some friends. It also helped that the Longhorns romped over the Aggies.

Over the weekend, Dad's knee steadily got better and better. His back still hurts some, but he was able to do his exercises again to regain some strength. Monday Dad started his new round of chemo. All of his labs are great and so everything went smoothly. They also paid a visit to the transplant hospital to drop off his records. Now that we are halfway through this 4 round cycle of chemo, Dr. Kazhdan wants for Dad to start talking to the transplant services for his bone marrow transplant. He didn't actually speak with them on Monday, it was just a paperwork visit.

Yesterday Dad met with the back specialist, who told him to stop physical therapy. At this point his bones are extremely fragile. He does have several breaks in his back, the highest being at T6. Any higher could cause problems with paralysis. Dad can't bend down, twist or make any sudden movements as this could cause another break. Sometime down the road they will look at fixing them, but that will be a while yet. They want his bones stronger, his heart fixed and his transplant done before they can do this. Because Dad's back is so fragile they recommended that he stop physical therapy. He can still continue to do leg exercises, but any back exercises are to be stopped immediately. They also do not want him walking with a cane, since it puts more stress on his back bones. Mom and Dad asked about a new brace, but the one he has affords him more mobility than the alternative. They also asked about a tingling in his thigh, which is caused by nerve compression. They can fix is, but it would require surgery that is very invasive. Instead Dad said he could live with tingling.

We had dinner with Dad last night which was good. He was in great spirits and very motivated to set some goals for himself. He plans on returning to the office soon, working from home is driving him crazy. He also wants to go back to Vegas at some point, as soon as his back is stronger and all of the heart and transplant are behind him. I think he is also hoping to make some Ferguson trips this year too.....Aruba watch out- Dad might just be on the loose!