Remembering Dave

Hey, I posted in General that Dave is out of the hospital, they got his sodium level regulated which has almost gotten rid of the cramping, which is a big cause of his pain, and he's taking oxycontin still because his head still hurts from the radiation damage/tumor/or whatever it is (we will find out more on that next Monday). And you know, he doesn't seem to be slipping away any more. That is much better. I think so much of that was the extreme discomfort, and the oxycontin couldn't really take care of the cramping. The house was sold before we could put a contract on it but another one will come along, and hopefully just when we get a good offer on our house. God Bless! Karen

My 72 year old mom had RFA to zap her original liver tumor. they have to go in with a laproscopic procedure to do it, but much better than opening you up. Prayers and blessings going to everyone at Last Resort including Jonn's Mom! God Bless, Karen

Dave's home, they cut him loose this morning. Dr. Positive's plan got his sodium up to 127 by this morning so he's going home with salt tablets. his folks took him home and I unfortunately had to attend my parents' neighbor/friend funeral who died of colon cancer, hard to watch your mom's good friend die of the same ailment your mom has, you know? Anyway, back to Dave, he is feeling so so much better, I feel so confident now that he'll get some good rest and get stronger and be ready to really fight now! Go Dave go! Take care! Karen

she IS adorable - almost as cute as Faith (sorry, couldn't help that) and she is clearly a very happy little girl, thanks to the wonderful start given to her by her mother, and the pure love she gets from her awesome daddy! Karen

crap. that's all I have to say. Dave's really been craving sugar lately. and look at his cancer. his body's been craving it for the cancer I bet. crap. Also, if you're on steroids, the nurse practitioner told us you're in a higher danger of developing diabetes, so that right there is another good reason to lay off the sugar. Karen

Beth, youi are a lot stronger and prettier than you think. Hang in there, you will be fine. Hopefully the Docs will get us both sleeping all night long. I sure Curt is jelous that I am sooo romantic. I took my wife out for dinner and then out to an unforgettable evening at the ER. Seriously Beth, hang in there, you can beat this!! Keep a positive attitude. David C

I'm so surprised, Beth, that you had such a bad night, because you looked fantastic last night! OK, I will admit I can see some steroid induced weight gain there, but I still think you look fantastic! and you seemed to have energy . . . so am so surprised to see how crummy you are doing in the middle of the night. I'm so sorry,. wish I'd know, I would have called you from the ER, we had a phone in our little ER room, and we could have talked! hope you are better today, when we talked this morning you didn't mention it but then I didn't give you the chance. I'll try to call you. God bless you, my friend, Karen p.s. take comfort in knowing that you have a husband that adores you, no matter what. I can see it in his eyes. You are everything to him. You are one lucky woman!

Hi, this is Karen. we have dave's laptop hooked to the phone line in his room. yes, at first we had an ER doc, a young lady who was very nice but I don't think she was all that, er, bright - then they brought in this young doc, he said he is a generalist in the hospital - he works for the hospital and acts as a patient's primary care doctor if their own doc doesn't admit them, something like that. I thought the nurse said he was the on call onco doc and he sure talked like one - he really knew his stuff, especially about the behavior of SCLC, but then he explained his role. then he gave us a rousing pep talk about the importance of just KNOWING you will be that one person in a million (or whatever) who is going to survive and that he was impressed that DAve did have that attitude, then he gave us a very passionate talk about the importance of Dave making sure that Faith and I would be well cared for, in good financial shape, emotional shape, etc., in the event he did have to leave us. this was at 2 am. I was a bit fuzzy headed and eager to get home so dave's dad could go to his "home" and go to sleep, he was babysitting faith in our house, but I'm glad I didn't leave before we talked to Dr Positive. wow. he was GOOD. and Dave' oncologist came to see him this morning before I got here and told him we would keep trying, never give up, on getting him well. we are so lucky with these wonderful docs! lots of visitors today, including Faith, who immediately makes herself right at home in a hospital room. even knows that there's free juice to be had in the little kitchen down the hall. she likes to walk down the hall and smile and wave at patients in their rooms. little angel, this kid. OK, I ramble, can you tell I had three hours sleep last night? went to sleep at 3:30 am, was awakened at 6:45 by a little face right in my face, looking for her beloved winnie the pooh doll. Blessings from Room 2211, Karen

Beth, Thanks for letting everybody know. Hey folks, SIADH, that wonderful side effect that makes your sodium level drop has struck again. This is what caused my whole body to go start cramping (also the same way I was diagnosed back in 2003 ). The cramps had been getting worse and worse over the past few weeks. We went out to dinner Beth and her husband and had a good time but I was so tired when I left I told Karen to drive by the ER to see how busy they were. They did not look to busy I decided that we had to nip this thing in bud so we went in. I must admit that I played the cancer cards quite heavily while checking. They finally got me back in the ER Room in about an hour or one and 1/2 hour. My sodium level had dropped to 118. They admitted me and got me into my room around 4:30 in the morning. They are restricting my fluid and got me on several differet medications in a hope to get the sodium level back up quickly. I am still having cramps but they are getting better. I don't expect that I will be released tomorrow although my ONC. said there was a possibility. Basically they are experimenting with different medication combos to see what will bring my sodium back. Well, thats about all I caan type at this time. I am sure Karen will give more details.

OK, Andrea, Uncle. except . . . can't you convince the ins. co. that the visits are medically necessary even if the drug isn't? I actually think I convinced them that both were . . . but, we're hijacking the thread. so, another time for that discussion! Becky - how are you getting a three day weekend? I want one! Karen

Andrea - clomid isn't that expensive! wait until you buy the injectible drugs! ha. me: 1. Dave didn't need oxycontin today 2. It's Friday 3. Faith's class (the Moms) are sending dinner home with us tonight 4. I didn't cry any today (OK, not much) 5. A pretty little chinese girl rode in the back seat of my car this morning and smiled alot (sorry, this was lame) Karen

FALSE ALARM, SORT OF - THE HOUSE WAS SOLD YESTERDAY. They had three offers on it - two days after listing. oh well, that's OK, we still need to sell our house, maybe the D.C. person will buy it, and another house good for us will come on the market at just the right time I am sure! Karen

We still don't have our house sold. But with Dave's sudden turn for the worse, or should I say the sudden onset of mets, I feel that we need to get it sold and move into town very much sooner than later. The area we want to move into is pretty popular right now and decent houses sell fast, within days. I've been keeping my eye on the MLS online and found a good house for sale that would suit us very well at a very affordable price - good neighborhood, quiet dead end street/culdesac, easy to take care of. So I met the real estate agent there yesterday and I decided I want to put a contract on it. Dave was too sick to come. He told me on the cell phone while I was there and again last night to go for it, he trusted my judgment, and he'd try to look at it today or tomorrow or soon. The agent and I decided to drop the price on our house and do a big push to get it sold soon. We may have over priced it to begin with. and he's got someone from D.C. coming to look at it this coming week - and D.C. folks are used to high prices! anyway, I'm half way excited about a new start in a nice fairly new house, and half sad that I'm making decisions like this on my own. I told my "cool" boss this morning that I sort of missed the experience of standing in the front yard of the house having a spirited "discussion" with Dave about the pros and cons of buying the house as we would have done normally. Again I'm venting here, sorta. But wish us luck in getting our house sold and buying this new one. it really is ideal for us at this time in our lives. I drove by it this morning with Faith and asked her if she'd like to live in it, and she said "Me go here? Mommy go? Daddy go? Puppy go? Maddy go? (the old dog)" me sleep up there? (pointing to the upstairs). I said, yes, and she said OK! Way too cute! Karen

BABY BABY BABY BABY NEW LIFE NEW HOPE YESIREE!! Karen

I agree, Fay, about the detail thing. I've always been that way - very open about things - for the same reason - maybe something from your detailed experience can help another person. plus I'm just an open person. OK, the rash I can understand, but please get that tumor thing checked out, I don't like the sounds of that thing. please keep us posted. We love you, Karen

Fay, thank you for your kind words and passing this long for Bill. I will stop and say a special prayer for them. I know Bill loves his wife very much. This has got to be horrific for him. Sounds like she's in good hands though. Hang in there, Bill and God Bless you, Karen speaking for Dave as well

MAKE SURE AS SOON AS THAT BABY COMES YOU GET WORD TO US - DO YOU HEAR ME? I'm so excited about it, I don't know why - more hope and good news in new life maybe? maybe one of the delivery room nurses can get on the internet from her desk and let us know! Karen

Jim - do you know HOW BADLY I NEEDED TO READ SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS POST TODAY? SIX chemo regiments? wow. I have a call in to our minister. I want him to come out and talk to Dave. I am down in the dumps and think he can help us some in the God category and that the topotecan works for Dave! Praise God, and thank you Jim! Karen

protein is good for healing the damage done by radiation. Dave ate lots of cottage cheese, he likes it mixed with canned fruit. he also ate alot of tuna salad, and those ensure milkshakes that Ginny mentioned. his mom also makes protein smoothie shakes. it's probably best to avoid refined sugars but Dave's doctors always told him to eat whatever he wanted to eat or felt like eating. Karen

I don't know a thing about Taxol for SCLC, but I want to know about the vaccine trial she's in! Please give me the skinny on that, PM me if you prefer! But I know what you mean about six weeks of doing nothing to keep the cancer at bay. I don't know what to say about that. but just have faith these docs pretty much know what they're doing. thanks, Karen and best of luck to your mom!

I miss Connie very very much, too. I was just thinking this week that I needed some virtual hugs from Connie right now - really bad! Connie is the best. Karen

yep, clear margins is a very magical phrase. clear lymph nodes, too! I hope she heals quickly, she's a young thing (year younger than me!) so she should bounce back quickly! Karen

Again, thanks everyone. HUGS back! Don, thanks for saying it gets better as they adjust to it. I get so scared when Dave isn't "there" you know? In fact, he just called me, and he sounded very lucid. that was comforting. Karen

Addie - I wrote down all the supplements and took the list to the nurse practitioner on Tuesday - yesterday - we went over everything and she approved them all. by the way, he went in for chemo yesterday and couldn't get it b/c his platelett count was 90,000 and it had to be 100,000. that was disappointing. I put the little notebook in the drawer right with his drugs, laid it on top of them in fact, and this morning he did write down what he took, before I left for work. If I feel this isn't working I will give the drugs to his parents and ask them to dole them out to him and record them. They just got here on Monday and aren't quite up to speed on the situaton I don't think - quite a shocking thing - and I'm not sure they completely understand but I wrote them a nice detailed email with instructions about his drugs, eating, checking on him often, etc. so we'll see how it goes. they brought their gigantic fifth wheel trailer to live in and they tend to stay out there doing their thing and leave Dave be in the house doing his thing, which was fine last go around but this time I think he needs more watching. I just don't like not being there to make sure everything is taken care of, myself. I trust that things will fall into place soon. If we could get our house sold soon and move into a small house close to the city with a cheap mortgage payment I could take more time with him, heck, I could probably run home on my lunch hour to check on him. Karen

Well, one of the docs put Dave on oxycontin for the pain - 20 mg twice a day I think it is. It is totally doing a number on him. Just totally out of it. Like someone really really drunk. Can't remember what meds he's taken, if he fed the dogs (within the last hour), etc. So I made up a little notebook to keep with his prescription meds so every time he takes one he, or me, or one of his parents, can write down the time. I think he may have taken more than he was supposed to yesterday so hopefully the chart will stop that. I put all the supplements I've got him on now in those Monday-Sunday pill boxes so he won't forget to take those throughout each day. I've asked his Dad to walk the dogs every few hours in case Dave forgets to and they end up in the house all day long. I just WISH I could be at home with him more, but I can't. I have to work. I hate that the's on the oxycontin, it makes it feel like he is slipping away, and he's just slipping away mentally. but nothing else has helped his pain it seems. I am really just venting, but what is others' experience with how their loved ones did on these strong painkillers? thanks, Karen