A Very Unbirthday to B

Hello again Family and Friends. Both B and I apologize for not updating the blog sooner but we have been pretty tired and have held off until we had all the new info at hand.....and at last we do. So to start off B's birthday was this past Monday. And unfortunately it was less than a happy one. First off B has not been feeling great..shocking right? It is almost a joke to even talk about the pain issue. I have nothing to say except enough already! The radiation is really kicking his butt and his pain remains very very high. B is currently having 4 spots radiated this time. One on his sternum, one on his back right rib, one on his right hip/groin, and one on his left hip. And with 4 spots being zapped with each treatment, it takes what seems to be forever at the radiation oncology department. And Monday is B's longest working day. He starts every Monday before 8 am. He holds office hours all day, followed up by an hour long radiation treatment, and then off to class, only to return home after 9. As you can imagine Mondays sucks. However this particular Monday was particularly bad because his radiation treatment ran over, making B late for his Monday class.....the class in which he was scheduled to administer a test. And low and behold, B tried to reach me via my crackberry, and of course, surprise surprise my phone was dead. B had hoped to reach me so that I could give him a hand and take the tests down to class to get things going, but he was unable to reach me. So by the time I got the message he was home. My crackberry was so dead that in the upper right corner the phone read radio off. What a joke. After returning home, the at home RN Sarah felt compelled to stop by for a long visit with B. She happened to arrive right as I had just warmed up dinner. So B had to sit with her, during her extended visit, and watch his burrito get colder and colder, while thinking about how hungry he was, and how much he wanted her to leave. Sarah has a knack of dragging each appointment out and she always comments on how high his blood pressure is. I mean I understand where she is coming from because B's blood pressure is high, but it has been this high for months, which can only be credited to his long lasting pain and all the drugs he is on, added with the stress of life and you end up with a high BP...understandable!! Monday ended terribly, and as they would say it in Alice in Wonderland - Happy Unbirthday to B! We have never been happier to have a day end.

And now comes Wednesday. Wednesday started off pretty horrible too. I happened to knock B's pain pump onto the bathroom floor. This is not something that takes 6 foot falls very lightly (the thing weighs at least 3 lbs and is zipped in this black fanny pack B has to carry around daily - because it's attached to his aorta) and within minutes the pump was making funny noises before shutting down. So this little accident cost B 4 hours of being without his morphine. Not something we hoped to have happen during a time in which B is having some of his highest pain attacks. I felt terrible and it was an accident, just a costly accident at that. So after the delivery of a new pump, B and I had a date with Dr. # 4. This is an appointment we' ve been waiting for. During this appointment we found out that Dr. # 4 had spoken with the latest Dr. who was introduced into the mix as a second opinion. We will name this Dr., Dr. # 14. Dr. # 14 spoke with Dr. # 4 for some time about the newest plan for B's care. Dr. # 14 comes highly recommended from Karmanos Cancer Center in the Detroit area. Dr. # 14 specializes in gastric/esophageal cancer, which is the direction Dr. # 4 was leaning in terms of treating B's cancer. Since the caner has spread again, both Dr's agree that it is time again to change B's chemo. So starting a week from next Wednesday, B will again begin Chemo. This is a chemo that will be administered every 2 weeks, however the good news is that Dr. # 4 said that the infusion could be delivered all in 1 sitting....translation, goodbye chemo fanny pack. How delightful! There was also mention of giving B a shot, which would help deal with bone pain, however we are going to hold off with the shot and see if radiation works. We are hopeful that the radiation will work since B had responded quite well to radiation in the past. I guess you could say that we have a lot invested in this round of radiation. B has said that he has reached his breaking point in terms of the pain. He can't and won't take much more. Radiation wraps up this Thursday, however he finished up with 3 of the spots this past Thursday. I guess it's too soon to say whether the radiation has worked or not, however, in the next few weeks we should have a good read on what is going on.

It has been a long and hard few days, mixed with many emotions, ranging from sad, mad, angry, and confused. So this weekend brings much rest and relaxation. We both intend to spend some time with our nieces and nephew and we intend to have a happy birthday dinner with the my fam clan this weekend. Might I add we did get to spend some time with the B fam clan last weekend to formally celebrate B's birthday as well. We can only imagine what it is that B wished for this birthday, however I think we all have a pretty good idea.

And lastly B got himself a new whip. He has been rocking out a new green and black walker. That's right, folks! B finally broke down and got himself a bad ass walker. It has many cool features, one being a cool seat which he uses to take breaks during his long campus walks. As you can imagine, his walking has gotten pretty hard and he needs all the help he can get, so bring on the walker. It doesn't do much for his self image, but who cares anymore at this point. If people don't understand they can kiss off.

Once again, Go Green and thank you football Gods for the ass kicking that the Spartans handed to the Wolverines. It was a great weekend being a Sparty....just had to give a shout out to my beloved Spartans and Kirk Cousins!! Good luck this weekend at Homecoming with the Illini!!