Tuesday

Morning

Not such a good start to the day.  I'm back to not even keeping liquids down.  They will reconnect the IV soon to keep me hydrated.

They are leaning to the second of the two options that I mentioned earlier: trying to shrink the tumour first with chemo and radiation therapies.

Also, they are going to do a liver biopsy using a needle to get a bit of material from my liver. That may happen either late today or early tomorrow, so I'm not going to be sent home until tomorrow at the earliest.

Thanks again to everyone for their kind words.


Anne's Trip to Her MRI in Lindsay

Her trip to Lindsay went fine.  They will phone her in a few days with a plan based on the results of the MRI, so for now we don't know anything more.

"Why did she have to go to Lindsay?", you ask. "Why not use the MRI in Peterborough, which is closer both for us and for her doctor?"

When I asked her cancer doctor this question two weeks ago he just rolled his eyes and said that the MRI in Peterborough wasn't big enough, so I suggested that Peterborough doctors had planned for a bigger one and some bean counter decided they couldn't afford it and ordered a smaller one instead.  He said that was pretty much what happened.  So in our area, skinny people get MRIs in Peterborough but the rest of us have to go to Lindsay.

After her scan Anne and Stephen joined Jonathan and Jacinta for lunch along with Jacinta's parents Lynne and Gord.

I've got to go.

Then there is a gap of several hours that I'll explain later.

Lynne and Gord spend the winter in North Carolina.  A few weeks ago they were packing to return to Lindsay for the summer when Gord had a stroke and Lynne called an ambulance.  It sounded to us like he almost died.  He couldn't walk, talk, swallow or communicate in any way.  He did recover a bit down there and Lynne, with the help of Jacinta's sister Tandy, brought him back to Lindsay.  He has slowly gotten a lot better.  He can walk and swallow but still does not talk.  He is somewhat more communicative in other ways and Anne says he picked out his own lunch by pointing at its picture on the menu.


Liver Biopsy

That time gap mentioned above was caused by a woman with a gurney to take me down for the needle biopsy of a suspicious spot on my liver.  They came at 1 pm, much earlier than expected.  The procedure itself was surprisingly not painful, but afterwards it has been quite sore where they shoved in the needle.  Originally they said they would have to put a dye in my blood and use xrays to guide the doctor, but they used ultrasound instead so I didn't need to ingest the dye.  They won't know the results of this for a couple of days but it should help them decide how to proceed.  It sure would be nice if they could just open me up, cut out the tumour and let me get on with my life, but it just is not that simple.


Visitors

Anne and our neighbour Marion were waiting for a visit when I came back from the biopsy.  I wasn't much fun to visit with as I kept drifting off to sleep.  Brian Finley dropped by; he had a fundraising meeting with someone in Kingston. After he left, Carol Robertson came for a while.  I was scheduled to do a lighting job for the Lilac Festival in Warkworth the weekend of May 26.  Carol is helping to do that along with a lighting tech from Belleville that I met through my brother-in-law Dan.  Dan works for Christie Lites, a large lighting company.

I've not felt hungry but did eat a little soup and the filling from a lemon tart.  They have increased my allowed painkiller dose so I am hoping I will sleep better tonight.


Cyberspace Limbo - Anne has no Email

Our Internet connection at home has quit working, so Anne can no longer get emails or even read this blog at home.  We think a raccoon has chewed through the cable from the Internet antenna.  Our TV antenna (remember TV antennas and rotors - we still use one) is not working either, presumably for the same reason.  So if you need to get through to her, you are best to phone and leave a message if she doesn't answer.  Even if she is coming here, she won't leave very early so phoning about 9 am should work.

Thanks again for all your messages of support.