The End of a Good Day in Room 2NW20

It's near midnight and all in all Friday was a good day. Abbie, the day nurse, and Darlene, the night nurse, have been SUCH a welcome change from the previous day. They understand what patient care is all about. Lots of communication, lots of putting the patient's needs first, true angels of mercy. We appreciate them very much.

In true Lisa Marie fashion, as soon as she was able to this morning, she bathed and chunked the standard hospital issue gown for her much more stylish Dear Johnnie model. (See photo on Friday's Facebook page.) She also graciously accepted compliments on her lovely pedicure nail color. She then proceeded to walk from the room to the aquarium and back, then to the nurses station before returning to the room. Still the biggest problem has been the nausea and the shoulder pain. The walking tends to bring on a little nausea because during the walk the suction from the NG tube has to be disconnected. This means the stuff that is typically being evacuated continuously from her stomach is allowed to stay there when the NG tube is not sucking and it builds up and makes her nauseated. (If your're interested, you can also check out her Facebook page to see an example of the green slime that is sucked out.) We have since requested that the dosage of her anti-nausea medicine, Zofran, be increased from 4 mg to 8 mg. Her standard dosage during her chemo from MD Anderson was 8 mg and the higher dosage seemed to bring more relief as the day went on. Before the night was over, she took another walk to the aquarium, back to and around the nurses station, over to 2Northeast (we're in 2 Northwest), back past the elevators and then back to the room. She's one tough cancer patient. It looks like maybe the treadmill borrowed from Mr. Buck before the surgery paid some dividends on helping to prepare her for her recovery.

But of course, the true highlight of the day for her was getting to talk to the children for the first time since Monday. We do miss them so. Hayden and Trevor's bowling plans at the Palace Lanes on Bellaire were foiled today by a private party so they enjoyed an outing to the Children's Museum with Aunt Carol and Grandma Denise while Grandma Carole had the pleasure of staying home with Miss Juliette. The kids are looking forward to this weekend when they get to see their big cousin Colin as Uncle Michael and Aunt Amy make the trek from Tyler to Houston for perhaps a day at the Downtown Aquarium or Discovery Green.

As I finish typing this LM is already sleeping peacefully thanks to the Benadryl. We pray for a quiet, restful night and another good day tomorrow. We thank everyone for continued support through prayer. Also, the comments on the blog and Facebook mean a lot to us being so far away. She is back in action on the Ipod and today began reading the posts and all the comments and that is good medicine, too.

And to Jennifer from Thousand Oaks, California, I, as Lisa Marie's husband and father of three young children who love and need their mother, owe you a special thank you for sharing your story with my wife through the colon cancer internet group and helping lead us to Dr. Sugarbaker. We feel so blesssed and hopeful right now and are confident that this is what we needed to do in order to have the joy of watching our children grow up and the two of us growing old together. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.