Nancy - Wednesday update

I didn't get to the hospital until late afternoon Wednesday - worked first. When I arrived, Nancy was still a little groggy from the anesthesia they had used a few hours earlier when they surgically placed a port in her upper chest for delivery of chemo. Once fully awake, she had some pain at the incision site but appeared much more comfortable than the previous two days.
As always, Nancy had a funny story to tell: It seems that the Nordex man was in at 3:00 a.m. to draw some blood and noticed the three books on her bedside table. He asked, "Who brought you these?" and she replied, "My sister". He said something to the effect of, "Hmmm....interesting choices" . Nancy, telling the story and laughing, showed me the titles I had unwittingly chosen for her (hey, she loves a good mystery!): "Terminal" by Robin Cook, followed by "Likely To Die" and "The Dark Road Home". Fine selections for some light reading in the Gibson Unit! Maybe you'd have to have a sister yourself to understand how such an innocent, but stupid, book choice could throw us into unbridled fits of laughter...but it did. Nancy's daughter-in-law, Erin, had just arrived and laughed so hard she insisted I take a picture. So here they are, Nancy and her books. It was great to see her laugh after all she has been through.

Erin and Nancy...still laughing!

Dr. Small, Nancy's oncologist, came in while Erin and I were there. She said that Nancy's kidney numbers are already starting to improve and verified that the kidney problem is related to the cancer; apparently there is a tumor that is pressing against Nancy's kidneys. It is small and Dr. Small is still hopeful that the Doxil can and will kill it over the next few months so that Nancy can enjoy another remission. Nancy is still anemic but Dr. Small has not decided to do a transfusion yet; she'll wait and see if Nancy's hemoglobin count improves over the next few days to decide. The anemia probably partially explains why Nancy has been so tired over the past few weeks. Dr. Small said that Nancy "is not going home anytime soon"; she wants to keep her until she is able to eat and drink on her own and has gotten strong enough for her second infusion of Doxil, probably late next week.

I am heading off to MMC now to be with Nancy today and will try to update the blog tonight. Thanks to everyone who has checked in and offered support.