Sunday 5/29/05

This morning Lori is scheduled for a procedure to remove some fluid beneath her lungs.  She is scheduled for an ultrasound at 11:00am with the procedure around 2:00pm.  They estimate she has about 1 liter of extra fluid there.  After removing this it will give her more capacity to get more air into her lungs. This should help out with all the other systems too.

We understand these are the only scheduled things today (but you never know).

The doctors are estimating that they may have over hydrated her in the beginning.  They think that the excess fluid was not processed normally and that the fluid found areas to pool up.  They are thinking Lori was low on protein so this affected her ability to process the hydration process successfully. They have used diuretics to remove some excess fluid but we still have some room to improve on.

This morning Lori reduced her need for oxygen by another step.  The process is to continue decreasing her supplemental oxygen supply until her lungs are healthy enough to take over.  At his point she is receiving oxygen with some small tubes below her nose.

Lori is sleeping well today.  She has been eating pretty well and she has found that she likes to drink down some boost shakes.  This is great because they are loaded with protein that she needs.

Lori also made it through the procedure with flying colors today.  She is sleeping pretty well because she was given 4mg of Morphine before the procedure.  Needless to say she is out now.

Lori's good friend Liz Shelton was in town for her daughters volleyball tournament.  She has stopped by for the last few days so it was nice to visit

Lori is sleeping well today.  I have started to read the bible at night to Lori.  While she is sleeping she grins while I am reading so I fell she is getting full of the word.

Monday 5/30/05

A long frustrating day!  Early in the morning Lori was taken down for an ultrasound on her belly.  They were preparing to drain some excess fluid from there.  In the afternoon the Kidney dude came in and wanted to hold off so that we did not have an issue with reverse pressure on her kidneys.  With that news she was taken down stairs again to do an ultrasound on her kidneys.  With that news the drain was put off and we are waiting until tomorrow to see how her kidneys are doing.  This makes for a frustrating day because you prepare for a procedure, do not eat breakfast to prepare for the procedure and then they cancel the procedure.  We appreciate their attention to detail but it gets your emotions going for sure.

Lori slept well and is now off of Morphine all together.  We have replaced this with an oral Vicodine? Which treats her much better.

Lori's friend Liz stopped by again today on her way back to Spokane.  Another one of Lori's friends Linda Huff is flying over tomorrow to spend a few days over here.

We will set our prayers tonight for good blood test on Lori’s kidneys.

Tuesday 5/31/05

Well it seems that the prayers worked last night.  Lori's kidney numbers stabilized over night so she was cleared to have a procedure today to insert stents in each of her kidney tubes to open them up better.  We received the Go ahead this morning at 9:00, Lori could not eat until the procedure which was at 3:30.  The procedure went off without a hitch.  Lori came back to the room, ate a little bit of her dinner and she crashed for the night.

The Pulmonary Doc came by today and gave Lori a physical.  After listening to her lungs and looking at her breathing he said he would send her home.  He said the pneumonia is in check and her breathing is back in order.  This was the first critical step in getting better.

We are hoping the stent placement today will provide great Kidney numbers tomorrow.  Please continue to pray for Lori's kidney's to turn the corner and come home.

Lori's friend Linda flew in today.  She spent the day with Lori and had the opportunity to pray with her before she went downstairs for her procedure.  Lori and Linda have a special bond that is great to see.

This was a very good day for Lori.  Another step closer to coming home!

Wednesday 6/1/05

This was a rest day for Lori.  Thank God her Kidney numbers were stable (the same as yesterday), this is a great sign.  We hope to have reduced numbers for the next few days.  Lori is very tired and sore from the procedure yesterday.  She spent the majority of the day sleeping.

Her friend Linda went home today.  I took her to the airport and it was tough to see her go.  Her and Lori and a very special bond.  I was lucky today and worked a parking deal with the lot here at the hospital.  I got the family deal of $120 for a month, don't tell everyone I think this was a special deal for me!

Lori's dinner is on its way so I hopeful she will continue to eat well.  She has started drinking some boost milk shakes and these are packed with protein.

I have been able to dial into work and get to some projects I have.  This is great for me since it makes me feel like I have a life outside this hospital room.

I have been reading from James to Lori at night.  My boss has advised me to move on to James when we get done so we are filling ourselves with the word nightly.

Please continue to pray for Lori's continued healing.   This was a good day for Lori and I. 

Thursday 6/2/05

This was another restful day for Lori.  Lori's Kidney numbers maintained without a drop so while we were looking for a decrease we are very happy about the number being stable.  The Kidney doctors said that it is typical for the number to stagnate and then decrease.  We are holding our for positive prayer for these number to decrease.

The Dr's are fully involved with figuring out her Kidney issue.  Today Lori took a shower and felt like more of a human today.  Lori's sister Cindy and her husband Jim came by to visit. Jim took me out for dinner while Cindy sat with Lori.  It was nice to get out.

Tony is going to come over this weekend with Lisa who is staying at our house and looking after the kids.  Since Tony was coming over I called Scott Walters, a friend of ours who has great contacts for Mariner tickets.  Scott made a few calls and got some great tickets for Tony and I this Saturday.  They play at 7:05pm so look for us in the stands.  Tony will stay with us until Sunday morning. Ashton has some ASB and cheerleader commitments this weekend so she will not be coming over.

Since the Dr's are still trying to figure out Lori's Kidney issue it looks like we may be here until Wednesday of next week.  We are hopeful for sooner but only time will tell.

Please continue to pray for Lori's continued healing.

God Bless

Friday 6/3/05

Praise God, Lori's kidney numbers decreased slightly this morning.  This usually indicates that the kidneys are waking back up.  The true tale will be tomorrow.  Please pray for decreased numbers for Lori's kidneys.

Our Friend Scott Walters out did himself.  Yesterday he got Tony and I tickets to the Mariners and today he called and said that he got us in the Conoco Luxury suite.  This is soooooooo coooool.  I did not tell Tony yet, I want to go to the park and then have them wisk us off up the private elevator to this private suite.  We will be taking pictures so stay tuned.  What a blessing!

Lori did have some fluid drained from her stomach today.  The excess fluid built up due to the hydration in the first couple of days.  She now has great relief and can take some great deep breaths. She slept today like a baby after the procedure.

Our brother in law Jim suggested playing some of Lori's Christian music today and they seemed to really settle Lori. She enjoyed her music. 

A great day for us.  Tony should be here soon and we are excited to see him.  I'll let you know what he says when he finds out we are going to be pimping in the Luxury site tomorrow.  Watch us on TV we will be the ones stuffing food and drinks into our pockets when we leave the suite.

One of Lori's friends Vicky Anderson wanted me to post our address here:

We are in room 1582

1100 Ninth Ave

P.O Box 900

Seattle Wa 98111

We hope to be back in Spokane early next week.

God Bless.

6/4/05

A good day!  Lori's kidney numbers were down more today.  This is a great trend that we have waited for, for two weeks.  This number indicates that the kidneys are starting to come back into shape.  We are happy for these numbers and we look for them to drop again tomorrow.

No other procedures or any thing else on the schedule today so this should be a good day to rest. 

This afternoon Lori took a nice shower and feels great.  After her shower she rested a bit and then she took a walk to the nurses station. From there Tony and I put her in a wheelchair and took her on a tour outside to their rose garden.  This was a great break for Lori and it shows she is getting better everyday. 

After this trip Tony and I took off for our Mariners game. We walked about 15 blocks which was great exercise.  When we got to the park we went to the "Will Call" window to pick our tickets.  I handed the ticket to Tony and he saw right away that their said "Suites" on them.  He was pretty excited. (Thanks again to Scott Walters).  We then went to a private entrance gate and were whisked up to the third level to our suite.  Let me tell you this was too cool.......

The suite was like a very nice hotel suite with Nacho's, Chicken wings, Hot Dogs, salad,, cookies, pizza, pop and beer.  Needless to say Tony and I ate well and I had a very eventful time.  This was a blessing he and I will remember forever.  We called Lori a few times since she was watching the game on TV.  After the game we took the bus closer to the Hospital and then walked a few blocks home.

A fun day with Tony here.  We went out to lunch a few times and we had some quality time visiting

.

6/5/05

Lori's Kidney's numbers are down again. This is what we wanted to see.  This is great news so please continue to pray for Lori's continued healing. Lori has a few things on the agenda today but not too much.  Therefore she should get lots of rest and we are praying for decreased kidneys numbers again tomorrow.  With this good news we are hopeful to get out of her early next week.  I'm hoping for Wednesday but tomorrow will be a better indicator.

Tony goes home today so we are a little tearful. Tony and I are going to walk with Lori down to the end of the hall and then put her in wheelchair so we can go downstairs to see Tony off.  We will both probably come back to the room and then crash.

Dr. Picozzi stopped by today and he mentioned our process for going home.  This was what we needed to hear!!!!  We need to transition Lori's heprian drip to a pill.  This process takes a few days so we are still hopeful to come on Wednesday of this week.

Another good day for Lori's healing.  Please continue to pray for her continued healing.

God Bless

6/6/05

Praise God, Lori's kidney numbers are down again.  This time the numbers are triple less than the previous day.  With this great news all the Dr's are in agreement that we need to go home.  Needless to say this is great news.  It looks like we may spend one more day here and go home on Wednesday.  They are still dialing in her conversion from Heprine drip to a pill equivalent.  This should be complete tomorrow and we can continue to dial in in Spokane.

Picozzi would like for us to come back in a few weeks to start Chemo again.  This will give Lori a week and a half to re-coup at home and then we can take another road trip back over here.

Lori walked the hall (back and forth) today as well has getting up and sitting in a chair a few times.  She also took a shower today and put on some makeup to feel part of the world.

A good friend of Lori's from High School (Tony White) called and lifted her spirits more today.  It is really great too see everyone reading this update.  We hope that gives everyone enough information to know where we are at.  We feel your prayers everyday.

Please continue to pray for Lori's healing.

God Bless.

6/07/05

Man, we were 30 seconds from being released today.  All of Lori's Dr's gave the "Go Home" signal this morning (Oncologist, Uninary, GI, Kidney).  The hold up was the conversion from drip to oral blood clot stuff.  We were right on the edge but the Hospitalist decided that we should wait one more day.  While we were disappointed what is another 24 hours in 16 days?

Lori's Kidney numbers were down again by 3 tenths of a point so we should be back to normal in another week. I have already made the calls to Spokane to get Lori seen on Thursday and Friday morning.  At this point we have lots of blood results to report back to Seattle.  It looks like we will be back to see Picozzi in a week and a half.

Ashton had her first softball game tonight.  I just spoke to her and she hit a double to drive in a run and had some great plays in right field.  She was pretty excited.  Both of Tony's legion baseball games got canceled this week more for next week!

Please continue to pray for Lori's healing.  We are blessed in many ways and feel the power of your prayers everyday.

God Bless

6/8/05

Thank God we are home today.  Lori's numbers looked great so when they said we could go we did not let the door hit us in the rear.

It was nice to go but it was also tough.  These folks have been taking care of Lori day and night for the past 2.5 weeks so we have grown accustomed to their great service.  Going home means that we are going to have to keep an eye on everything as Lori heals.

We got home at about 4:30.  The drive took a lot out of Lori.  Sitting in the bed for 18 days takes it toll on your energy.  Lori will have to pace herself to get back into running around.  It was nice to see the kids, the dogs and the house.  Lori crashed and I went to Tony's baseball banquet.

It feels soo good to be home.  Of course being home brings a lot of other "Busy" issues that we have not had to deal with for a few weeks.  It is hard to keep the kids quite all the time while Lori is resting so we all have to be very sensitive of taking care of Lori.

We are Home!

6/9/05

Well today is my birthday and my wish of having Lori home came true.  This morning I took Lori to get her blood monitored for her blood thinner.  While we were there Linda Huff was just getting off so she took Lori home while I ran around and did a lot of things I had not gotten too for a couple of weeks.

Lori is still extremely exhausted and tired. It is going to take a week or so to get her back on her feet so please continue your prayers for positive healing for Lori.

The kids barbequed hamburgers for my birthday.  We also had a nice ice-cream cake and they gave me an IPOD for my birthday present.  Ashton also went to the dollar store and bought a lot of goofy things and she also wrote a nice letter to me (my favorite part).   It was a good day and did I mention that it is great to be Home!

God Bless