Progress

Glad we have friends and siblings in our life like this!

The past two weeks have been quiet, and at times frustrating. We have been trying to get referrals to the UCLA lymphoma specialist. This has taken longer than it should have due to some changes with our health care group and our primary care doctor out on vacation for almost three weeks. The referral finally went through on Friday and I got the right person today, and he has an appointment on August 9th! The next MRI is going to be done on the 8th. They also want to see what the most recent MRI says. So, those two days are going to be big ones for us. Appreciate your prayers very much.

Thirty Two Years!

Wow! Did we have any idea thirty two years ago, what life had in store for us when we said our vows? I have thought a lot about those words the past week. For better or worse, in sickness and in health....

Who are those kids?

        

Thirtieth anniversary 2009.
 So glad that God gave us our life together.

And a little bit more

We are getting more information, just a little bit at a time. The visit to Dr. Cheng, Dwayne's oncologist in the area, was positive yesterday. It had been five weeks since Dwayne saw him. He was pleased with his balance, strength and speech. He also had an explanation for the swelling that Dwayne had last week. It is caused by the steroid that he has been on since March. He is tapering it off and will be completely done with it in a week. The next MRI will be done the week of August 8th. Dr. Cheng feels it is best to wait until six weeks after the radiation. He also will not decide the next step until Dwayne is seen by the lymphoma specialist at UCLA. We are waiting for the approval from the insurance for that.

Today we did get a call that there is an opening in the day program in the rehab unit beginning August 1st. The rehab doctor feels that he has progressed enough to go there instead of having the therapists come to the house. There is more the physical therapist can do with him there. He will go three mornings a week for three hours each time. 

Little bit more....

Dwayne went in for a nurse visit to flush the porta-cath in his chest this morning. This is not our primary doctor's regular nurse. I have only spoken to her on the phone and she has always been so much help. She was able to track down the CT report for us and followed up on the rehab request for us too. Love nurses!
The jest of the report was "no significant pathology is noted". But no explanation either. I am going to have a nurse friend look at some of the terms because I'm not sure what they mean. I did find out that the radiologist, the doctor who ordered the CT, actually got the report on the evening of the day it was done. Not sure why we did not get a call.

He has an appointment with his oncologist on Monday morning. So, maybe we tie a few loose ends up then. What a week it has been!

Again thanks to all of you for your concern and prayers. We sure appreciate them.

Well, we still have not heard anything on the CT. Kind of frustrating.

But, the visit with the neuro-oncolgist yesterday at UCLA was good. We saw the main doctor and were very impressed with him. He said we will know more after the MRI is done, probably in two to three  weeks. But his feeling is that even if the MRI shows all the lesions are gone, he thinks the best course would be to do follow up chemo. This would be two different drugs from what was originally used. One specifically used for lymphomas. He also is going to request that Dwayne see a lymphoma specialist at UCLA. On Monday, Dwayne will see the local oncologist again.

Thanks again for keeping us in your prayers.

Pray Please!

The past two weeks have been rather routine. That has been wonderful.

Had good visits with Dwayne's sister Kim and her daughter Laura, and then my sister, Kerri was down last week.  Enjoyed the time with them.

Dwayne is still having speech and physical therapy at home. We are waiting on approval to get him into the day program for rehab. He had a visit with the radiologist this morning. She was pleased with strength, speech and balance. But I mentioned to her that I thought an area around his neck looked puffy. She took a look and checked some other things and then said she was ordering a CT. We got it done this afternoon, no phone calls yet. Just praying that it is something simple.

Tomorrow is the day we see the UCLA doctors.