Auction Success!

What an amazing weekend it's been. The auction (set up and organized by Astrid and Vicky - a million thank-yous each) was an overwhelming success. I think we raised almost $25000! I would like to offer my thanks to each and every one of you that participated. Penny and I found ourselves in tears on many occasions over the weekend as Vicky called, texted or emailed updates. While I would never wish our situation on anyone, I do hope you get the opportunity to feel the love and support from your friends and family like we have over the past 2 years (and especially over the last week). The outpouring of support in the form of emails, phone calls and especially through the auction has been astounding. Thank-you doesn't seem to express accurately our true gratitude it but it's all I have. Thank-you.

In the cancer department I have two new developments to report. 1) I see my colorectal surgeon Dr Buie on Wednesday for my surgical follow up. My recovery is going well but the real meat of our meeting will focus on when I can start chemo. Because some (read all) of the chemo drugs inhibit healing I will need to make sure I am sufficiently healed from my surgery before I start chemo. I'm hoping he says I need a few more weeks but who knows. 2) I forwarded my substantial medical records to the Mayo clinic in Phoenix for them to review as a second opinion. I wanted to have an independent (and out of province) oncologist review my file to make sure that everything I'm being told here fits more or less with what an internationally renowned cancer treatment clinic would do. All that I've read and heard through word of mouth suggests that the Tom Baker Cancer Centre here in Calgary is as good as anywhere in the world but I figure it can't hurt to ask. After all, it is a matter of life and death...

The Auction is on Now!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the auction is on NOW! In order to bid you will need to go to the site and create a username and password in order to bid. It's easy. Don't let a little technology get in the way of a great opportunity to bid on some really cool stuff. Again, thanks to Astrid, techie extraordinaire (with lots of help from Vicky) for setting it all up. Let the bidding begin!

How do we live here?

How do we live here? Of course I don't mean "here" as in Calgary or "here" as in Canada, I mean here as in "How do we live here in this constant state of absolute emotional disarray?". It's no secret I'm sure that Penny and I (and a lot of our friends and family too) have been living in a constant state of zombie-like disquietude over the past couple of days. Emotions slip quickly from angry to sad to frightened and back again within minutes. The end of the day brings relief from the ongoing emotional battle and a deep dreamless sleep that doesn't ever seem to bring all the energy back. Friends and family have been tremendously supportive and helpful in these past few days but that hardly seems like a long term fix. In actual fact, what will happen is these few days of crazy will blend into weeks and then into months and soon we will arrive at a new normal. We did it before with the initial diagnosis, and again when I had to learn to live with an ileostomy. My only hope is that we can find some happiness as a family in this upcoming 'new normal'. We could sure use it.

The Truth

Sometimes the truth hurts. This is one of those times.

I goth the results today from my CT scan on the 8th of June. It showed multiple new spots in both of my lungs. The number and location of these spots combined with the fact there are probably more there below the resolution of the scan, means that surgery to remove those spots is is no longer an option. Since surgery is out, it is very unlikely that my particular cancer will be cured (though not totally impossible). People with this type of cancer at this stage typically live 18 months on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. So it looks like I will be going back on chemotherapy ASAP to try and slow this thing down.

It's crappy news I know. It ruined my day too.

Home Sweet Home

I got released from the Foothills penitentiary last night at about 7:30. It took forever for the nurses to sort out the paperwork and attempt to get some pain meds for me to take home. It turned out that Dr Buie forgot his triplicate prescription pad when he came up to see me and sign the paperwork for my release. In light of that, he asked my nurse to give me a dozen pills to get me through the night and in the morning he promised to call in the prescription to my pharmacy. So when my nurse went to get the pills, her charge nurse reminded her that it was against one of her nursing codes to give out that much medication to a patient. So in the end she had to page Dr Buie (who had already gone home) to come back, find his triplicate pad, and shoot back up to the unit and give me the script. When I found out this kerfuffle to get me drugs had escalated into a full blown goat rodeo I called home to get my mother to look through my medicine cabinet to see if I had enough pills left from a previous surgery to get me through the night. After finding the right glasses, getting a chair to stand on, and wading through the bottles and bottles of drugs in my cabinet, she informed me that I did have enough pills at home. So, my nurse page Dr Buie back and told him that I was fine for the night and he could stop looking for his pad. We reviewed my discharge instructions and I got to go merrily on my way out into the rain and home. Home sweet home.

BP Oil Spill Spoof

Jen did a very thoughtful thing this morning and came to the hospital for a visit. She brought her iPad for me to use for the day. It's awesome. I want one for fathers day...

Check out this video spoof on YouTube. It is workplace appropriate.

I'm feeling great today. The doctors have pretty much agreed that I can be released today pending multiple successful urinations and an established pain control plan. I seem to have both things in order so all I need now is Dr Buies signature on the dotted line.

Tuesday Night

It's Tuesday night. I had a good day. I had lots of visitors, got my
epidural out, got my iv out, got my pee tube out (the nurse let me
pull it out myself - ouch!), started oral pain meds and ate lots of
real food (can you call hospital food real?). Now i'm high on
painkillers (not as fun as it sounds) and the nurse let me have one of
the magical little blue sleeping pills. So overall i'm feeling relaxed
and comfortable. I'm even a little excited about the prospect of
heading home tomorrow even though I know it is by no means a slam dunk.

See. I told you it was a good day.

Pee Bag

It's 6:30 on Tuesday morning and my nurse just came in and turned off
my epidural. I'm now switching over to the oral pain meds and hoping
they will keep me comfortable. It takes a little while for the
epidural drugs to get out of my system so I should know just before
noon if the new pain management system is working. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday Penny brought Andrew and Carly in for a visit and we had a
picnic lunch in the elevator lobby together. Of course I have to push
my iv pole with me wherever I go. One of the things that hangs on the
bottom part of the pole is the bag of pee that comes out my foley
cathter. When Carly saw the bag she asked what it was so I told her.
Well at first she laughed pretty hard at the fact that dad was peeing
into a bag but then her mind started to kick into gear and she fired a
barrage of questions my way. Why do you put your pee in a bag? How
does it get there? Where does the tube come out? Does it hurt? Can I
see? Make some go in there now. Can I touch the bag? Then she giggled
again and said "it's funny that you pee in a bag dad!". The frank
honesty and commentary of a child is priceless. It made my day
yesterday.

Day 4

So far day four is going well. My pain control by means of the
epidural has been exemplary. The plan is to take the epidural out
tomorrow (eek!) and use narcotics in pill form to control the pain.
Removal of the epidural equals removal of the foley catheter which I'm
happy about. The part I'm not thrilled about is having to deal with
more pain.

I don't think I gave details of the surgery and the hardware it left
me with so I'll do that now. The surgery went as well as it could go.
They made the incision in the same place as before (pubic bone to 2
inches above the belly button) so I didn't end up with any new scars.
Once I was cut open like a cod, he could see that one loop of small
bowel had slipped down into the pelvis and had become fused to the
abscess. Once he separated the two, he could see that the small
intestine was in really good shape with only a small hole that had
connected it to the fistula. So instead of having to cut a couple of
inches of bowel out completely, all he had to do was stitch up the
hole. This small fix is likely the reason that I didn't have problems
with my digestive system starting up again. While he was in there dr
Buie also removed a bunch of adhesions (scar tissue) from my bowels.
This will hopefully reduce the chance of getting a blockage in the
future.

Once he was finished with the scar tissues he flushed out the abscess
with saline and placed a different kind of drain called a Jaxson-Pratt
drain into the abscess. Instead of coming out my butt cheek, this
drain comes out my stomach and connects to a small bulb-like device
for storing any fluid that might come out. So far this new drain is
much more comfortable than the old drain. I just hope it does it's job.

The only other thing dr Buie said about the surgery was that they had
a "good look around in there" and there was no sign of recurrent
cancer. He also said that overall my pelvis looked good (why thank
you!) and it is very likely that if the abscess heals, I will be able
to have surgery at some point in the future to reverse my ileostomy.
Yahoo!

I've had a few visitors already which has been a good change from the
usual hospital actvities which are either lie in bed and stare at the
ceiling or slouch around the halls pushing my iv looking like an ugly
bearded scantily clad hunchback pole dancer. So if you have nothing to
do, I would appreciate a visit. Foothills hospital, 10th floor, unit
102, room 1072. That's all for now.

Day 3

Today was apparently a really nice day outside. I wouldn't know since
I'm stuck inside at the Foothills. My day went pretty well despite a
mostly sleepless night (par for the course here at the hospital). I
was up at about 7am when Penny got here. We met with the resident on
call shortly after that. There wasn't much to discuss with him so we
immediately got on with our day of sitting, lying and drinking small
amounts of clear fluid. Later in the day I progressed to walking and
snacking on pb and crackers. In a fit of madness (actually it seemed
like the best thing at the time), I asked the nurses to take me off
the epidural and put me on patient controlled iv pain meds. That
lasted all of 4 hours before I kindly asked them to turn that
beautiful pain-reducing piece of epidural magicness back on. Since
then things have been good. I had supper (on the menu it was called
chicken noodle soup but it was devoid of noodles and tasted like very
salty oatmeal), went for a few walks on the unit and even cleaned
myself up in the bathroom. As usual it's been great to have Penny here
to help me out. I realized how much she must like me today when we
found ourselves both very excited and highly entertained at the fact
that I was passing gas (a good sign my bowels are back working). Yer a
good wife Pen.

Out of Surgery and Feeling Good!

I'm out of surgery now and upstairs in unit 102 in a 4 person room.
The surgery went perfectly according to plan and I'm feeling
surprisingly spry. Penny is here keeping me company and helping out
the nurses. I have an epidural (magic!) and am hooked up to a variety
of other hoses and wires. I will try and post an update a day through
my recovery to keep everyone in the loop.

Just went in..

2 pm start time. Dan in good spirits as always. Expect a 4 hour
surgery. Will post with more info tonight.

Penny

Comox Wedding and Surgery Tomorrow

This week has flown by. I haven't had time to make a detailed post of our trip out west so I thought I would post a short summary of our time there instead. So in the spirit of 'less is more' here are the facts:

• We flew to Comox via Vancouver this time. Not recommended with kids but the flight was half the price of Westjet's direct flight so what are ya gonna do?


• We stayed with Dave and Katy (thanks) and used their car (thanks) and gave them a decidedly frank introduction to life with 2 kids (sorry).


• Dave and Ashley's wedding went off perfectly. Penny and a few of Ashley's friends convinced the bride to wear white. The ceremony was intimate and short - exactly what a wedding ceremony should be (in my opinion).


• Dinner was at the Golf course (Crown Isle) with lots of entertainment for the kids (golf balls and sand traps - luckily they didn't find the golf carts). We retired to Dave and Ashley's place for the reception which actually turned out to be more of a drinking competition.


• The most shameful part of the night was that we left our kids to sleep at Dave and Ashley's house, in their master bathroom ON THEIR WEDDING NIGHT! We were drunk and didn't want to deal with trying to get car seats into a cab (probably a wise decision) so we left the kids there (but why in the master bathroom of all places?). Luckily Dave passed out before Ashley made it to bed so there was no harm done but we still feel guilty.


• We had a couple of trips to the beach and river. After one particularly wet episode at the beach with a starfish Andrew rode home naked in your truck Dave. I don't think he peed in there but you'll know for sure after a week of hot weather this summer.


• Comox is great. I wish we could find some way to live there.

That's about it. I can't wait for our next trip out there.

My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I will ask Penny to post an update here when all is said and done. Thanks for all the warm wishes.

Date!

We're still in Comox but I found out today that I got booked in for my surgery this Friday, June 11th! I'm pretty excited about getting it done so soon and can't wait to get over it and enjoy the summer. I will post more details about our trip and the surgery plan when I get home.

Still no Date!

It's getting a little frustrating trying to get a date for my surgery. Originally it was supposed to be next Tuesday but I'm not holding my breath on that. I talked on the phone with Dr Buie's scheduling administrator last week and she assured me she was doing everything within her power to get me some surgery time. I paged Dr Buie on Monday and politely reminded him as well that I was still waiting for a date and he said they were doing their best to find the time to slot me in. I know there are cutbacks and what they speak is the truth but it's frustrating to have to sit around waiting. You'd think I was used to that by now...

I spent the day at the hospital yesterday getting a few things done. I had a CT scan to see how things went with the chemo (no results on that for a few weeks yet), picked up a few supplies from the pharmacy, got my port flushed (the port-a-cath equivalent of having your oil changed) and got some exciting new ostomy supplies. Well it's exciting for me anyway. I had been getting severely itchy with my last type of bag so they switched me to a new onewith a different adhesive that is hypoallergenic. So far it's much more comfortable than the old type. Hopefully it proves comfortable in the long run as well.

Tomorrow we're off to Comox for Dave and Ashley's wedding. We're excited about getting out to the coast although the weather forecast is not so great. We are in the midst of packing and have an embarrassingly large pile of stuff to bring. I'll have to go and help Penny get it down to just the bare essentials so they actually let us on the plane. Have a great weekend all!