Friday Evening....October 19th

14th Day of healing...What a Night and Day it Was.........

I didn't get much sleep after Dave hooked me up to my food at 4:00 am as a storm was going through and what a loud one it was. I got pretty anxious and just lay there and listened. It was quite a view when we looked out our windows when the sun finally came up. The creek had really expanded and changed it's position. It'll be interesting to see what it finally settles into.

This morning I got on the phone and called a lot of my care givers in both the clinic and the hospital. I have been very unhappy with how my feeding has gone and how hard it has been on my intestines. I've been pretty miserable during my feeding sessions, especially the evening session. We're making two changes, at least temporarily. I am taking a new drug which should help with the flow of the food to my intestine. They are also having me suspend the evening feedings through the weekend to see if the intestines will do some healing. I'm not sure what will happen after that. In the meantime, I'm doing on less food so will probably lose some weight, but hopefully not much. I'm also avoiding any foods by mouth for the interim. My esophagus is more sore today because of the vanilla shake I had last night.

I hope something gets figured out with all this. I don't feel like I should have to go through this extra pain, and that there should be a solution somewhere.

Thanks again for all your love and support. The road to recovery feels very long and lonely sometimes, so I am very blessed to have you all.

Love and gratitude......Linda




Linda talked a bit about the "night of nights"..the wind started to blow very hard in the middle of the night....two very large flashes occurred which was the power station shorting out...and then no electricity for a few hours.....and then we kept hearing what we thought was the wind continuing to blow only to find out at daylight that the creek turned into a raging river:

Linda was very very down during the night and early today.....because of the discomfort of the feeding, particularly in the prior evening..I think the pain of the esophagus has been "masking" it....anyway she has asked many medical caregivers over the past week for help and she kept getting "suggestions"....this morning she'd had enough.,..she wanted some real help.....and then she found out all the dietitians were on vacation (from multiple agencies).....the Home IV center (which provides the food) continued to provide "lame" answers, etc etc. She finally went back to the places that have been the "anchors" .......the oncologist nurse practitioner.....now we have a plan and we are following it....there is a sharp reduction in the food being given.....through the weekend.....Linda might lose some weight but it will ease the system.....the other place Linda went to was the radiation oncologist nurse who ordered her a prescription to have the "gut" adjust to all this....

Thanks to both of these great folks...the effects are being experienced already...Linda is much more at ease....the anxiety has been reduced..she is a bit hungry...but she is in much better shape....now we'll see how she weathers the weekend.

Dave