Another mixed day

Doc’s temperature went back up again today. Unfortunately it got back up to 104 and spent most of the day there. He is very tired again from the fever and the chills. On the good side his vomiting was better today and the diarrhea problem has improved. Doc has realized now that he is losing some of his hair. Like most of us he isn’t real happy about that. I do know that some people are lucky enough not to have that happen, but it doesn’t look like he is going to be one of them.

We did find out that the bone marrow test the hospital had messed up was saved. They were able to send a sample to a hospital that does their matching from the DNA. They found out his HLA typing. We are still praying that he won’t need this, but if he does at least they can look for a donor for him if his brother doesn’t match. This was good news since we were very worried that they wouldn’t be able to match him if he needs a bone marrow transplant.

Not much else new today. I want to thank Karis Ervin for coming up to visit me today and having lunch with me. It did help to take my mind off of things for awhile. We would like to ask everyone to still keep Doc in your prayers. We are seeing progress even if it is only in small steps.

-Teresa

Poor morning turns into better evening

Yesterday evening until early this morning, Doc was the best he had been for a long time. He had a very nice visit with his Mom and watched some TV with us. His temperature had gone down to 102. This morning started out bad though with more vomiting. The day progressed about the same with the temp staying about the same. We have to praise our Lord for answering some of our prayers though. This evening his temperature finally broke. It is down to 99.9 as of the time we were writing this blog. That is the lowest it has been since he started on the chemotherapy. He still hasn’t been able to eat anything, but he did at least try a popsicle tonight. I just wish he had better luck getting things down.

We were thankful that Doc was feeling up to a short visit this morning when our daughter and our grandson stopped by. She wanted to see Dad and visit with Grandma before she left. Kim remarked on how much better her Dad looked than the last time she had seen him. Doc’s mom left this afternoon. We would like to thank the man (Rick) who drove her home safely. We are really glad Doc was feeling better last night so they could visit more. We are still asking people to wait and let him recover a little more before we start back with visitors other them family. We don’t want to tire him out too much so that he starts running a high temperature again.

Doc also wanted me to mention how important he thinks the plan of care board in the patient’s room is to keep up to date. He appreciates knowing what day it is and who his care givers are at the time. He said he didn’t realize how important it was until he was the patient. He hasn’t been very happy when the board isn’t kept up to date.

We want to thank everyone for their continued prayers. We are praying once again that he continues to get better. Unfortunately we still haven’t gotten word back on all of his tests, so please continue to pray for those results.

Fever still high

Doc’s fever is hanging around 104 today still, although he did have more time today when he was feeling a little better. He is thankful that he was able to spend a little more quality time with his Mom today. He does look rather strange today though. Right now he looks like he has the chicken pox. He has what they call petechiae. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is bleeding under the skin from his very low platelet count yesterday of 4. They have been much better today about making sure it doesn’t get that low again. I am very thankful for that. The bleeding he had yesterday out of his nose and mouth has stopped. Doc has been on TPN (calories by vain) for quite a few days now. He hasn’t been able to eat anything for almost two weeks now. From being on the TPN his blood sugars have been up and down so much that they are now sticking his finger several times per day, this is something else new for him.

-Teresa

Bad fever

Today hasn’t been a good day again. The fever has gone the highest since Doc checked in. Doc’s temperature got up to 104 today. When I was writing this blog the Lord had answered our prayers and it had gone down to 102. It is still high, but that is better then the 104. His potassium is critically low and so is his platelet count. We found out that the doctor filling in wasn’t told of the low platelet count, so we asked the nurse to call him. The doctor decided to give him some more platelets. Hopefully this will help stop the bleeding that he has had today from his mouth and his nose. They have also given him more potassium today so hopefully that will bring up his counts. He also needed another transfusion today so I think this makes at least 10 pints of blood that he has been given. With the fever we are very concerned about him so please keep him in your prayers.

Doc is really disappointed that he is so sick today. His mom came down from Franklin Park, a suburb of Chicago. He was looking forward to seeing her and wanted to be feeling better instead of worse. We are very thankful to Brad Stephens (he is the mayor of Rosemont) for arranging the ride down here and putting her up in a hotel that is close to the hospital. He wanted to make sure that she was close to visit Doc. We really appreciate it. The young couple that drove her down is Jamie and Mike. We want to thank them very much. His mom will be here for a couple of days and then another nice gentlemen also named Rick is driving her home. Rick also gave Doc a book from the Strike at Cancer Foundation. You can visit their web site at: www.strikeatcancer.org. It is wonderful to know there are some really kind people out there who ask for nothing in return.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. We appreciate your prayers and encouragement.

Mixed Day Today

The temperature has been up still, but the vomiting was less. We are hoping that his temperature goes down and that the vomiting stops all together. He was able to have a nice visit with our daughter, our son-in-law and our grandson Ian again this morning. I was glad they came up since I had some errands that I had to run this morning. I usually try to get here early. After they left he took a very long nap which I think helped a lot.

This evening Katie, Jon’s girlfriend, was able to come up for a visit. She wanted to stop by since it is so hard on Jon being in Colorado right now and having his dad in the hospital. He is working very hard to get his new company up and going so it is hard to get away at this time. Katie has become like one of the family since they have been going together for so long, so she wanted to represent Jon and herself.

I think over all Doc is doing a little better again today. It is hard on him just taking baby steps. As Kim said yesterday it is hard for him to be patient. Doc’s Mom is coming in tomorrow. I know he is looking forward to seeing her, I just pray he is up to the visit. She will be here for a couple of days. Someone has been nice enough to drive her down and arrange a hotel room for her.

Doc still wasn’t up to writing today, but he did enjoy the cards and comments that I read to him. Please keep up all of the prayers, we know they are helping. For those of you that have been after me to get more rest. I did get to bed early last night and got a good night of sleep. Thank heaven for sleeping pills...

-Teresa

Rollercoaster ride

After a better day yesterday, things went kind of sour again for my dad.

He had a rough night last night and a rough day today. He's been sick again and his mouth is swollen and sore from the chemo and infections. He's still exhausted. His fever continues to go up and down. We're thankful that it hasn't gotten out of control.

There was some very good news today. They tried to do another bone marrow draw and it was dry. That means that all the cancerous bone marrow is gone. This is not a guarantee that he will go into remission, but if he will go into remission, this is the first step. It's definitely a positive sign and we praise God for that.

The next step is watching Dad. If things are going well, then within the next week he should start to make healthy blood cells again. That should make a big improvement in how he is feeling.

Dad says that at least in surgery, when you do the surgery you get some answers and you can fix things or at least know what the next step is. It's kind of frustrating to not be getting the answers he needs. Several test results haven't come back yet or have been inconclusive. I know he's eager to get the whole picture of what he's up against and what the steps are to beat it, and it's really tough for him to be a patient patient and just wait for the answers.

Today Dad sent Mom home early. She just hasn't been able to get the rest she needs because she's been at the hospital with Dad all day, every day. Today he finally convinced her to go home by dinnertime so she could get some extra rest this evening. Hopefully that will help her get a little bit of a break.

-Kim

Some improvement today

Doc started out with a pretty good day today. He was feeling a little better and even got out of bed to move around a little. The girls at the office sent up a poster that they had put together of what they have been doing while Doc is away. He laughed a lot, and said he hoped that they have gotten all of the popcorn cleaned up. We will have to bring it to the office for everyone to see when he gets back to work. I know you will enjoy it as much as we have. The girls have pictures of themselves supposedly playing poker, running surgery specials, doing their own surgery on patients, pulling the mailman off the street to have something to do, running a beauty shop from the office and selling mag. Citrate like lemonade. Poor Dr. Gerberding! Doc will have to get back to the office soon to whip them back into shape. He was happy to have a visit this evening from our daughter, son-in-law and our cute grandson. He was glad that he was up to their visit. Unfortunately a while after they left the vomiting and diarrhea came back with a vengeance. His temperature has also gone up this evening. It is at 39 Celsius (102.2F) right now; hopefully that will go back down soon. His blood glucose also went very high this morning, but the doctors are working on that and it came down some by this afternoon. We would still like to ask everyone to give Doc a little more time to get better before we start back with the visitors. We are only keeping it to our family right now and this was the first time we had them come up in several days. We want to thank you once again for all the prayers, comments, cards and well wishes.

-Teresa