Difficulty following hospital instructions

Honest to goodness this is the sign on the wall of Kerry's recovery room.  He's had a hard time following the last goal -- but got to go home anyway.

The hernia surgery was not quite the walk in the park he had hoped for.  The doctor said the 2 hour laparoscopic surgery went well and now that he has some pain meds on board he seems to be doing pretty well.

So now 6 weeks of no heavy lifting -- he may have to get a light weight banjo.

Did someone say hernia?

One of the annoying side effects of the Interleukin 2 treatments is a lingering cough. Unfortunately, this severe coughing has resulted in Kerry developing a couple of small hernias.  If its not one thing, its another...

So this Friday Kerry will be going to the hernia repair shop for a bit of laparoscopic surgery to patch up the hernias before his next round of Interleukin 2. It will be day surgery and recuperation is expected within a week.

Thanks for your continued good thoughts and prayers.

More Good News

Yesterday Kerry had an MRI of his brain and the doctor said "his brain is perfect" (the doctor was busy so I didn't argue) and there is no sign of the little tumor that was there before the Gamma Knife treatment. The PET scan of the rest of his body showed no new tumors, a reduction in the size of the tumor in his liver and less (hardly any) active cancer cells in his liver.  So this means the Interleukin 2 treatments are working and he gets 2 more treatments starting later in July.  The doctor wants to give him time to recuperate from the last treatments so that hopefully he can tolerate more doses.

Thanks to all of you who have been sending good thoughts our way. We feel very lucky.

Maggie

May 24

Cycle 4, Day 4 -- So far 3 doses, but the side effects have been better today.  Less nausea and chills.  Also less neosynephrine needed to keep Kerry's blood pressure up. So even though he says he feels crappy, from the observer's perspective he looks better than last cycle. He'll have one more dose either tonight or tomorrow morning.

For those of you reading this and worrying because it seems a bit more sober  -- please don't read anything into it.  I'm just a bit distracted with getting Seth out of high school (yes, he's keeping us guessing up until the end about whether he can really finish the required work that he neatly neglected) and on the road to college (doesn't seem fare to have to start registration before you are done with high school).  Then there's the cold I have; the Senior Fete this morning where Seth danced with 20 other guys in a mock version of Swan Lake; tonight's music performance (Seth was in the drum line performing a piece called Garbage); and he leaves tomorrow for a 3 day music festival 5 hours away with kids we don't know (he is almost 18 so I guess we don't get to approve his play dates anymore).  So the Blog has been taking it in the shorts.  I apologize to those of you who rely on it for regular updates.  I'll do my best to keep it updated, though it may be "just the facts, mam" for now.

Keep those good vibes coming,

Maggie

May 22

Cycle 4 is going slowly.  Kerry has had 2 out of 5 possible doses of Interlueken 2 because his blood pressure has dropped quickly after each dose and taken awhile to get back to normal.  The doctor says this is normal and to be expected.

It is a bit strange being back for the 4th week.  We know most of the nurses -- which ones are great and which ones are not so great.  Kerry knows the hospital menu well enough to know that the changes they made since last time were not for the best.  And most amusing was the 20 minute video they made him watch telling him all about the hospital unit he is in.  He should have least had a walk on role in it since he's been here so much.

More later.

May 17

I've been taking a bit of a vacation from the blog.  I apologize to those of you who may have been waiting from updates. The problem is that there just isn't much to report.  Kerry is feeling better and is able to do the occasional chore or go for a short walk.  He's still feeling pretty tired though and is taking some nice long naps.  The only unusual thing is that he has started lifting weights -- or should I say cans (of beans).  Spending so much time in bed during the treatments has left his muscles a bit toneless. So he's fighting back and doing a little exercise to try to get back some muscle. He's starting slow with some small cans of beans -- and will probably build up to, who knows, jars of spaghetti sauce. Now this may sound a bit lame -- but to those of you who know him, this type of self directed exercise is highly unusual.  Frankly, I'm not sure what to think about it.

The next treatment starts next Monday.  More then.

May 4

Just a quick update.  Kerry is now finished with Round 3 of the Interleuken 2 treatment.  He finished  a total of 8 doses out of a possible 14 for the week.  He had a couple of days of shake and bake (bad chills and slight fever) followed by pretty low blood pressure. But Demerol, Neosynephrine, Neurontin and a few more medications too numerous to mention got him through the week.  It seems that his reaction to the IL2 is getting more severe -- which they say is to be expected.   So he was not disappointed when they told him this morning that he was done for the week. Hopefully he will come home tomorrow if they can wean him off all of the meds.

Even though he had a room with a tremendous view, we will all be glad for the week to be over and for him to be home where we only have a view of our small back yard. The sadly ironic thing about this great room was that they put the patient bed in a part of the room that didn't have much of a view.   And because he was hooked up to so many things, the bed was not mobile.  Every day I just shook my head and wondered what the hospital designers were thinking.  But I guess that's a minor complaint as long as they can get him through the treatment in one piece.