More Ups Than Downs

Well, there is finally some good news! Sorry that I haven't written since Tuesday - I took Aubrey to the aquarium and King's Island and haven't been around a computer. On Wednesday Ryan's legs started to swell up greatly. Aubrey and I visisted Wednesday morning and he was pretty much the same as he had been Tuesday. During the day Wednesday, his legs began to swell more. When I came to see him last night, he was really swelled up. Although the swelling in his legs hasn't gone down much, I believe the swelling in his stomach has. He is able to pass some gas and had a small bowel movement today. Dr. Marinella was happy with his abdomen scans today, said they looked much better than the last few have looked. The surgeon was in and didn't stay long, but told him to keep doing whatever he was doing because it was working!

It will still be several days in here before everything is back to normal, but I truly think we are now on the up side of things. Keep praying that Ryan will make improvements each and every day.

-A

A Rough One

Today has been a rough day, more for me than for Ryan. His pain has pretty much gone away, he is still taking some pain medicine, about every 6 or 7 hours. He is coughing up some flim which is helpful for his lungs. Last evening they did some scans and found that from the inflammation that his colon had swelled shut in one spot. Most likely, all the swelling in his belly is caused because nothing can get out. They put an ng (?, not sure if that's the real term) tube in his nose to pump the bile out of his stomach. They are hoping that this process will help relieve the pressure in his stomach. They are watching his stomach closely and if things don't get better within the next 24-36 hours they may have to do surgery to remove part of his colon and maybe more. We don't really want to go down that road and we are praying that God will use all the procedures that the doctors and nurses have decided upon to relieve the swelling in Ryan's stomach.

Ryan's been on 2 or 3 liters of oxygen since he's been here last Friday. They had him off oxygen for a little while this morning while they were doing some tests and he did ok, but they thought that it might be best to keep him on one liter because when he's sleeping sometimes his oxygen drops. His blood pressure has been high and they were worried about his urine output this morning. His blood pressure has stayed high all day, but Dr. Marinella doesn't seem especially worried about that. They had to put a catheter in for the urine and he has made more urine since then, good news for the day. It is also not nearly ask dark as it had been the last few days.

I have had a rough day and in addition to praying that the swelling will begin to go down so that surgery is NOT necessary, I ask that you pray for me. I'm getting frustrated and I want Ryan back home to help me prepare for Aubrey's birthday. I know he wants to be there too, circumstances are causing frustrations right now.

-A

Resting

Ryan has been sleeping a lot today. He said he didn't get a lot of sleep last night because he's on so many antibiotics that they beep finished almost constantly. His stomach and legs have swollen up quite a bit. The doctor's say that that is a side effect of his bowel being messed up. When Dr. Marinella was in today he was a little worried that Ryan was on oxygen. They will be doing some chest and abdomen scans later this afternoon to check on his stomach. It looks like it might be a few days here in the hospital before they get him off some of the antibiotics and his stomach starts to look better.

Please continue to pray that all the infection is gone and that the pneumonia begins to get better. It could be several more days here in the hospital before he is even feeling like he could come home.

-A

A Little Recovery

Ryan is feeling a bit better today and he is now getting to have a clear liquid diet, so he was excited that he was able to have a popsicle today. His white count is up to 1.8 today and the doctors and nurses feel that once his white count recovers a little more that the inflammation around his colon will go down and he will begin to feel a whole lot better.

He didn't get a lot of sleep last night because they were in and out checking on him and he said he was awake about every hour. He is resting now, waking up and talking a while and then falling asleep again. Towards evening yesterday when he would stand or sit up his oxygen level would go way down and his heart rate would go way up. The nurse called the in-house emergency doctor to check on him and they did another chest x-ray and an EKG, but they thought everything looked fine. They believe that once he starts getting a little more than fluids in him and when he starts feeling a little better that those issues will resolve themselves. Please pray that that is the case.

He also has a bit of pneumonia and so they have treated that with antibiotics and he has a "pickle" (a green breathing apparatus) that he breathes into when he can to help break up the infiltrates in his lungs.

He is feeling better, but he still has a little ways to go before he will get to come home. Please pray that the doctors and nurses continue to be conscious of him and watching his numbers. Please pray that each and every day he will continue to get better and gain strength back. Please pray especially for Dr. Marinella as he works to decide what the best course of action to take after Ryan is recovered.

Thanks to everyone who is on our side. We appreciate you all.

-A

One Week Too Early

Well, Ryan has landed back in the hospital. He is at Miami Valley with pain in his abdomen. We went to Wayne Hospital this morning and he had a slight fever, but then started complaining about pain in his abdomen. Dr. Marinella talked to Ryan on the phone and decided it would be best that we head down to the Valley. They transported Ryan by ambulance, I drove down. When we arrived, his temperature had gone up a little, Dr. Marinella was waiting on him. He examined and told us what is possibly could be. He ordered him pain meds and at CT scan. When the results of the CT scan came back they found that his colon is enlarged. This is caused by a combination of things - the drugs from chemo, having low counts for such a long time (this whole week), a bacteria, being dehydrated. So, he is on antibiotics and heavy pain medicine.

Unless something goes bad, this problem will solve itself when his white counts return to "normal" levels. So, it will take a couple of days for his counts to recover. He is in pain. Please pray that the pain meds will do their job and allow him to sleep. He was very heavily sedated when I left tonight.

This also means that Dr. Marinella has to make some decisions about his last round of chemo because the drugs he will be getting the last round can cause this exact problem again and he doesn't want that. Pray that he will decide wisely what should be done.

-A

A Bit Tired

Ryan is feeling tired today. After his blood draw yesterday the doctor's office called and set up plans for him to get blood tomorrow. His hemoglobin was getting low yesterday, but not low enough to give blood yesterday. I think he probably needed it today because he has taken 2 naps and not felt much like eating this evening. He is actually already in bed and he has a slight fever, which I'm praying will go down with some rest and liquids which I'm making him drink. It is not to the critical point yet that he has to go to the hospital and I hope it doesn't get that far this round.

I am quite ready to be finished with this and I know that Ryan is too!

-A

Only 2 lumbar punctures left!

I have to say that although we had to go to Good Sam North and Miami Valley today, this was the best doctor's visit that we've had. Although things took all day, we didn't have to wait around when we got to either place and things went smoothly. Ryan got his shot of vincristine and then his lumbar puncture all today. Dr. Marinella decided last round that he can do that all in one day, so we spend the whole day driving around, but we only have to do it once instead of twice like we were.

Ryan is a little tired, especially after he helped Russell sand the upstairs floor on Saturday, but he's feeling pretty good. Our upstairs is coming along nicely. If we keep moving at the pace we're moving then I think we truly will be finished by Aubrey's birthday. We're almost ready to start cleaning up all the dust and dirt and putting the crib together and decorating. I'm getting excited!!

Please continue to pray that Ryan's counts go up like they're supposed to and that this platelets and red blood cells keep in normal levels.

-A