Yesterday, Thursday, Ray felt well enough to go with me to Sonora -- I needed to buy prescription cat food, and didn't do it the day before because Ray was tired. At the vet he looked across the way to the tire shop and -- yes, had tires put on the truck. By then he was hungry and wanted a hamburger, but didn't want to trek all the way out to the other end of Sonora to McDonald's. Big mistake. The Carl's Jr. hamburger and milkshake did NOT sit well.

This morning he is back to doing reasonably well. He is not up and about, but can put aside his "nausea bucket" and was hungry enough to eat a reasonable breakfast. He had fruit about 11:00, and is about to get a tamale. Haven't decided what to do for dinner, but it may well be ---- chicken nuggets! Or maybe some kind of pasta.

Thanks be to God! Keep praying!!

Once again we are moving in the correct direction. All the blood levels were good this morning. In fact, they were unchanged from last Wednesday when Ray was discharged from the hospital after receiving 5 pints of blood. So he got his chemotherapy treatment, and is now resting in bed, keeping his stomach in check, and trying to sleep.

The man is a walking advertisement for junk food. What did he want to eat today? McDonald's hamburger, and could we please bring home chicken nugets with honey-mustard sauce for later. Oh, and don't forget the french fries! What did he want last week? Chicken nugets. KFC is a variation on the theme. For weeks all he wanted was Hamburger Helper. It's his only chance at casseroles -- they are not generally in my culinary vocabulary. And you wonder why the juicer was a good nutritional investment??!! Ah well, at least he is eating real food again, such as it is.

Let's all say some prayers of Thanksgiving as well as all those intercessory prayers we've been sending out! Thanks be to God for the light at the end of the tunnel, and may the PET/CT scan in April show both those metabolically active spots D-E-A-D.

We're getting better at medicating for nausea BEFORE it attacks. At least that's what we said before breakfast. Now Ray wonders if the second half of a can of canned fruit (open can, serve half, put other half in fridge for next day) is a nausea-causing culpirt. I am about ready to discard all the Tupperware and Rubbermaid and similar and go back to all glass or all ceramic for refrigrator storage. Has anyone else had issues with storage in plastics, especially those plastic containers that last forever? This does not make for happy camping, but we do what we have to do ....

Chemotherapy tomorrow -- with any luck at all.

Once again we seem to have mastered balancing the medications to keep the nausea in check. With his stomach settled, Ray can eat reasonably and drink enough fluids. The unknown bug that caused such a problem on Thursday seems to have given up its hold, although Ray spent most of Friday and Saturday sleeping. Now he has gotten his days and nights reversed.... At least the sun is shining today! It's going to be a good day to be outdoors.

As if he didn't have enough of Sonora Regional Medical Center on Tuesday and Wednesday, Ray saw fit to spend this afternoon and evening in their Emergency Room. He was perfectly fine when I left home at 8:00 a.m. He was remarking at how good he was feelingn at 11:00 when we spoke by phone. At 2:15 he called and sounded like he was dying. "Please come home. I need you. My whole body turned pink and I have been throwing up for 2 hours. I can't keep anything down, not even the nausea pills." The oncologist ordered him to ER as soon as he could get there. I called a friend, who brought him to Sonora, and I met them in the ER. Ray looked dreadful. He was deep pink -- some would describe it as deep red. His eyes were so bloodshot they looked raw. He had that skeletal look again. His stomach was cramping and his mouth, he said, felt like cotton. He was rambling and mumbling and making no sense whatsoever. He kept saying, "Where is Mark. Mark will be here right away." But it wasn't Mark who drove him to the hospital. Then he switched to, "I can't close my eyes. If I close my eyes I will never go home again. Please don't let me die here." Over and over again I told him, "Dying is not an option today. You are going to get well." We prayed. The hospital chaplain prayed with us. Our own priest came and sat with us and prayed. Meanwhile, hospital staff drew lots of blood, pumped him full of fluids, gave him some nausea meds and pain meds, and finally a shot of previcid to keep his stomach happy. At one point he sat up and announced, "My throat is closing up, I can't breathe." We went one round with Ray and anapylactic shock back in 1979, and don't want to ever do that again. The nurse popped some oxygen in his face and demanded that he breathe slowly through his nose. It worked.

Test results showed elevated levels of things that suggest an allergic reaction to something, and some kind of a viral infection. About the time they started on the 2nd litre of fluids, he started looking and feeling better. So after 5.5 hours -- we came home. Together. He walked into the house. Slowly, but under his own power. Thanks be to God!

Keep praying!

... a little over 24 hours and 5 units of blood later. we now know where they red blood cells are going. Dr. has one other patient who developed this sudden-onset severe anemia while being treated with Alimpta, so he called the manufacturer. Turns out that about 1/3 of all patients on this drug develop this kind of anemia. So we re-start the chemotherapy next week after the anemia levels out a little, this time monitoring blood levels closely. We are half-way through, so only two treatments left. God willing, we can get through that.

Give thanks that we have an answer. Keep praying!

Assuming that you had had enough of California snow storms, nausea and finches, I held off writing until after Ray saw his oncologist.

No chemo today. Ray was so anemic that Dr. ordered 3 units of blood STAT. It takes about 2 hours to actually administer one unit of blood, and a good four hours just to do the type and cross-match, and actually get the blood in hand. There are fluids that apparently have to be given prior to and between units. So they plunked him in a hospital bed and wired him to an IV unit and blood warmer. If this brings the levels high enough, they may give him the chemotherapy before he is discharged tomorrow. Of course, all this happened AFTER I shoveled and salted the driveway -- yes, it snowed AGAIN yesterday -- and got the car as close to the front door as possible.

The real question is, "What is happening to his blood?" He has lost the equivalent of two full units of blood in the last month. He is not bleeding into the inestinal tract. Nor is he bleeding into the urinary tract. Is the chemotherapy shutting down a critical process? Can he CONTINUE with chemotherapy? What is happening to his blood?

Keep praying. He felt your prayers late this afternoon as he was lying in bed waiting for all the lines to be hooked up. He said, "Suddenly, I felt this wonderful peace come over me. It's as if all the worry is lifted." Thank you for your prayers.

Keep praying.

Yesterday Ray managed the stairs to get to his computer -- with difficulty, but he got there. He worked for about an hour, then fell asleep watching TV. Now he is afraid that he will not be able to walk into the Cancer Center on Tuesday, and that Dr. Drakes will plop him back into the hospital. He's correct that he may not have the strength to walk. We will just have to see. He needs something to worry about!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! At least it is raining instead of snowing. Ooops, I spoke too soon. The rain is beginning to look awfully solid. Darn -- it's supposed to get warmer as daylight arrives, not colder!

Every day Ray is a little better. He eats more real food, although the "nothing tastes good" of chemotherapy makes it hard to find things that please him. I think I will be the Water Nazi for the rest of my life, but I know the title was given with love as well as frustration.

We have word from other friends who are fighting their own battles -- chemotherapy to after removing a large abdominal tumor; cancer surgery scheduled, only to discover a heart problem that rules out surgery; unavoidable stress causing other health-threatening symptoms; emphysema; melanoma. The local Cancer Survivor group sent their love and encouragement. We feel blessed.

Give thanks for the good. Believe in miracles. Keep praying!

We didn't go to Sonora yesterday. At 6 a.m. it was snowing in Groveland. At 6:30 I called Dr. Drakes, who conveniently uses a cell phone instead of an answering service. He said it was OK not to come down if the weather was that bad, but to reschedule as soon as we can.

Ray is finally feeling much better, so much so that he was eating real food instead of depending on a drinkable supplement to maintain nourishment. If he is bored with Boost, that's a good thing. The weather is clear today, but I don't know if we can get in to see doctor. Another storm promised for tomorrow, though.

We amused ourselves by refilling the thistle sock bird feeder. Almost immediately we had a flock of goldfinches who manage to empty a full sock (probably 3" x 12" when stuffed full)in a day. Friends down the block have reported as many as 50 birds on their sock at one time. We have had 25, but not while I am standing there with the camera! The towhees come and pick what has dropped on the ground. The jays pick around in the planter boxes, probably going after the spring bulbs. The hummingbirds have their own feeder (We never take it down, they hang around and beg at the windows all winter even when we don't feed them!), but fight everyone for air spsace. Nuthatches crawl up and down the trees (pine, black oak, and California live oak) looking for bugs. And the whole neighborhood is alive with bird song!

We woke up this morning to a second day of falling snow.

Ray continues to hang in, although he says he feels very weak. He's finally eating a little more, but still not much. We will know more on Tuesday when he sees the oncologist.

At 6:00 this morning I breathed a larged sign of relief that the predicted winter storm had gone someplace else.

At 9:00 I got a call from a friend in Columbia to tell me she was sitting under 12" of snow. I breathed another sign of relief. We only had about 1".

At 11:00 I had to call her back and tell her the snow just hadn't gotten to us yet. I guess I will spend tomorrow shoveling the driveway.

Now you folks who live in snow country will scoff at our mere 10-12" of snow. But conditions are such that people in 4x4 vehicles with chains on all 4 tires are being told to stay home and out of the way. Emergency response folk and the utility companies are pleading with drivers to keep off the highways so they can do their work. Conditions are R2 (chains or 4-wheel drive only) at 1000' elevation -- that's the BOTTOM of Priest Grade, 15 miles and 2000' of elevation drop from our front door. I don't remember chain controls that low more than twice before in the 30 years we have lived here. Guess I will shovel the driveway again tomorrow.

Ray? He's still dragging. He doesn't feel sick, but he doesn't feel good, eitiher. He still coughs -- a little. He has to nibble a lot, can't eat a full meal. He has almost no energy. I was thinking this morning that days like this used to be an adventure. Today it is a major annoyance. But it's good for the water supply.

Keep praying!

The days creep by with seemingly little progress. Ray is still coughing, but only in the morning and evening. He is weak -- has trouble climbing the stairts to get to his computer. He is not eating particularly well, but depending on the nutritional suppliments and the products of the juicer for nourishment.

We thank God for the tiny bits of progress since the Attack of the Flu Bug. He's not continuously nauseuous. When I am away for a day, he can get up and fend for himself. In fact, he seems to do better on those days. We have mastered the issued of counting water bottles -- discard yesterdays, put today's on a shelf in the bedroom where he can count them himself. No questions.

He has another chemotherapy session on the 14th, and there's no telling what that will bring. We know how important it is that he finish the entire course of treatment -- which he was not able to do the first time around. So we look for the positives, and do the best we can.

Keep praying!

He has good days and not so good days. He's having a hard time recovering from this flu bug. The nausea is a little better since he has finished the antibiotic. He is out of bed at least part of each day. That helps. But feeling sick for so long gets tedious for all of us.
Keep praying!

He is still sickly and prefers to stay in bed, but he is eating a little real food and doing better at drinking fluids -- although I am still the Water Nazi. I THINK we've passed the worst of this, though.

The snow came and went, came and went yesterday. Most on the driveway has obligingly melted off, although there is still plenty on the car and a thin blanket covering the non-black stuff. Thanks be to God! I don't have to shovel!

The current battle is gettng Ray to drink enough water to keep hydrated. I don't know how he counts, but he thinks he is drinking about twice what I count! He says he feels like a sponge and I am becoming a Water Nazi. So be it. He has a zillion excuses. The most frequently used: "I was sleeping. How can I drink water and sleep, too?" So I go down, wake him up, make him drink another glass of water, and the cycle begins again. Keep praying.

Yesterday was a difficult day. Ray spent two nights sleeping in a chair to ease the coughing from cold congestion. We were both tired. A long afternoon nap helped. By late afternoon he got to his computer for the first time in several days. He devoured your emails, reveled in bill paying and casino games, cleared out all the junk mail, and added points to his MyPoints stash.

We had been warned that more cold weather was on its way. at 6AM there was a sugar-dusting of white outside. By 7:30 about an inch of snow had accumulated. The word is that it will get worse before it gets better. I guess we will have more snow shoveling .... or I will be generous with the rock salt!

Ray's determination not to be a hospital in-patient is a good thing right now. He fights the nausea to keep his meds down, and wins. He fights his way through fluids in quantities he consisders impossible but are essential for hydration. He is depending on Boost (a nutritional supplement, like Ensure) for nutrition, drinking juice from the juicer, and eating just a little real food as well. In between, he sleeps.