I am sorry I was unable to update the blog yesterday. It was a bad day.
Marianna's fight is not going as we had hoped. It is essential to contact us before contacting the hospital please. Let us bring you up to speed so Marianna does not have to.
You can reach us at:
Richard 714-292-0045
or
Cynthia 714-292-0042
Thank you for your ongoing support, we are all going to need each other.
CW
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, November 26 morning update
Frustrating. Dr. Schlessinger called this morning, while Marianna's abdomen is healing nicely, her lungs continue to be a challenge, and her breathing is getting worse. Even more frustrating, I have caught the flu bug the boys had over the weekend, and cannot see Marianna. She has banished all of us (Ward family) from the room, in case any of us are "carriers", and while we cannot blame her, it does not make it easy when ee know she is struggling again. We are keeping up with the nurses and doctors by telephone, and may send Cynthia to stay with her if warranted. All we can say is please keep praying, her lungs have to stay strong for the chemo. Sorry for such a bummer report when we are trying to gear up for the holiday. I comfort myself with the knowledge that the Lord had every opportunity to call Marianna home last week, and especially over the weekend, indeed on Friday night/Saturday morning we believed He was doing just that. But He chose to heal her then, and I have to cling to the belief that He has a plan for her future and will work this out.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday morning, November 24th
Today is our daughter Elizabeth's 20th birthday, with extra celebratory appeal that we have Marianna to share it with! We will visit tonight with the whole family and Gelato so she can participate.
While visiting last night the cardiopulmonology kid (they keep getting younger) mentioned Marianna had mucus in her lungs when he listened. I'm sure they will get it taken care of, but if you are going to call please listen for her to get tired or winded. I suspect she feels so much better that she is overdoing it. By all means call, but as usual, keep it short and really listen for her breathing, OK?
Thanks to all.
CW
While visiting last night the cardiopulmonology kid (they keep getting younger) mentioned Marianna had mucus in her lungs when he listened. I'm sure they will get it taken care of, but if you are going to call please listen for her to get tired or winded. I suspect she feels so much better that she is overdoing it. By all means call, but as usual, keep it short and really listen for her breathing, OK?
Thanks to all.
CW
Sunday, November 23, 2008
What a Difference a Day Makes!
Wow! Amazing! I would call our girl's recovery unbelievable, but then it IS Marianna. We have heard back from all of her doctors, they are all THRILLED at her progress. The collapsed lungs are back and working on their own, the bowel is working, and she is sitting up running the hospital from her bed. So if ya wanna chat, have at it. If she is tired, she will shut off her phone. Just try to keep it short still, and listen for her struggling for breath.
She will need to stay for at least another week, but then if she is doing this well they can start a low dose round of chemo and begin beating back the cancer! She will need to stay there for that as well, it sounds like. So we have some time before she comes home, but that's OK, she will come home to us when she can.
I have to share what she would call a "Grammie story". On Friday night, Marianna was out and out delirious, the Adavan really made her not herself, and she spent the night talking to people who were not there. She needed someone to be with her all night, to keep from pulling out tubes and wires. To say it was the low point was an understatement. But in her confusion, talking to someone clearly not in the room, we heard her mutter, "But we don't let little things like that bother us, do we?" Even in her worst time, she was still Marianna. And God Bless her for it.
She will need to stay for at least another week, but then if she is doing this well they can start a low dose round of chemo and begin beating back the cancer! She will need to stay there for that as well, it sounds like. So we have some time before she comes home, but that's OK, she will come home to us when she can.
I have to share what she would call a "Grammie story". On Friday night, Marianna was out and out delirious, the Adavan really made her not herself, and she spent the night talking to people who were not there. She needed someone to be with her all night, to keep from pulling out tubes and wires. To say it was the low point was an understatement. But in her confusion, talking to someone clearly not in the room, we heard her mutter, "But we don't let little things like that bother us, do we?" Even in her worst time, she was still Marianna. And God Bless her for it.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Big Victory! WooHoo!!!
Get our your best Southern Baptist accent for a great big THANK YA JeeZus!!!!
Dr. Tran (pulmonologist) was able to remove a LOT of mucus from her lungs, which will let her breathe. I will be honest, if they could not do that, we would have no choice but to honor her wishes and let her come home on Hospice to say goodbye. It was that bad. Her lungs and the tube in her nose were so miserable that she had to be sedated with medication that made her essentially incoherent. We have never had a more heartbreaking 24 hours in our lives.
So we are up and over a MAJOR hurdle! Next step is to get her bowel to work. Until both her lungs and bowel are functioning on their own and she is healed from surgery, Dr. Park cannot start chemo, so we are in a race to get her body better before the cancer gets worse. So keep praying because it is working! We have a long way to go, but right now it at least looks like we are moving in the right direction!
She will still have a very sore throat for a few days, so i will let you know when she is ready to talk on the phone. She may even call out if she feels up to it, and again, if she calls out try to do a lot of the talking and keep it short, save her from herself please!
One of the big things we need to fix is the despondency she was in, so IF she continues to do well we MIGHT be able to get a few of you in for very short visits. Again, what she is like in the morning is not always the story in the afternoon (it has been a real roller-coaster ride) so I am reluctant to make promises, but if you want to visist, please call me and I can let you know how that might work, or not.
Thanks again, y'all must be really good at prayer, because something is working!
CW
714-292-0042
Dr. Tran (pulmonologist) was able to remove a LOT of mucus from her lungs, which will let her breathe. I will be honest, if they could not do that, we would have no choice but to honor her wishes and let her come home on Hospice to say goodbye. It was that bad. Her lungs and the tube in her nose were so miserable that she had to be sedated with medication that made her essentially incoherent. We have never had a more heartbreaking 24 hours in our lives.
So we are up and over a MAJOR hurdle! Next step is to get her bowel to work. Until both her lungs and bowel are functioning on their own and she is healed from surgery, Dr. Park cannot start chemo, so we are in a race to get her body better before the cancer gets worse. So keep praying because it is working! We have a long way to go, but right now it at least looks like we are moving in the right direction!
She will still have a very sore throat for a few days, so i will let you know when she is ready to talk on the phone. She may even call out if she feels up to it, and again, if she calls out try to do a lot of the talking and keep it short, save her from herself please!
One of the big things we need to fix is the despondency she was in, so IF she continues to do well we MIGHT be able to get a few of you in for very short visits. Again, what she is like in the morning is not always the story in the afternoon (it has been a real roller-coaster ride) so I am reluctant to make promises, but if you want to visist, please call me and I can let you know how that might work, or not.
Thanks again, y'all must be really good at prayer, because something is working!
CW
714-292-0042
Small Victories, We Will Take Them Where We Find Them
Dr. Schlessinger (surgeon) called. He is concerned at the lack of "sparkle" in our girl, which has us concerned as well. We've never seen her like this. The good news is, he is removing the gastric tube that was snaked down her nose into her stomach, and was her greatest discomfort. So that should give her MUCH more comfort today. He will also let her have a drink of water, which does not seem like a big deal, until you go without it. So the quality of her day should improve, and we are grateful for that. Will report in after they check her lungs, but wanted to be able to say something positive for once.
CW
CW
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday evening, November 21
Not good. That's all I can say about today. Marianna's lungs continue to fill with the fluid that the cancer produces, and she struggles to breathe. She has begun to panic from not breathing, and the hospital has now put her on Adavan (I think I spelled that right) it is a heavy duty tranquilizer. She is really, really out of it now. You do not want to see this, and I am sure she would not want to be seen in such an undignified condition. Please do not visit right now. And clearly phone calls cannot go through, she cannot breathe to talk. I'm sorry.
Tomorrow (Saturday) the pulmonologist will do another procedure to look into the lungs and see if they can do something to help her. I will update again when that is done. We will also be asking Cynthia (caretaker, not daughter in law) to stay at the hospital to help care for her, you know how she is, she will not ask for anything, and refuses to "bother" the nurses. We try to be there to help, but we cannot be there full time, but we know she will let Cynthia help her, which helps us.
I hate to say this on a blog, but you need to know. The doctors need her lungs AND bowels to heal and function on their own in order to treat the cancer, but the lungs and bowel are likely affected by the cancer, so we have a closed circuit of misery right now. Marianna is tired of doing this. Being fed by tubes and emptied by tubes and having tubes breathe for her is the very thing she always feared. We need your prayers now more than ever. This lung thing needs to be resolved. Otherwise we have agreed to respect her wishes, and let her go home. It is going to be the toughest weekend of our lives.
Thank you all for your prayers, and your kind words. We are printing emails and comments to take to her as encouragement, and so very, very sorry we cannot ask you to encourage her in person. Please pray that they can deal with her lungs tomorrow so we can get her back in action and let her visit with the folks she loves so very much.
With all of the family's love,
CW
Tomorrow (Saturday) the pulmonologist will do another procedure to look into the lungs and see if they can do something to help her. I will update again when that is done. We will also be asking Cynthia (caretaker, not daughter in law) to stay at the hospital to help care for her, you know how she is, she will not ask for anything, and refuses to "bother" the nurses. We try to be there to help, but we cannot be there full time, but we know she will let Cynthia help her, which helps us.
I hate to say this on a blog, but you need to know. The doctors need her lungs AND bowels to heal and function on their own in order to treat the cancer, but the lungs and bowel are likely affected by the cancer, so we have a closed circuit of misery right now. Marianna is tired of doing this. Being fed by tubes and emptied by tubes and having tubes breathe for her is the very thing she always feared. We need your prayers now more than ever. This lung thing needs to be resolved. Otherwise we have agreed to respect her wishes, and let her go home. It is going to be the toughest weekend of our lives.
Thank you all for your prayers, and your kind words. We are printing emails and comments to take to her as encouragement, and so very, very sorry we cannot ask you to encourage her in person. Please pray that they can deal with her lungs tomorrow so we can get her back in action and let her visit with the folks she loves so very much.
With all of the family's love,
CW
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