Back from Vacation...Back to Reality

On June 20th, James and I headed to KY to visit family and relax on the house boat!  We enjoyed a week long stay with Stan and had a great time fishing.  On Sunday, June 24, we had a big (57 family member) fish fry at Granny Abell's house.  I will post pics soon.  We came home Tuesday, June 26.  I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday then reality set in!


Let me interject here...during our trip, James had some mild pain on his side while we were gone and his last chemo treatment was May 21.


Friday evening, I get home from work to find James complaining of pain and discomfort in his belly.  We eat a light supper and chill for a while.  Around eight thirty, James says he thinks his belly is getting bigger.  It is much bigger, firm and tender to touch.  I contact Dr. C and we head to the ER for blood work and CT.  The CT showed a large collection of fluid in James' abdomen.  He is admitted and a paracentesis is ordered for Saturday.  The CT also revealed increase in size of all tumors, new tumors and new lymph node involvement. This news hit us hard.  Much harder than we expected...


Saturday nearly comes and goes before the procedure to remove the fluid.  Once the doc arrives from downtown, nearly 3L of fluid is removed from James' abdomen.  Almost six pounds.  He felt immediate relief from the pain in his stomach but severe spasms in his back are now a problem.  The back pain kept him up most of the evening.  At 2 AM this morning, James experienced the worse pain he's ever been in.  His back was locked up and having intense spasms.  When the internal medicine doc came in this morning, she thought kidney infection or stones.  That is not the case.  We are now waiting on another type of scan to find the source of his pain.  


Though she has not been on call, we have been in touch with Dr. C and she will see James tomorrow.  He should be discharged from the hospital and get set up for a new chemo sometime this week. 


I do want to speak of a blessing - James and I haven't had a church home.  Through our married life, we have tried different places and attended church but never had a home.  Recently, we started attending Dacus Baptist Church and I feel we have found our home.  We have been welcomed and loved from the first day we attended.  We were kept in constant prayer long before that.  Today, our pastor came to see us.  Our church family prayed for us.  I feel in my heart, we now have a home.


For all the bad and wrong, we have that and so much more to be thankful for.  Please continue to pray for comfort for James and a quick discharge.  I will update again soon.