Back in at Strong

This morning I took Joe back into Strong Memorial emergency as he was experiencing abdominal pain again and was quite distended. He had not been feeling well for the last few days and said that his stomach felt like it was going to 'explode'. After sitting in the emergency room for several hours and having another X-Ray of his abdomen, the doctors determined that he once again has peritonitis, another infection in his abdomen. If it's due to the ascites that is still accumulating or the peritonial catheter that that he has inserted - we don't know. He is back on antibiotics and was admitted after a mere 13 1/2 hours of wait! I think that the worst part was being taken out of a room and placed in the hallway for an hour...or maybe it was when they threw out my sister who came to give me a sandwich...either one qualifies for the worst treatment award! But thanks Toni, I was starving!

He is on the 4th floor, 1200 unit, green elevators, actually a very nice area. The rooms are large and the staff appears to be great. The infectious disease docs are pondering whether to leave the catheter in place or remove it......albiet I don't know what we'll do as the ascites continues to collect without the 'tap'. Either way we'll have to have a plan in place to keep him comfortable.

Today was suppose to be the day that we found out the results from his cat scans on Monday. As predicable for Joe, the cat scan machine broke down after they scanned his head and he was forced to wait over 2 hours for the engineers/mechanics to fix the machine. My dad took him and had to wait in the waiting room all this time! The machine got fixed - Joe got scanned - and the machine broke down again. Dr Kohli was able to tell us only that he got the results of the head CT - and that looked normal. Phew. What we're most concerned about is the pelvic region as that is where the cancer has gone in his bones. Hopefully tomorrow they will have additional news - and it will be GOOD news!!! :-) We certainly need a little sunshine!

I don't know how long Joe will be in the hospital but he's pretty bummed because tomorrow is Tom's 16th birthday (my dad's and Ann M's birthday, too!) and he's going to miss it. But, we'll all gather up there to do a little celebrating that our youngest is now (gulp) able to drive!

So, please send positive thoughts and prayers to Joe - to clear up this ascites as well as good news from the cat scan. It appears that we'll have to go down the third path and surgically repair the ascites leak - thank goodness for Dr Ray Lanzafame who is proficient at laproscopic surgery and is researching and willing to perform it, if Joe is stable enough to withstand it. More news on that as we determine our options.

Thanks for all your cards and letters - Joe is very appreciative of them all. Thanks Maria for dinner - it was WONDERFUL!!!

Love
Vicki, Gina & Tom