After harassing the webmaster enough, he finally addressed the problem of archiving on this page. Now, if you look to the right you will see a complete set of archived blogs going all the way back to 2/1/02--the day Susan had her major surgery. It has been kind of interesting for me to go back and read through these old pages just to see some of the ups and downs that we have experienced. For those of you who have been with us on this journey, we thank you for your interest and your prayers. I've received several emails this week from folks concerned about Susan's condition and the latest setbacks. I really appreciate knowing of your love and concerns, and I hope eventually to be able to reply personally. Right now, however, I'm a little busy.
I'm glad to report that we have returned to Ash Circle where Susan is currently napping in her favorite place: her "nest" on the sofa. She is weak, but feeling better I think than before we went in. As expected the new stents do cause some discomfort, but she is handling it well. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Shari and Jamie, possibly even late tonight, or more likely, tomorrow. Monday we will return to Dr. Savin's office to do a hydration/Mg/K check to see how the new stents are doing relative to the previous wasting problem.
In a previous post I noted that we would likely not be continuing the TLK286 at MDA. However, in a discussion I had with Dr. Savin yesterday, he agreed that the CT comparison he was doing was relative to an old scan done in January well before the TLK had time to kick in. It's possible that the disease progression he saw was BEFORE the TLK treatment. Just to be sure we are sending the films of the latest scans to MDA to let them compare with a more recent scan taken about 6 weeks ago there. Based on that comparison we will determine whether to go back for more TLK, or start something new with Dr. Savin. Thanks for your prayers during the second of two very hard weeks.
I am happy to report that Susan came through the procedure just fine. Both stents went where they were supposed to and Susan is recovering nicely from the anesthesia--even though they gave her a little demerol. (Those who have followed this blog know what demerol has done to her in the past.) Praise God for the answers to your prayers, and please continue to pray that the stents will do their job of relieving pressure on the kidneys and reduce the Mg and K wasting effect so that Susan can begin her new chemo soon. Thanks!
Dr. Norris came in this morning to indicate that he would be attempting to place plastic stents in Susan's ureters either at 11 AM or 4 PM CDT. We will appreciate your prayers that all goes well in this procedure. A lot will depend upon whether tumors are blocking access between the bladder and the kidneys. If he can see the openings in the bladder he will insert a "j-stent" which will uncurl in the kidney and the bladder, and which can remain in place for up to 5 months. If he can't do this with one or both of her ureters, she will also need to be scheduled to go to radiology--probably tomorrow--to do what is called a percutaneous nephrostomy. The latter is a much less convenient approach to draining her enlarged kidneys, so our prayer request is that this will not be necessary.
It is hoped--but not guaranteed--that unblocking the ureters through one of these means will improve Susan's kidney function, now thought to be at about 30-40% of normal. Restoration of kidney function should reduce the rate of Mg and K wasting, and reduce the need for infusions of these two elements. All three of Susan's doctors: Dr. Savin, Dr. Munoz and Dr. Farkas, agree that this procedure should be done and Susan has agreed as well. Dr. Savin's goal is to restore kidney function sufficiently that he can begin a new round of chemo using a couple of the agents that Susan has not yet tried: likely Gemzar and Taxotere. Your prayers for success of this new approach will also be greatly appreciated.
We just got the news that our dear friend Ray Berschauer has gone home to be with the Lord. It happened quite suddenly this morning as he was preparing to go with Sandy, his beloved wife, down to Baylor hospital where he was to have surgery to repair a damaged hip replacement. Susan's comment all morning has been, "I can't believe he's gone." Sandy has been so supportive of Susan during her illness, going with her several times to do wig shopping.
We'll never forget Ray's smiling face and genial manner every time you met him. It was hard to picture him as the tennis pro he was in his younger days, with a wicked forehand and backhand. Although we will miss him greatly, even now I picture him in the company of my mother and of another senior Town North member, Nelda Forres, as they together rejoice in the Lord in the courts of heaven. Please pray for comfort for Sandy, and their daughters Traci and Jamie.
Based on the latest CT scan it appears that we will not be going for more TLK286 treatments. However, before we close out this chapter of our lives, we want to acknowledge someone very special. Here's an email letter that Susan sent to M.D. Anderson today:
I'm unsure who to send this to, so I've selected "other unresolved issue." Please forward to the right management person. I'm writing in praise of Lisa Lewis, research nurse in the gynecological oncology department. During my 3 year struggle with ovarian cancer, I've met no one that can compare with her in terms of both compassion and competence. I'm sure that she would blush if she knew I was writing this, and she would be the last to seek out praise for herself. But I want M.D.Anderson to know what a jewel they have in the person of Lisa, and I hope they are treating her accordingly. During my 12 weeks on the clinical trial with TLK286 Lisa has been with me every step of the way. Giving me sound medical advice as appropriate, addressing my every concern, and most of all reaching out to me and my husband with caring and compassion that have literally brought tears to our eyes. We thank the Lord for bringing Lisa into our lives, and see her as His angel at MDA ministering to our needs. We know that two core values of MDA are compassion and excellence. Lisa is an exceptional example of both!
Sincerely,
Susan Dishman
Every day we think, "she'll be out this morning." It ain't happening. Every day they find something else to be concerned about. The first concern was Susan's "24 hour kidney output test," (at least that's what I call it). Unfortunately, they keep messing it up on their end. When Susan called me early this morning they decided they botched the first attempt, and would start over--after about a 12 hour investment in the first round. Then, when I returned at lunch from probate court (where I settled my mom's estate), they had botched the second attempt. Now the test is scheduled not to end until 11 am tomorrow. On top of that, since she was staying in anyway, Dr. Savin order the dreaded CT scan--requiring Susan to drink the indigestible barium compound. Ugh! Our hope is that the scan will settle the issue of what is causing the Mg and K "wasting" (as they call it) problems. After another rough night (she had fever, chills and nausea when I got here at 6:30 AM), she is doing better this afternoon, except for the after effects of the scan. We appreciate your prayers for all of the above.
For some reason I opened my Bible to the book of Habakkuk this morning. I was reminded that this “minor” prophet, like King David before him, was emboldened to ask “How long, O Lord?” In this case he complained to the Lord that He seemed to be idle while great injustices were being committed all around him. The answer Habakkuk received was stunning: I’m going to send the Chaldean army to wreak justice on my people, Israel,” said the Lord. It wasn’t the answer Habakkuk was looking for! Yet, when the dust settled, the Lord enunciates a principle to the prophet that in fact was the starting point for Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation: “the just shall live by faith.” (Hab. 2:4)
So it is that when confronted with events we don’t understand, like Habakkuk we fall back on that simple, yet profound truth: “the just shall live by faith.” That’s what we are doing today here in room 811 in Med City. Dr. Kerr wants to keep Susan for yet another day, primarily because her kidney function seems off. He is bringing in a kidney specialist to look at her and attempt to determine why the Mg and K levels drop so quickly. (Today, after an overnight infusion, they are both up into the normal range.)
We don’t fully understand why, in the Lord’s providence, these medical events are developing the way they are, but like Habakkuk, we commit ourselves to believing—in faith—that they are fulfilling the divine purposes of our loving Heavenly Father, and are not the random fluctuations of a hostile universe that doesn’t have us in mind. As Habakkuk puts it:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
All my efforts on Friday failed to produce a home health care agency willing and able to provide Susan with the necessary Mg infusion for the long weekend. Consequently, we arranged through Dr. Savin's office to come to the ER this weekend for the necessary blood testing and infusion as necessary. My model of her Mg falloff suggested that we could wait until Sunday to do this. Unfortunately, my model was wrong. Susan spent a rough night Saturday followed by a tougher morning on Sunday. We finally made it to the ER by Sunday afternoon, where the blood tests showed her Mg had fallen to an all time low of 0.8. Her K was low, also. No wonder she felt so bad (she was also declared to be dehydrated). By the time the covering doctor saw her, he decided that it would just take too long in the ER to administer sufficient Mg and K, so he admitted her back to the 8th floor of Med City. It was like coming home: all the nurses recognized her and made a fuss over her from her previous visit two weekends ago.
Mark and Peter came down with me and David called from Atlanta. After her fever spiked up to 102.3, they gave her tylenol and vicodin and she started to feel better again. We expect her to be released on Monday morning. On Tuesday we will make plans to get home health care infusions on a regular basis so that her levels don't fall so low.
My online dictionary says that the word “puree” derives from the French (sorry about that) word that means “purified.” That kind of reminds me of that verse from Handel’s Messiah that goes: “He shall purify.” That pretty much sums up the week. The one (and only) bright note has been that we were able to order from the Internet a supply of pureed frozen foods that Susan could eat. The Fedex truck pulled up yesterday afternoon with a Styrofoam container packed with dry ice and frozen meats such as steak, chicken, turkey and even meat loaf. These portions were all previously cooked and pureed, and then reshaped to look like the original. Susan had the steak, and said she really liked it: it tasted good to her after her diet of nothing but mashed potatoes.
My apologies to all who check this page daily. (Peter, now home from school says we get about 200+ hits every day.) I just simply haven’t had the heart to update it this week given all the negative news. Here’s a summary without going into the details. Basically, all Susan’s numbers are going in the wrong direction. When we got to MDA on Tuesday (thanks to George & Bev for driving us to Love Field), we found that Susan was ineligible for chemo because her platelet count had dropped too low. This was in addition to the magnesium, which had also gone into the critical range. Thus, Susan cannot have chemo of any kind unless and until her platelets recover—and there is no prediction of when that will be. There is nothing the doctors can give her to speed platelet regeneration. At the same time we are entering a phase where Susan will need infusions of magnesium about every 4 days. We are arranging home health care as I write this. In the meantime Susan’s pain level is increasing along with the need to take more pain medications. We will appreciate your prayers for all the above.
We were greatly honored and touched by our long time friends Curtis and Stuart Garner this week. We had hoped to be at the wedding of their daughter Melissa to her husband-to-be Kevin this weekend. Unfortunately, Susan’s condition didn’t allow it. Aware of this, the Garners placed the following paragraph in their beautifully prepared wedding guide:
“We want to remember Susan and John Dishman, who are unable to be with us today as they continue to battle Susan’s cancer. Their Christ centered lives provide an example for all of us to follow.”
We aren’t sure of how much an example we are—particularly after a discouraging week such as this one. We can only cling to the words of St. Paul, who after a similarly bad week said:
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. (II Cor 1:8-11 ESV)
No, I didn't mean "UFO." F.U.O. stands for "fever of unknown origin." (I was in the infirmary at Georgia Tech for a week with that "diagnosis" once long ago.) That's what we've been dealing with the last several days. This morning, for example, Susan woke up with a reading of 101.4. After a couple of tylenols and other anti-viral and anti-fungal meds that she is taking, it dropped to 98.3. This cycle of up and down has been going on now for about a week. After a very tough day on Thursday, the day after she was released from the hospital, Susan has been showing gradual improvement. The best news is that her latest blood work showed that everything--including the dreaded Mg reading--is in the normal range. This positions her to go to Houston on Monday for chemo on Tuesday. However, she won't be able to take it unless her temp is below 100.4, so we will have to do some fancy med administration to ensure that it's below that level before 8 AM when chemo is scheduled. We've also been able to keep the nausea mostly under control by administering the anti-nausea medication on a regular schedule. Finally, Susan's weekend was heightened by a brief visit from David, and a lunchtime interlude with David, Mark, Angie, Susanna and Lydia. We hope to make it to church tomorrow, assuming we can get Susan's fever down before church starts.
Susan had a better night, but she’s still running a temperature (102.4). Dr. Savin believes this is likely a “tumor fever” which he says stems from the tumor provoking the body’s immune system to do unusual things. They’ve done cultures twice, and these show no signs of infection. However, her Mg continues to be low. In talking to Dr. Savin about the nausea, he suggests taking Zofran before eating, and then eating small amounts all through the day. Susan is willing to try this. She’ll need to drink more, also, because the fever tends to burn off body fluids. We’ll attempt to control the fever with Tylenol. After she has her anti-viral meds (for her esophagus), her Zofran, her breakfast, and her Mg infusion, she’ll be discharged. At that point I will become her full time nurse. I will personally appreciate your prayers that I do an adequate job here. Thanks! (PS: see the latest post on Pop’s Page to see why my confidence is low on this point…..)
Susan's ickiness continued through the day, becoming very severe around midday, and occurring again this evening. It seems it might be connected with her eating. She has been enjoying larger meals (for her) than usual from the pureed menu at the hospital. It seems that about one hour after one of these meals she seems to get nauseous. That probably means she should be taking her anti-nausea pills right after eating instead of waiting until she feels queasy. At any rate given how much worse she felt today compared to yesterday, we decided with Dr. Savin's blessing to stay one more night.
Susan was clearly discouraged by today's events. It seems she is in a state of decline, and that's very disappointing to both of us. Tonight before I left for home she had me recite the Romans 8 passage I've been memorizing. For our closeout prayer we focused on that verse from that passage that reads: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry Abba, Father." As a small child sometimes struggles to understand why his daddy is doing certain things that are clearly for his benefit (such as a vaccination for measles), so we likewise struggle in our pain and discomfort to see our Abba's purposes. But we are convinced that they are for our good, even as a later verse in that same passage assures us that all things are working together for our good.
Unfortunately, Susan had a setback last night. Her temperature went back to 102, and she continues to experience pain in her esophagus. Dr. Savin offered a number of possible causes for this: the tumor itself can cause a fever that goes up and down; acid reflux caused by the pressure from the tumor; esophagitis from yeast or other agent; and so on. He plans to treat her for all the above and possibly discharge her this afternoon or evening. However, just as I was writing this she became quite nauseous. On top of everything else, her Mg is low again. They'll be supplementing her for this as well. She's filling pretty icky today, and quite a bit worse than yesterday. Your prayers will be appreciated.
Susan has had a pretty good day today. She even got up and toured her floor. "Messy," was her appraisal, "but the nursing staff is terrific." Her major complaint today has been that her esophagus continues to hurt. Eating makes it worse. The consensus seems to be that it is caused by reflux, but the Pepsid they give her doesn't last long. Dr. Savin promised Nexium tomorrow when he sends her home. He also indicated that next time she shows dehydration symptoms she can come into the office and get an infusion rather than being admitted to hospital.
After consultations with Lisa and through her to Dr. Kavanagh at MDA, we cancelled chemo for this week, with a target date of next Tuesday as the next (12th) treatment. Susan will have blood work on Thursday to ensure that she's up for the trip on Monday. Thanks for praying for her while she's been here.
Dr. Savin came by this morning and based on his visit Susan decided to stay one more day in the hospital. Though she is much improved from when she came in, she’s still fighting something since her temperature rose back to 100.0 this morning. “It could be a virus, since the cultures came back negative,” said Dr. Savin. “There’s a lot of stuff going around,” he added. In the wee hours of this morning they finally completed the second unit of blood and the phosphorus infusions. Her coloring is much better; in fact, she is absolutely and literally glowing from the added red blood cells they transfused. However, eating is still an issue for her and she has to struggle hard to get down minimal portions of the pureed diet they are feeding her. This is apparently a familiar problem for cancer sufferers, and our day nurse says that Susan’s case is typical: hospitalization for a few days to get electrolytes and blood counts stabilized, and then back to regular chemo. Speaking of the latter, we hope to target Thursday for our next chemo at MDA, but we are still waiting a call back from Lisa to confirm.
When Dr. Olivares came in this morning, he found Susan reading Bryan Chapell’s “In the Grip of Grace.” Immediately he wanted to know about it with its obvious Christian theme. In response Susan asked him what he liked to read. He replied that his favorite author was none other than Phillip Johnson, the Berkeley lawyer who has written extensively about evolution versus intelligent design in such titles as “Darwin on Trial,” “Reason in the Balance,” “The Right Questions,” and so forth. This was particularly interesting to me since for several years now I have been on Phil Johnson’s emailing list. Dr. Olivares went on to recount how he grew up in poverty in Columbia, deserted by his father, and then left homeless when his mother died of cervical cancer when he was a teenager. In anger against God for this tragedy he deserted the Roman Catholic faith of his youth and became a materialist and evolutionist, but eventually turned back to evangelical Christian faith as his medical training revealed the intricate design in the created universe. He views Johnson as “one of the greatest thinkers of the century, right up there with C. S. Lewis.” He then went on to quote several passages from Romans and essentially gave us a mini-sermon on creation, hope, faith and eternal life. It seems whenever we are in the deepest valleys, the Lord sends someone along like Dr. Olivares—who is at Medical City only 1 weekend out of 6—or Lisa at MDA, to give us comfort and encouragement that “He is here, and He is not silent” (to quote a phrase from the author Francis Shaeffer).
Regarding medical advice, the doctor picked up Susan’s Bible, turned to Genesis 1, and read verse 29: “And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.” He is a great believer in fruits and vegetables—based on this verse—for fighting cancer, and takes Juice Plus pills every day and gives them to his family. He also recommended a product Prosure as a nutritional supplement.
As I suspected, he wants to keep Susan one more day. Today she will get blood units and phosphorus supplements as well as continued K supplementation. Susan was encouraged by her dialogue with him, and continues to feel better and was even able to eat a pretty good (pureed) lunch.
I’m happy to report that Susan is doing much better this morning. Yesterday, as her temperature climbed to 102.5, she felt really bad and could hardly talk. Today, after a full night of rehydration, she is like her old self. The antibiotic brought her temperature down to normal. However, she still has a ways to go. Her white and red blood cell counts are still in the critically low range, as is her phosphorus. It’s likely that she will need some units of blood as well as additional nutritional and electrolyte supplementation. I expect that our trip to Houston will be delayed this week. We’ll know more after Dr. Olivares makes his rounds. Thanks for praying for us.
This morning Susan’s temperature began to climb, and her nausea increased. When her fever exceeded 101.5 we decided to call the covering doctor for Dr. Savin’s office. Dr. Olivares decided that it would be best to admit her back in Medical City (South Tower, Room 804). (We bypassed the ER this time and went in through regular admitting.) In his visit with her just now he noted that her K level had fallen considerably, as well as her red count being very low. She is also dehydrated. They will restore her electrolytes via an IV, and will probably have to give her two units of blood to combat her anemia. They’ve also done a couple of X-rays. The doctor is hopeful that all this will allow her to be released as early as tomorrow for our trip to Houston on Tuesday. However, he warned that it might take longer and we might have to postpone our trip to Houston this week. She is feeling pretty crummy right now, so visitors will be restricted to immediate family. In addition, the nurse just posted a warning sign on our door that visitors must adhere to strict hand washing rules before entering, and no flowers or plants are to be brought into the room because of the risk of infection due to Susan’s low white cell counts.
I’ll provide an update once we have more data in from the various tests they’ve done. Meanwhile, please pray that the various measures being done here in the hospital will restore her electrolyte and blood counts, and that she will feel like eating again.
Susan liked Dr. Olivares. He had a good sense of humor, and as he went over the 5 principles of fighting cancer we couldn't help but notice that his first principle was "faith in God." As he was leaving, he suddenly stopped and stared at Susan and said, "I can't believe you're as old as you say you are. You look like someone famous......now who is it." After a little prompting from yours truly, he said, "that's it: Audrey Hepburn!"
Back to the Hospital
John took Susan to the ER late this morning when her temperature reached 101, and it looks like they are going to admit her to the hospital. It appears that she may be somewhat dehydrated, and since she has the throwups, she is likely low on nutrients as well. We'll keep you posted as we know more - please continue to pray for rehydration, reduction in nausea and discomfort, declining fever, and no infection.
Susan had a lot of nausea and pain last night. We almost considered going to the ER. She toughed it out, however, and felt better this morning. Her temperature has fluctuated from 99.9 to 100.9 over the last day and a half. This afternoon she is starting to feel somewhat worse. Lisa just called with the Mg data which is quite good: up to 2.0 from 1.4 on Tuesday! Lisa is concerned that the fever might be from a bladder infection, a known side effect of the TLK. She wants us to go to the ER if it gets to 101. Susan will be taking regular doses of Tylenol to keep it under control. We will appreciate your prayers for: reduction in discomfort, a declining fever and no infection. The Mg level is a praise! Also, she no longer has symptoms of an obstruction. On the other hand dehydration is now a concern.....a proper balance is hard to strike!
I'm happy to report that Angie and the girls are safe in Oklahoma City after a tornado hit there this afternoon. They had gone there to be with Angie's dad, Glen, who had surgery to install a heart defibrillator. Mark talked to Angie a little while ago, and she said they were herded to the basement of Mercy Hospital in northwest OKC where Glen is recovering after the tornado warning. (The tornado went south of the city almost along the same track of the huge storm that hit on May 3, 1999.) Glen also seems to be doing well from his surgery. However, as I write this another supercell is heading for Ponca City where Glen and Sue live. We're praying that no tornado hits their house while they're away.
Susan has had a better day today, but is still running a temperature (100.3). She had her blood work done at the Plano Cancer Center, and the results indicated that she didn't need an antibiotic. Tomorrow we will get a readout on her Mg.
Susan is running a fever tonight: 100.6. This is above Lisa's threshold, so we called Dr. Savin. Given Susan's symptoms (hurts to swallow) he thinks it is likley esophagitis, probably from chemo & the other stuff she's been taking. We'll treat it with Tylenol tonight, and see if the fever goes down tomorrow before trying an antibiotic.
We caught that line from a reporter on Fox News as we whiled away the hours in our hotel room waiting for Mother Nature to work. (She did!) We both got quite a chuckle from it, since it pretty much describes our present situation—we’re together 24/7, and despite Susan’s insistence that I take off on my own for awhile, I can’t bear to leave her (except for an occasional bike ride) lest something bad happen while I’m gone. “It sounds like something Elwood would say,” I remarked, referring to my late father-in-law. He had the habit of using ironic statements to accentuate his observations about the human condition. Such as the time that the 4 grandsons decided to cross Lake Desoto to the mysterious “Snake Island.” “Before you go,” Paw-paw said, “be sure to pick out your 3 favorite church tunes.” He meant by this that we would need to have them to play at their funerals once they encountered the actual snakes on Snake Island. Undeterred, Mark immediately hollered out the numbers of his three favorite hymns in the (old) Trinity Hymnal. I think this caught Elwood somewhat by surprise, but he didn’t let on and just rolled his eyes and puffed a great cloud of smoke from his familiar Roi Tan cigar over Mark’s head.
I’m glad to report that we’re back home on Ash Circle after several rearrangements of our schedule with Southwest Airlines. Once again Tom demonstrated his friendship by rearranging his schedule to pick us up after the MDA folks decided we could leave even earlier than we planned. Susan will continue to stay on high doses of their various medications they prescribed with hopes that she will remain unobstructed. However, this “close call” helped us realize how precarious our situation is, and how much we need to follow the Lord’s admonition to “let each day’s trouble be sufficient for that day.” He certainly delivered us again from a scary situation. Thanks for coming with us before the throne one more time.
PS to Ash Circle neighbors: just after I completed writing the above the State Farm disaster team knocked on my door and declared my roof "totaled" from the last hail storm. You might want to check yours if you haven't already. I was surprised, and am not looking forward to another major construction event here at 3503!
The good news is that Susan received her chemo today. In addition, although low, her Mg and K levels were acceptable. The bad news is that—although she feels pretty well—she is showing signs of another obstruction. As a result we are staying an extra day (at least) to have her evaluated here. By tomorrow we should know whether more testing will be required, and whether we could do that in Dallas rather than here. We will appreciate your prayers for wisdom for the physicians as they make a diagnosis and for us regarding decisions that we may have to make as a result of the data that becomes available. Thanks!
Susan's temperature is down to normal now. However, she is showing other symptoms consistent with an obstruction. After consulting with Lisa we decided to go ahead with our trip today. Our friend Tom is subbing for Judy as our driver to the airport, for which we thank him very much! We will appreciate your prayers for us while we are in Houston, particularly that Susan's symptoms lessen and she is able to take chemo tomorrow. We also suspect that her Mg will be low again.
We were just getting ready to go out the door to morning worship today when Susan lost her breakfast. Then again, just as we were preparing to go to evening communion, I felt Susan’s forehead, and it seemed warm to me. We took her temp and sure enough, it was up to 100.1. We paged Lisa, and she said that if it goes past 100.4 to go to the ER. In the meantime she’s taken Tylenol and some other of her medicines that Lisa suggested. We will appreciate your prayers that her temperature comes down, her nausea goes away, and that she’s able to eat again. Her intake today has been very low.
I see from Peter’s blog today that he has found the “apparent” answer to yesterday’s “Mayday” question. I say “apparent” because of its admitted French connection. Who believes in anything French these days? Some of you may recall that “Dishman” is actually an Anglicized form of the original name of our earliest American Dishman ancestor: Samuel Duchemin. That French name literally means: “of the road”. (Recall when you visit Montreal or Paris that the “Rues” cross the “Chemins”.) Well, there was a good reason old Sam changed his name: he was a French Hugenot. Recall that hundreds of thousands of these French Protestants were killed in a single massacre on St. Bartholomew’s Day in 1572. So if Peter’s research is correct, perhaps there’s poetic justice in the fact that a couple of French words got hijacked into English to mean “help me.” Certainly there was no help coming to these innocent Protestant children, women and men as they were brutally murdered by their fellow Frenchmen. God bless America! (Sorry, got carried away there. Must be my French blood rising….)
Today we paid a visit to Dr. Savin, Susan’s oncologist for 13 years, beginning when she came down with breast cancer in 1990. You will recall that insurance issues forced us to change doctors in early 2002. These issues finally got resolved between Texas Oncology and Aetna, allowing us to return to Dr. Savin. He was very comforting to Susan. For example, Susan has been experiencing increasing abdominal pain lately. After examining her, Dr. Savin indicated that his impression was that this pain was not due to a mass, but rather probably gas pressure in a loop of bowel that had adhesions due to tumor. Simply taking simethicone could help with the pain. He also endorsed the approach I had discovered in a recent Japanese paper combining taxotere and gemzar. He says that he has been using this dual recently in other cancers, and that it was well tolerated. This could be an option for us should the TLK run out of gas down the road. In addition he will administer any Mg or K IV pumps up here in Dallas rather than our having to go to Houston for this. We agreed to see him again at the end of the month after the next CT scan at MDA. As we were about to leave, he recalled how Susan’s advice regarding his dyslexic daughter many years ago literally changed her life. “You're like part of my family,” he said, and hugged Susan three times. It was a good way to end the week.
Anyone know why “Mayday” is a cry for help in a catastrophe? That was a bit how we felt three years ago today after receiving the diagnosis from the surgeons. This May Day, however, is a more positive one. Susan had her blood work done today locally, and it showed her K was OK, and her Mg was only down to 1.4, which is good enough that MDA doesn’t want her to wear a pump this weekend. Instead, she will take massive quantities of MOM. By the way, in celebration of May Day I let Susan drive all by herself to the Cancer Center in Plano to get her blood work while I biked on a hot day here in Dallas. This was the first time she’s driven herself anywhere since late January, so it was a good sign of progress. In addition her swollen feet are back to normal.
We continue to get some interesting emails in response to the reports on this page. (We don’t compare to Peter’s blog and all about Angie, however. But oh yes, Jamie, I am one of the 3 readers of Peter’s page—and yes I do have plans for Coco-Puppy should she make it to Texas alive this summer….) Here’s a sample of some of the interesting e-letters.
Our friend Jeff from NJ helped us understand where the “K” came from as the designation for the element potassium. Its discoverer, Humphrey Davy, named it Kalium, hence the K. We seem to call it potassium since its most frequent natural occurrence seems to be as potassium oxide (K2O) known as “potash.” Jeff understandably wonders why we don’t then call it: “potashium”. Sounds good to me, Jeff. (But someone lately accused me of pronouncing the word “oyster” as “oyshter” so who am I to talk.) And by the way, congratulations on the new baby, new house and new teaching job! (You look great in kilts, but we won’t publish your picture here without your permission….)
Our neighbor Jennifer writes that she, too, is an Excel aficionado. She relates how her passion for the spreadsheet was useful when her daughter Jade had the chicken pox at age 7. She duly counted the number of pox and plotted them as an Excel graph versus time. Even as she was at the peak of her itching, the graph started going down and gave Jade hope. Jennifer goes on to say: “When I tell this story, most of my friends start looking at me in a strange way at this point......but I was sure you'd think this was normal.” Absolutely, Jennifer! I do this all the time…and I know what you mean about the looks—but that’s “their” problem.
Finally, my cousin Pat, musing about the terrible ant problem mentioned on the Angie blog has made the wonderful suggestion: “ Have you tried spraying them with Windex? Kills them on contact - is not harmful and when they are dead you can wipe up the ants and have a clean surface. Some window cleaners have ammonia in them - some don't. You might try different window cleaners. At least it would be quicker than 2 weeks!
Let me know if it works.” We sure will, Pat. Susan uses Windex everywhere (even, at times on me…) but never tried it on ants. Mark and Angie: take a lesson.
That’s it for today folks. To anyone who can best explain where the phrase “Mayday” came from, there will be a reward commensurate with the explanation!