Disappointing

The CT scan shows that the nodules in the lungs, otherwise known as the bacterial infection have been unaffected by these past four weeks of IV antibiotics. In fact, the nodules are larger today than they were a month ago. We are currently waiting to hear from the infection spec. about what to do next. We're told there are many factors involved when dealing with infection when the patient is "immune suppressed" making it more difficult to hit with the best antibiotic.

Our hearts sank as we listened to these results. Mostly because this postpones the chances of a transplant, and at least four weeks have been wasted--the best we can tell. We hope to learn more soon. But now it's the weekend.

We're going to Booker in the morning to spend Sat. and Sun. with Amber, Steve and kids. Kyler turns 13 on October 31st, and there's lots going on in that little town for Halloween.

Love you all,
Kim

Scan Tomorrow

A CT scan is scheduled for Thurs. afternoon, and we'll get the results Fri. morning. We're really anxious to see what this scan shows. Of course, we hoping it shows the lungs to be clear of all infection. In other words, we're hoping it shows nothing.

The latest development: the liaison from Maryland called today; we've scheduled a phone interview with the transplant Dr. for Monday afternoon. Can it possibly be--we're slowly inching closer to the possibility of the transplant?

Ray continues feeling great. We sometimes forget he's still dealing with an illness. These past two days he's been doing some maintenance on a couple of the Catholic School buses. One of the buses is really testing his patience, making him want to pull his hair out. Oh wait, he doesn't have any hair!

Love you all,
Kim

Blessed Weekend

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend. We certainly have. Ray has been feeling so good, at times we tend to forget all this is going on. His hair is growing back, his color is good. As always, his appetite is good. I need to get another picture of him on here.

He is very pleased with the way the auction went. There was a great crowd. The auctioneers even commented a couple times to me about the good number of registered bidders there. However, it was really hard seeing all his equipment being parted out. It's one of those "smile when you want to cry" experiences. Friday and Saturday were pick up days for items bought to be loaded out of the shop. This afternoon, we stopped by the shop, I think just to see if it were really true. The building is completely empty. Lots of mixed emotions through it all.

The appt. with the oncologist last Fri. went well. Blood counts all good. Just a few more days left of the IV antibiotics. A CT scan is scheduled for Thurs. afternoon, we'll get the results Fri. morning. We pray that bacterial infection in the lungs is outta here, so he can be finished with the IV therapy.

We had eight of Mary's classmates here for a slumber party Friday night. There was much giggling and activity as you can imagine. It really did our "ole" hearts good. The girls seem to have a great time too.

Thanks again for your continued prayers!

Love you all,
Kim

Marathon

I want to tell you all about something very exciting. My neice, Melissa (Barbara's daughter) is training to run her very first marathon in Houston, this coming January. She's raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and she's running in Ray's honor. You can check out her sponsorship page by clicking on http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/houston10/mrigas
Wow! 26.2 miles, that's a long way! God bless you, Melissa!

Ray continues doing well. The four hours of antibiotics each day is getting really old for him. He's counting the days for this to be done. He's been at his shop quite a bit the past few days. His auction will be Thursday.

Mary's birthday is today. She's planning to have some friends over on Friday. N0thing could be more exciting for this 9 year old!

Love you all,
Kim

Busy Weekend

Our weekend was a busy one, but a great one. We had a good time with Katie and Veronica here. Neal, Colleen and Seth (and Rascal, too!) were also in town. They were in and out several times and last night we all went to Eric & Leona's for hamburgers. My Mom and Hugh made it up for that, so we got to see them too. We stayed until about 9:00, and then we had to get Ray back home so he could get hooked up to his hose.

The alternator in Katie's car went out just as they were driving into Wichita Falls Friday night. She and Veronica even ended up pushing the car a short distance to Neal's house. Katie called Neal, who was in Amarillo, and he told her where the keys were for his pickup, which she ended up bringing to Amarillo. Thank you ,Lord for Neal! (we don't say THAT very often) Ray sure hated the thought of the car broken down, and nothing he could do about it. You know how he is about fixin' things.

Love you all,
Kim

Daily Grind

Yesterday and today's blood work both look good. Still making some minor adjustments on some of the meds. It can be most frustrating with the daily routine (grind) of meds. and appts. Somedays it's really hard to not let it get you down. Here's a brief rundown;

-four bags of IV antibiotics daily for bacterial infection in lungs
-daily meds for high blood pressure (due to the chemo)
-blood thinner/daily
-steroid/daily
-chemo once a week
-pain killers as needed
-"Now, Mrs Huseman watch that incision, (nearly 12") and make sure it doesn't get infected"

Ray was questioning today as to whether or not he made the right decision to let the surgeon do the lung biopsy three weeks ago. The recovery is taking its toll. It's hard not to look back and keep pressing forward.

He only has 12 more days of the IV therapy left. It'll be good to get that behind him, since that takes about 4 hours each day. I make sure to get him out of the house each day at least for a little while. The weather was perfect today--he and Mary took a walk after she got home from school today. I think they both enjoyed that.

Katie and Veronica are driving in tonight. Their stay will be way too short, but it'll be great to have them here. Veronica is a dear lady, about my age and was Katie's adoptive mother during Katie's freshman year at A&M. At St. Mary's in College Station they do an "Adopt an Aggie" ministry for the new students, and Veronica adopted Katie. Now four years later, they're still great friends and Veronica has always been so good to Katie. I've said before, "It's nice when somebody else like your kids, because there are times, when I don't even like 'em."

Love you all,
Kim

Home Tonight

The Dr. really surprised Ray this morning when he came in early, and said he was taking him off the morphine and the oxygen, and if he did O.K. during the day, he could go home this evening. Ray had a great day-- no pain, O2 sats. at a good level; then around 6:00 this evening the Dr. said he could go home. After all the dismissal process, we got home around 8:00. Praise the Lord!

We have to be back to the Dr.'s office early tomorrow morning for blood work. This is to monitor the level of blood thinner (PT/INR). Evidently, that takes careful monitoring for a few days to get it just right.

Thanks once again for prayers, visits, concern and love! Please don't stop.

Love you all,
Kim

Walking Today

Walking in the halls was allowed today. Yeeeaaa! We took several short walks, down the hall, mostly from window to window. Ray was glad just to be able to see the outside world. He has a terrible view from his room--a wall. He was happy, to see fog and drizzle.

Still on the morphine; the Dr. is saying maybe tomorrow he'll begin the weaning process. We were sure hoping by now, the morphine would be out of his room. Maybe we're expecting too much, too soon. The pain is completely gone now--even when coughing or hiccups. He's also on a low amount of oxygen. I'm thinking he may be taking that home with him. Who knows?

Needless to say, he's ready to come home and sees no reason for being stuck in there. He's thinking of all the things he needs to be doing and will be doing as soon as he's turned loose. (auction at his shop next week) That's one of the hazards of feeling better. I'm guessing, that Dr. already has this one figured out!

Love you all,
Kim

Stand By Me

He is allowed to get out of bed today, but still not allowed to walk. He can stand for a few seconds , then is set on a chair with wheels and taken into the shower and bathroom. After taking a shower this afternoon, he said he felt like a new person. Possibly tomorrow he'll be able to walk some; depending on what something in the blood work tells them.

He's ready to get off the morphine because of some of the side effects/problems he's having. He's now on coumadin, (blood thinner) and we're told that he'll be on that forever. Our education began today about diet and many "dos & don'ts" of being on that.

His pain is much better this evening. When I got to his room this morning, he was complaining about sore muscles, especially in the chest area and aching all over. That got better as the day went on. He says now it only hurts when he takes a really deep breath.

As usual his appetite is good and he loves having visitors and phone calls.

Love you all,
Kim

Better

The pain is not as severe today as it was yesterday. He's still on a pretty heavy dose of morphine via the pump, and the weaning process will probably begin in a couple days. He had a good number of visitors and phone calls today, and had no problem carrying on a conversation. It was a totally different story yesterday. He's still confined to bed, due to a blood clot in one of his legs (behind the left knee). I posted yesterday that the blood thinners cause the clots to dissolve, I found out today that's not really what happens--they allow the body to absorb the clots. Hopefully, he'll be able to be up and around some tomorrow (Mon), which the Dr says is probable because of the length of time he's been on blood thinners.

When the Dr. came in today, he said that everything looks good on paper--meaning the blood work is all in good shape. A big question we had for the Dr. was,"Does this change anything as far as receiving a transplant?" His answer was: he is not sure, but said he would be talking to the transplant Dr. in MD about the whole situation.

Andy spent the weekend (nights) with us, which was a tremendous help, especially Friday when we made an unexpected visit to the ER during the wee hours. (Isn't God good?) Since he was here last night, I decided to get a cot and stay at the hospital in Ray's room. I was thinking he would really NEED me, plus I was worried and hated to leave. It was more than likely due to sleep deprivation, but I couldn't believe how well we both slept. Plus I found out, he really didn't NEED me, so I'll be sleeping in my own bed tonight.

We need your continued prayers--for healing, strength, good attitudes, patience, and stamina.

Love you all,
Kim

Into the ER

About 4:00 this morning we headed to the ER due to horrific pain that Ray was having on the right side of his chest. The pain was so bad, he could barely take a breath. If you recall, the surgery he had two weeks ago was on the LEFT side, so we couldn't imagine what could possibly be going on. The ER Dr. quickly suspected a blood clot in the lung, and a CT scan proved him correct. Now it looks as though he'll be spending a few days in the hospital again. He's going to be on blood thinners to dissolve the clot and to keep more clots from forming. We're told this is not uncommon after surgery and to be thankful that he had pain-- forcing action.

At the moment the pain is manageable, thanks to a morphine pump and Ray is able to get some sleep.

More later,
Kim

Today's Appt.

The visit today with the oncologist was affirming as he is talking very favorably of Ray getting to Bethesda, MD for a transplant. He is talking with the Dr. in MD that will be doing the transplant, making certain the protocol. First things first--the bacterial infection in the lungs must be completely gone. He still has another 3 weeks of the IV antibiotics. Over the next couple weeks, a CT scan or two will be done to insure the lungs are clear. Also, another bone marrow biopsy will be done in the next 1-2 weeks.

Ray did get another dose of chemo today as an outpatient. The Dr. said this needs to be done in order to retain remission.

We 're excited and nervous at the same time at the possibility of getting closer to the transplant. We trust God has a plan.

Love you all,
Kim

Staples Are Out

The follow-up visit with the surgeon went very well and amazingly quick. We were only in the office for 15 minutes, and in that time, we saw the Dr., had the 25 staples removed by the nurse, and spoke to the Dr. one more time; this time telling Ray he didn't need to make another appt. to see him. The Dr. was very pleased with how well Ray was doing and said the incision would not need any more care. Walking out, we breathed a big sigh as though we had just checked off a biggie! on our "things to do" list. We're waiting to hear from the oncologist as to when the next appt. is--not sure if we'll be seeing him this week or not.

The IV therapy at home continues going great. On Monday, blood work was done and Ray's counts are all good.

I constantly thank God for His goodness and how well things are going.

Love you all,
Kim

Going Smoothly

We're learning fast and everything is going smoothly. We've had two very good teachers/nurses from the home health care. Four times each day, Ray has to have a dose of the antibiotic, which means a small bag is connected to tubing and then goes in through the port. There is also an injection of saline and heparin that also has to be put into the port. This whole procedure takes about an hour. It sounds more complicated than it really is. A couple times today, he has done the whole procedure completely by himself. This will make things much simpler for these next four weeks.

Recovery from surgery has been going very well. There's less soreness with each passing day. He even drove to Mass last night.

There's also a couple Dr. appts. scheduled for this week. Sitting in the waiting room is our social life these days. Well, I take that back; we went to a surprise birthday party this afternoon for a short while. It was great to see many of our good friends that we don't get to see nearly as much as we'd like.

Thanks for all the cards, messages, phone calls, and most especially your prayers. We are so blessed to have so many great friends and great family.

Love you all,
Kim

Home Sweet Home

Just a quick post to let you know, we got Ray home late this afternoon. We're so thankful to have him home. It makes life so much easier. Maybe easier isn't what I meant to say. We are charting new territory once again. He's going to be on 4 weeks of home IV therapy--two different antibiotics. Sounds like we're going to become good friends with home health care nurses who are going to teaching me (us) how to do all this IV therapy. Yikes!

I feel confident we can do this. (or so they say) Many others have done it; so can we. Our first lesson is going to be later this evening. I'll let you know how it goes.

Love you all,
Kim