Weekend Update

This is Bev, writing to catch you up on Ken's progress. WE ARE HALF WAY. Ken is sleeping at the cancer center right now as they drip benadryl and Rituxin into him. I am sitting with him, waiting to talk to his doctor. Today is the 6th of 12 initial treatments. Yeah. I read his post from earlier today and realize he is trying to stay positive and doesn't want to bore you with the technical stuff. So guess that's my job. If you don't want the nitty gritty, skip this post. But for the kids and the others that want to know, this is what really happened this weekend.

We had a great Sat. Ken rode around with me while I went to the bank, the post office and then we went to Lowes. I put him in the wheelchair and pushed him around. He was very emotional and couldn't quite get a handle on it, but being out together was great. We stopped for a grilled chicken salad lunch and then went home for a nap. During dinner he said he was starting to feel full in his lung cavity. I was hoping we could have 1 day without going to the hospital, but no luck. We were at MCR from 9:00 - 12:00 PM. They drained 4 bottles and he felt better. We thought it would help him feel better like he did on Sat am.

But Sunday, he woke up with his right arm hurting and it was swollen, so we called the surgeon and ended up at PVH by 10 am. Ken was told it was an infection, probably in his surgery site, or his chest tube site, so he had to elevate his arm and put a heating pad on it for 24-48 hours. They gave him an antibiotic and made him stuck to the chair for the rest of the day and it was hard for him to do anything with only 1 arm. But we had a nice visit from Heidi and Xander and Ava. Heidi is a nurse, so she gave us some advice on him headaches and his infections. And it was great seeing the kids. Ava is adorable and Xander was very well behaved. He is a good kid.

But the highlight of the day as Ken said in his letter was the web viewing with Katy, Mark and Norah. It was so fun. Ken and I were both crying and so happy to see her. She has grown so much. We wanted her to just come thru the computer so we could hold her. She won't even know us when we get to see her next. At least now we have figured it out and can see them more often now. It was great. Her first formal pictures are on the way and we hope we get them today. It made Ken very happy to be able to see Norah. Me too.

Then this morning, Ken had to be at MCR for another draining at 7:30 this morning. Dr. Peters took just over 6 bottles of fluid out of him. Then we came here for his chemo treatment. They are running his blood platelets here and told us his protein levels are very low. Go figure. All his protein is going into the bottles they are draining from him. So, I have to push more protein drinks which he really doesn't mind, but he is sick of them. He misses his Coke. He can have Coke, but understands that the caffeine isn't helping him, so he hasn't had much for a couple of weeks. I have been making him decaf tea, but he can only drink so much tea and water and protein drinks. We have tried Gatorade, smoothies, and odwalla chocolate protein drinks. That seems to be his favorite.

We are hoping that he can get some rest today and come to work tomorrow for a couple of hours. His doctors say that if he is feeling strong enough, it will be good for him. So we'll give it a try. I hope he just sits in his office and catches up with his staff.

That is the nitty gritty of it all. We are taking the steps to get him healed. If you know of any great high protein, low fat (20% or less fat is best), meals or drinks, let us know. We are open to suggestions. We stopped into Supper Supers on Sat and they have some meals that look good, so we may start getting a few of those. Ken never has liked my cooking, or maybe it's me that doesn't like to cook. Maybe both. It is mostly hard to get Ken to eat. He gets distracted and not interested. He is trying.

Well, we are almost done with the 6th Rituxin. We are waiting till tomorrow to find out what the pulmonary experts want to do with Ken. 13 of them are meeting tomorrow to talk about Ken and his leakage. They are talking about putting in a catheter that would allow us to drain him at home instead of going to the hospital every other day. (We actually made 6 trips there in the last 7 days.) The catheter sounds great, but there is a big risk of infection with the chemo Ken is getting. So having a foreign object in him is a little dangerous. The 13 docs are discussing it and hopefully will make the right decision. So we will let you know how the week goes. Hope you are all having a great day. Email us and let us know what you are all up too.

Love to you all, Bev and Ken.