Wed, 17 Day Survival Update.

Hi Everyone, This is Bev. I have decided to give you all a lesson in reading nutrition labels. Here is what I learned this week. Ken is on a high protein, low fat diet, so we are reading labels like crazy. He is supposed to eat things below 20% fat or at least 25%. But when you read a label and it says 5 grams of fat, 17%. Be careful because the fat % listed is actually the total % of fat in a daily allowance, not the % in this particular product. Sometimes the label will say 100 calories and 20 calories from fat. You can use these two numbers to figure the fat % in this product. It would be 20%. But if it doesn't list fat calories, you have to take the grams of fat, say 5, times 9 (always times 9), it would be 45 and that is your fat calories. Then compare that number to the total calories in the product. If it is less than 20%, Ken can have it. So there is your lesson for the day. I am going to let Ken take over now and catch you up on what has been happening since Monday. Love you all. Bev

Okay, this is still Bev. Ken has been so busy answering emails, he's too tired to post tonight. But I want to give you an update. Ken is still doing his Chemo and we have been trying to stay hopeful. Monday was his half way point. So we celebrated by letting him go to work on Tuesday. He loved seeing everyone and had a good day. He worked for about 4 hours. But then we ended up in the ER at PVH at 8 PM to get his usual drain. We had a new Dr., Dr.Petrun and he was great. He used Ken as a training tool for all the students in the ER so we learned a little more about what is really happening. He told the students to look at the bottles of liquid and told them they probably wouldn't see it again, since this kind of leakage is rare. The doc was great to Ken though. He was quick and to the point, and didn't hurt him as much as usual. He was smooth. He said he had been doing these for about 30 years. We asked him his opinion of putting a catheter in so we could drain it ourselves and he said we shouldn't. The risk of infection is more than doing the drains. So we are just going to expect to have the procedure every 36 hours and we can deal with it.

We did have another scare. The oncology called on Tues to say that Ken's blood work showed some liver malfunctions, whatever that means. So we were in the imaging center at 7:30 today, Wed for an ultrasound. We were anxious about it, so during chemo, we had a chance to talk to his oncologist. First, the ultrasound came back great. All his lower organs looked great. No gall stones, no liver problems, they listed about 7 organs and all looked great. We were relieved. Then we talked to Dr. Kanard about expectations. Can we expect or hope that this will be cleared at the end of his 12 treatments? She showed me a pet scan of another patient of hers, before and after the same treatment. Her before looked a lot worse than Ken's and her after looked clean. After only 4 weeks. She is hoping for the same results from Ken. Let's hope. It gave me new hope. Keep praying. We are hearing your prayers.

Also, Ken is happy tonight. I took his mom to the store tonight and came back with fat free ice cream for him. He said it tasted like soft serve which he loves, so he is a happy man. I am happy too because I haven't been able to keep him fed today. He is eating everything I put in front of him. It is nice to see his appetite back. He is drinking water, Gatorade, caffeine free tea and lots of protein drinks. He has been a great patient today.

Ken is expecting to need a drain early on Thurs, and then he wants to go to work. He wants to make the management meeting at 1:30. Which will be great, because I can get back to work too. So that's our plan for Thursday, unless it snows in Winsdor. (That was Ken's inside joke for some gal that lives in Windsor, and it's not our daughter. But she knows who she is.)

And last item.... drumroll.... the correct answer to the current poll....
One treatment of Rituxin, just 1 four hour drip, 1 day, costs $ 7,150. Can you believe that? That is $85,800 for this first round. And it will be at least another $28,600 every 6 months for another two years. We were shocked. Can't imagine how much all these ER visits are going to add to that. But we went there just for fun so you could guess. We aren't really thinking about all that just now. Luckily, we have good insurance that is covering most of it.

Have a great day. Hug a friend today. Tell someone you love them and enjoy the snow if it comes. Bev and Ken.