I'm taking Dad to get a port put in tomorrow..several days earlier than scheduled. Every day is important in getting the chemo started due to the aggressivenes of the cancer. We got a surgeon here in Minden to put in the port to save us a trip to Shreveport. I am tired already and we have only just begun, but I also know that my days with my dad are numbered. That makes me sad!
My brother took my mom and dad for Dad's appointment to get his CT scan at 10:00 while I went to another appointment to see if I qualify for an investigative gout study. I met up with them at the hospital where incompetence was rampant. It's no secret how I feel about incompetence. They failed to tell him he had to drink some stuff the night before, so he drank it when he got there, but then the machine broke down and he had to go somewhere else to get scanned. The kicker is that he had to wait 2 hours after drinking the prep stuff before they could do the scan. The man could not eat after midnight last night, so he was starving. We were late to the oncologist, but we called ahead to let them know why.
The oncologist is awesome. The CT scan revealed no cancer outside the lungs, but it is in both lungs. The only treatment is chemo. It is STAGE IV. We are getting a port put in Tuesday and Chemo starts Wednesday for 3 days. Its potency will be adjusted so as not to be so toxic on a frail 86 year old. The doc will check after the first round to see if it is helping. He thinks it will help him to breathe better. We wait about 3 weeks for the second round. This is a very aggressive cancer that has probably only been there a short time.
The following is a directly quoted email from a friend of my brother's. She is an excellent oncologist.
"I'm sorry to hear the bad news. the chemo works well, but prolongs life to about 9 months---range 6-18 months. Without treatment--6 weeks is the average. Small cell carcinoma is incurable 97% of the time. 86 years old-----hmmmm.....if he's a real healthy one--give it a shot with chemo. If it puts him in the bed most of 24 hours--probably too toxic for him....Quality of life is the issue--it may make him feel better for awhile---trust your judgement and his. I've never met an 86 year old that didn't know what he could handle; I've learned to trust THEIR judgement.Keep me posted. Side effects of chemo are much better prevented in this day and age, by the way."
My dad has small cell lung cancer. I totally tried to NOT look it up and read all about it, but I got out of bed and looked it up. I wish I hadn't!
In spite of the fact that I have been totally unable to work in my yard, my flowers have blossomed and made me proud.
The home health nurse told me yesterday that this wound is very small. The incision is only 1 centimeter, whereas the other one was 7 centimeters. She told me that it will probably be closed in about a week if it heals like the other one.
My mom told me that my dad was very depressed for the last couple of days, so I just got in my car and went to see him. I picked a few cucumbers in the garden and he went out with me to look at the garden. I told the nurse that I went to see him and she told me the doctor's orders said "no driving". No one told me that. I am still going to drive the short distance to Mom and Dad's. My dad needs to see me.
I got home last night after being back in the hospital since Friday on IV drugs. Home Health will be putting me back in their daily rotations until the new abscess is closed.
The biopsy results will not be ready until tomorrow, but preliminary exams are not good. Dad's right lung is completely blocked and the left lung is mostly blocked. The only air he is getting is a very small amount from the left lung. Next week we will meet with the doctor to determine the course of treatment. No wonder the poor man can not breathe.
My staph infection is alive and well. The doctor had to lance a new abscess very, very near the old one that is nearly healed. I am back to square one and on massive doses of antibiotics again along with an ointment to put in my nose since the staph lives in the nose. Of course, I am back in major pain with another hole in my ass! Tomorrow I go back to the doctor and he will decide if he will put me back in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Crap....just CRAP! Even the doctor's wife had one of these abscesses on her butt last week. He said the infection is rampant. It will just not die and I have to get well so I can take care of my parents. My brother has had to do way more than his share and I am so sorry for that. He has never complained and he never would, but his plate is full!
I started feeling some pain while sitting at the hairdresser's yesterday, so I took a mirror when I got home to look at the wound that is almost healed. There is yet another damned abscess coming right beside the other one. CRAP! I called home health to come out and take a look. She said yep another is starting. She called my doc, who is closed on Wednesdays. He is calling in more antibiotics and I am to be in his office first thing in the morning. If it needs to be lanced, he will do it before it reaches ER stage like I did last time.
My brother has already stepped up to take Dad to his biopsy tomorrow morning.
On a positive note......I was walking around outside a few minutes ago and a stanger stopped her car in the middle of the street and told me how beautiful my flowers are! AWWWW! I needed that! Even though I can't mow the yard or weed eat or anything else, she still thinks it's pretty!
Home health told me today that I am almost done with them. Probably one more visit next week and then a discharge. That makes me very happy. I still have to be very careful for fear of pulling apart what has grown back together. I got permission to sweat some as long as I shower off immediately after I finish my work. I do that anyway, so no problem there.
No one hates snakes more than I do. They petrify me, no matter how sweet and nice they are. My sister-in-law told me to come outside for my brother to show me something. I told her NO because I don't trust him. She promised he wouldn't scare me. I went outside and he was standing just off their patio holding two kingsnakes by the tail that were mating. They were all wound around each other and he was holding them up by the tail. He took them back and let them go because they are GOOD snakes! Whatever! Now I will have to watch for their whole damn family when they have the babies!!!
My brother took Dad for his appointment today and the doc said the spots were suspicious. He will be doing a biopsy on Thursday morning at 7. I will take him to get that done.
Yesterday was my last daily visit from home health nurses. The wound has closed enough to not need packing, so now the protocol is Neosporin and a sterile 4 X 4 three times a day. I can do that and they will come once a week to look at it until it is totally healed. Today I felt free again because I didn't have to wait around for the nurse to come. Actually, I took my first trip to Shreveport in two months and got the car washed. I also met the Thursday lunch group for lunch today. It was nice to have some semblance of normal back again.
Tomorrow my dad has an appointment with the pulmonologist. My brother will take him to the appointment and I will just wait at home to hear from them. I'm sure they will schedule a biopsy.
I went to see about Dad this morning. He doesn't feel well, but he is trying to do a few things in the garden. He is just glad to know there is a definite reason for his breathing difficulties. He asked me today how do they operate on lungs. I told him they put the patient on a heart/lung machine while they operate and he has already been on one of those machines when he had his heart bypass. We are hoping for an appointment with a pulmonologist this week.
I am continuing to improve. The nurses seem to think this will be my last week of daily packing. The wound is almost closed and ready for just a small bandage to keep it clean along with some neosporin.
Dad and I dug our first potatoes this morning. We found enough for them to eat tomorrow along with some turnip greens and turnips. I think I'll go there for lunch tomorrow!
I took Dad for his CT scan today and before we got home the doc had called my brother and told him there are 3 suspicious spots in Dad's lungs. He would not say that it was cancer, but he gave indications that he suspected that it was. Next week he is trying to get Dad in to a pulmonologist, who would do a biopsy to be sure. Dad is not upset. I am! When the nurse came late today to change my packing, my blood pressure and pulse were considerably higher than usual. She said it was directly stress related. Dad, in my opinion, is too old and frail to undergo the rigors of chemo. I just don't want him to have to do that. Personally, I think he would choose not to do it if it came to that, but I don't know that for sure. He told us his biggest problem was worrying his kids. Mom told him to just be glad they had some kids to worry!!!
I'm not much of a worrier, but my brother just called me and told me Dad's doctor called and told Stewart that there was a spot on Dad's lung and he wanted to schedule a CT scan for tomorrow. The doctor will be able to talk to the pathologist after the CT scan and pretty much know if it is cancer.
The nurse came early today so I could go take my mom to a dinner on the grounds at the cemetery where her family is buried. When I took her home, Dad was gone fishing with my brother, so I went home to rest so Mom could rest as well. I had barely been home when my phone rang and my brother told me the ambulance was on the way to get Dad. Dad had passed out in the boat, thrown up, and soiled his clothes. My brother thought it was over! He brought Dad around and took him home where the ambulance was waiting. Dad had to take a shower and change clothes before he would see the ambulance attendants. They checked him out, but he was very, very pale. We spent a couple more hours at the ER where they did all kinds of tests. They wanted to keep him overnight, but he convinced the doc he would rest better at home. The tests didn't show anything major, but he could have had a slight heart attack or slight stroke. The CT scan had not been read yet, but my brother took him home. I spent most of the ER time out in the waiting room where there were some soft chairs because I could not sit on the hard chairs in his ER cubical.
