Stent removal

It went well! Glad for this. We spent four hours waiting. I guess the Doc was behind in his surgeries. Took less than 15 minutes to pull the stent and they called me in 20 minutes later and he was awake and eating graham crackers and apple juice. I snuck in some cookies for him too. Had to wait another hour and off we went. Home by 6:30. I cooked hamburgers with sauce from Smokeybones. Ted rested in the living room and off to bed he went by 8pm. He was doing good today. Some pain but only because they didn't want him to take anything by mouth. So finally after 2 hours of waiting they got him some drugs. yeah!! he was snoring in minutes. So the next few days will tell how everything works. Even if he just uses the neprostomy that's ok for now. He is fighting through the chemo side effects and seems to be coming out on the other side. I really hope so. He hopes to make into work for a few hours. Hasn't been there in awhile. I found this description that someone wrote describing Chemo Brain. I think this acuratly describes how Ted feels with the chemo and why he sleeps so much after chemo.

“It's a fuzzy feeling, like trying to think through a fog. Throw in a little bit of exhaustion and fatigue, and it doesn't leave you at your cognitive best.”

I guess that sums it up. But I guess you should also put in the nausea. Seems to be under control right now. We were able to get samples of nausea drugs. Do you know how expensive they are....its highway robbery even with the insurance. Luckily we get samples, but unforntuatly they don't always have the same ones available. IT's like a crap shoot.

Well it's late and I'm heading to bed too. I just wanted to make sure you all knew that things went well today. I'm going to try and update this more then once a week. Ted really wants everyone to know how much he appreciates the thoughts and prayers. We love you all too. If you know someone who asks about Ted. Please share this blog with them.

Treament went well

Well he had his first treatment...or whatever you might want to call it. We don't have a number on the number of treatments he is going to have. It's all a guessing game. He had a 75% dose, which I thought was a little high (i'm not a doctor contrary to some beliefs) but I think they want it back in his system. Hopefully we can lower the dose to make him comfortable but not sleepy and sick. Not sure if it is helping the pain yet. Time will tell. We don't go back again for 3 weeks. Because we are leaving for St. Louis on the 4th. We have had this trip planned for almost a year. So if you think it's at a bad time, well it is but it's what we need to do. Keeping with plans, so much has been taken away from Ted and the kids. We couldn't take this away from them. We don't know how many more vacations we might be able to take. Besides we haven't gone anywhere is almost 2 years.

Some people think that Ted gets Chemo at the Hospital. He goes to this awesome cancer center. They have a few offices and mostly we go to the princess anne center. That is where his Doctor is on Friday and where we get treatments. You can check this place out at:

http://www.virginiacancer.com/

Someday i'm gonna bring a camera there. I know Ted doesn't want his picture taken but I see this view......of IV poles....It's an odd sight, a sad sight, especially when the room is full. I'm not sure how to capture this, but I would like to try.

I'm reading this book, by Joel Siegal, Lessons for Dylan. He just passed away after fighting colon cancer for 10 years. He has a lot of similair experiences that Ted has gone through. He laughs and makes fun of the dieses because that is all you can do. If your looking for something different, check it out of the library.

Well i'll post if anything changes. He wants to go back to work so bad, even for a few hours. He likes what he does and he just wants everything to go back to normal. I'm not sure I know what Normal is anymore.

Good Visit

hello everyone
just a quick update. Ted is doing ok. He still has pain but we are managing it. We had a decent trip back to NY and seeing family and friends. We are seeing the Doctor again tomorrow and probably starting some sort of chemo again. Probably a low dose to help with the pain. He was pretty much pain free while on chemo. Doctor said sometimes we can't explain the side effects and how the body will react to chemo. So we are looking for a dose that will keep him pain free and not in bed for a week. Maybe chemo every 3 weeks will work. We really don't know. I do know though that they say that they don't want to keep him on chemo because that isn't good either. There is a fine line to it all. I"m even confused sometimes trying to figure out what might work...and i don't have a MD license. My daughter says I should. haha.

Anyway.....I almost forgot....Kelly's visit was, to say the least memorable. She broke her foot at the waterslide park...because they don't know how to mark things. Needless to say that shorted her vacation with us by a few days.....Leo flew in to rescue her and drive her and the kids home. We had a good visit while lasted......but does anyone know a good plumber?? Had a little accident.............
Have to laugh....there is no other way. Love ya Kel!!!

It's all good....

Ok...so the numbers pretty much stayed the same. That is good. Means things are stable. He is going to have another cat scan to see if there is anything that they can see that is causing the pain that he is having right now. So that will be done tuesday and hopefully we will know more by next week. If not probably the week after we get back from NY. Gonna be a short trip (shorter then we thought) so if we don't get to see you, know that we are thinking of you all and miss you lots. Especially our friends and neighbors in stuyvesant, if we could we would drive to each of your house and spend the day with you all. Unfortunatly that's not possible. Haven't see our family since christmas so hoping to spend time with the neices and nephews, brothers and sisters and mothers and father. Love you all...will update as soon as we know more. Sorry there wasn't much information. *hugs* Karen

Stent not so good

Well the stent lasted three days and somehow got clogged up. He was bleeding so we think it was a blood clot. Really sucks. So we are waiting to hear from the Doctor because he is going to have to go in and pull it out and put in a new one. Ted has been doing ok otherwise. A little bit of pain but we are managing it the best we can. We are getting ready to go to NY for our class reunion on the 21st of July. Kelly, Nicole, Mikey and ther friend Chelsea is here. So we are all having a good time enjoying thier company and going to the Beach. Tomorrow we should have the results to the cea levels and i'll try to get them put up there quickly so you all can check. Good or Bad i'll post. We are in this together, right? Love ya.....K and T

stent change on Monday the 2nd

Ted had his stent in the uretor changed by the Doctor this time instead of Radiology. He wanted to put a bigger one in and one that was longer lasting. Hoping this all goes well for him and we won't have to have it changed for awhile. So far so good. He slept most of yesterday away, because it was General Anestesia. But he is up and about today and feeling much better. Well just wanted to share this news with everyone. I all hope you have a great 4th of July. We aren't doing much this year. Just staying home, Kyle has to work 4-11. *hugs* to all.....Karen