A new direction for us.

Still in the hospital. Ugh

I have 5 partial blockages in my small intestine and colon. The Doctors final choices are that I have stringer cancerous tumors binding the organs together causing the stricture or blockage at various bends. I have liquids seeping through and not flowing as normal.

My CEA has lowered, my tumors have shrunk, the cysts or whatever is on my right lung has neither grown nor shrunk in years. They believe it to be a cyst since it has not changed density nor size over the years. My tumor near the rectum has shrunk.

I am not a candidate for surgery because the stringers are just all over the place. So, they changed my chemo to Erbitux instead of Avastin. I will get another CT in a few weeks to see if this is working. If my bowels start to release then they will assume the chemo is working.

I did get a tube placed in my stomach to drain fluids and have a bag. Sometimes I feel like I am drowning, and then I can release the pressure in my stomach. I will be on IV nutrition for a couple of months also to reduce the stress on my intestine and colon.

Laurie has been tracking down everything I need for home health care. I need a nurse to monitor my blood sugar levels etc... Why I can not do these things myself? I do not know. One company wanted to rent me a med pump for $400 a month. I can get a new certified one for about $360 plus shipping. Hmm I can sell it when I am done and be much ahead. Else, getting all of the meds for home use has been jumping through some hoops. Getting serious pain killers at home took a little bit of time. All seems to be in place for me to go home on Monday 22^nd of December. I have been in the hospital since 30^th November. They did get us in to a large room. We now have our own mini fridge and a full size couch bed. The last room we were touching elbows in. lol Laurie can keep a salad and yoghurts for her instead of cafeteria food. We have a Sprouts and Trader Joes near by the hospital.

Laurie will drive home tomorrow night and check on the dogs. We have a friend living at the house but he is not running the dogs like he should be. Our Beagle mix needs to be ran or it gets over excited in the house. She does not understand why she did not get her run! Laurie can then double check the local pharmacy to make sure they physically have everything there. They sent us one med with only ¼ the order. I need it Sunday and they will not allow us pick it up locally. Grrrr.  On the positive, a cammera lens is waiting for me at home.

We are also missing the snow at home! We love the snow days. It makes everything slow down and be calm. The snow only lasts for 3-4 days and stays on the mountains surrounding us for the rest of the winter. It is quite pretty! This will be our last winter inn Payson, AZ.

We will move to Houston in May 2015. My health has forced the issue. My family is welcoming for us to move closer to them, and will be able to offer us some physical help if we need it. They also have offered financial help, which we should not need, but it is nice to know we can have a back up plan. My family got us a camera for Christmas! It was quite a splurge and unexpected. A Cannon 5Ti with a couple of lens. We will make good use of the camera.

We have a busy plan for the next few months. New Chemo, sell my work tools on eBay, and garage sale the rest. We will sale books and furniture because the costs of moving are crazy. I also moved expensive spools of wire from Cali to the AZ which was crazy. My nephew wants some of the tools, so I will give them to him and have an option to use them occasionally.

Best Always, mike