Another LA trip completed

Another long LA trip completed. Mary Ann and I did the trip this time. She is a good friend of Val’s that is in from Michigan this week. The Hotel was marginal but for the price we could not complain. We did have to ask for Soap, which is a good sign you are at a budget rate Hotel. Dr. Lo the Stent Doc is another very talented Dr. at Cedars Sinai. He went in and placed a stent in Val’s Right lobe of her Liver, which drained a bunch of Clear fluid. Dr Lo said “it is clear and not yellow because the right Lobe has not been draining and the body shut it down”. It just shows we really have no idea what is truly going on inside her body. Her Bili total has been very normal so we assumed that her current stent and Liver was working fine. Well it was for only half the Liver. When he drained the right side he thought the first Stent was a bit to long so he changed it to a little shorter length one. He also placed a second Stent in her Left Lobe. He believes the Stents will clear up her reoccurring infections, but did not see any Puss or Coloring. If you look at the Liver as a big Tree, he did say there was one small branch of the liver that could not drain and that there was a very small amount of fluid left in. He said it would have been to hard to drain today but if there is a problem in the future he could insert a Stent if needed. He stretched a lot of the liver with the Stent placement had said she would be sore for a couple days. He put her on Oral Zithro to help fight the infection. Believe it or not this was good news given the fact she has been on IV antibiotics, which take up much more of her time. She could not eat anything today, which is not good. She was 128 lb going into the Gallbladder surgery 3 weeks ago and is now down to 112lb. She was very hungry tonight but they said Clear liquids only. The goal is to have her eat has much as possible to get her weight back up.

We need to get her back on Chemo since she has been off for 4 weeks now. She needs to have some good days were she gets her normal energy level back and feels good. She will get there it just takes time for the Gallbladder and Stent surgery to heel.

The Kids are back in School it’s nice because they are not bored during the day, but there is the reading and homework in the evening that we need to stay up on. It was a challenge tonight, Ryan knows that things are not 100% with Mom and he was demanding that Mom would read with him. Val, on her back in Bed was doing his reading with him tonight. She is a very incredible person who will do any thing for her Kids.

Please pray that:
-Val’s fevers / infection dose not come back
-Her body heals fast from the Stents and the Gallbladder procedures
-Her Chemo can get started back up very soon with minimal side effects
-Her Mental state can get better; our phrase is to “Get out of the Weeds”
-She can eat full meals with no Nausea and her body will put the weight back on she lost.
-Our House can get back to a somewhat normal state and the Kids minds can be at rest.

It feels good to be Home.

Thanks for everyone’s support!!

-Chris