Skip to main content

E-mail from Mom and Dad

Good Morning.........

Well, we are WIDE AWAKE at 4:00am on our first morning of vacation:( (And we thought we were going to sleep in!!) At 3:45am the fire alarm rudely awakened us from a sound sleep. We got up and realized that the alarm was going off in the whole building, not just our unit. Herm put shoes on with great difficulty as his feet are really swollen. We got out of the unit and made our way down one flight of stairs...he sat on the steps, while I tried to see what was going on. We smelled no smoke, although some were smelling smoke and the sprinkler system had gone off in the utility room on the 4th floor. Water is pouring towards the elevator shaft, not sure that we will be able to use that today and we are on the 3rd floor.
Definitely will be limiting our up and down trips, if we make any at all! We are back in our unit, but not sure if we will be able to go back to sleep!

Now for Herm's update.....We made our weekly trip to Goshen for chemo, with the plan that we would leave from there to head to our Nashville timeshare reservation. Dr. Pennington had other ideas after examining Herm and reviewing his lab work. He wanted to admit him to Goshen Hospital for one night to get some tests ordered.....saying that it would go faster if he admitted him, rather than doing the testing as an outpatient. Herm's bilirubin was elevated and his eyes were starting to show some yellowing. The cat scan showed that Herm's liver is now being overrun with cancer growth. Dr. Pennington said he has never seen it move quite this rampantly and the difference between his scans is quite dramatic. He could feel the liver hardening when he examined Herm, but wanted to verify it with the cat scan, before sharing that news with us.
Needless to say, this was very shattering news.

Things to expect are: Herm will feel extremely fatigued, and his abdomen, legs and feet will fill with fluid....not the fluid that can be relieved by taking a diuretic, but will have to be aspirated by using x-rays. This way they can see exactly where to insert the needle to aspirate. Dr. Pennington said it is a relatively simple out patient procedure that only takes about 20-30 minutes. He wanted us to continue with vacation plans as long as Herm felt up to it. We are to see Dr. Pennington again next Thursday and can talk more about 'options'. There are few, but Herm still wants to be aggressive and fight this with all he has and is available for him to choose from. His spirit is still strong.

Kris, Amy and the boys are planning to come next Wed through Sunday and Mandy (Curt can't, because of work) and the children will come late Friday through Tuesday. We are still planning to go to MD. for Thanksgiving and all be together at Curt and Mandy's. We are so grateful for the times we can be together.

God has been so gracious, kind and merciful to us. We don't know what the days ahead will be like, but we are resting in His promises and are in the palm of His hands. Tears flow easily and yet, we also can laugh and share happy times.

We do so cherish your prayers and friendships...if we could reach out and hug EACH of you, we would. E mail updates seem so impersonal and yet, it is such a good way to keep you all informed.

Think I will go back to bed and try to get some sleep. I got Herm back to bed and it sounds like he is resting comfortably. I think they got the sprinkler system shut off, I no longer hear water running outside!

There is HOPE and we are still HOPEFUL.

Love and peace to all,

Herm and Carol

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cancelled

What a busy crazy day! Curt left right away this morning around 7 to get his blood taken.  He got back and then Audrey got here.  We played and picked up for a bit then left to go to the Health Department to get our TB test done.  We got there around 10ish and they told us we needed to make an appointment.  So we waited for a bit to make an appointment.  Thankfully they had an opening for today yet.  They only do these tests on Friday, so we really didn't want to have to wait until next Friday if at all possible.  Got an appointment for 1:15 and 1:30.  I was thinking ugh, either no nap and very little nap, but I didn't care!  ;) Got home, cleaned up a bit more, got the kiddos some lunch, then we turned around and left to go back to the Health Department.  (I did NOT see the water guy! ;)) Got back there, got asked some questions, wanted to know why I need the test...  I said adoption.  They saw all the other 5 kids and as...

Run-Aways

Wow, this has seriously been an eventful week! Starting off with the whole fabric softener mis-hap, which you can read on here if you didn't see or hear about it! Then Curt left Monday nite, Tuesday, well, it was ok, we had mom's group and the kids were acting up a bit, but nothing too bad... Then Wednesday I had a meeting at the church... It started out ok, the meeting wasn't long at all! Gavin came into the room and said he wanted to go play outside on the playground. I told him no, because I couldn't see him. I said, what if someone came by and picked you up and grabbed you and took you somewhere? Mommy would never see you again and I would be soooo sad! I said, I can't see you, so you need to stay inside. Well, not more than 3 minutes passed and Kotah comes up to me and says, uh, mom, Gavin is trying to go outside. So, I get up, go over to him and talk. I asked him what is he doing? he says, I WANT to play OUTSIDE! I said, bubby, I can't see you, so you can...

Update on Dad...

Mom called a little while ago. Dad will be admitted, they aren't sure yet what caused the pain. He had fever, but it now is broken. He is also a little jaundice, so that is why they were/are thinking that his stent moved... They had to poke him 3 different times to try and get an IV in, his veins were so tight because he was in so much pain, he was tensing up. They took some blood from both arms and are still waiting on the results of that. They also did a chest x-ray. So still waiting, but atleast he isn't in any pain. The gave him a shot of morphine to take care of the pain, and it finally worked.