Mike came home on Thursday! What a great Valentine's Day present.
He doesn't need to be on oxygen anymore (though his lungs still need to be strengthened and he gets winded if he tries to do too much) and is resting up at home. He goes back to the hospital Tuesday for a checkup and to talk about the next step for chemo treatments.
Prayer request: Please pray for continued healing from all the ailments that have followed Mike, but please also pray that we receive guidance, clarity and confirmation for all decisions we have to make. Thank you!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Progress
To say the last few days have been a big improvement would be an understatement.
Mike has been back in a regular room for nine days now, and the doctors and nurses are amazed at just how far he's come since the end of the week. He's been working with a physical therapist who has been getting him moving around again, something he could barely do just a couple weeks ago, and he is off his high-flow oxygen mask and is back on a nasal cannula (the tube that runs across the face and delivers oxygen through prongs in the nose). He's only on about three to three and a half liters of oxygen (the average person needs about two and a half). His appetite is just about totally back and so is his personality. He's no longer half out of it and lethargic in bed all day. He spends the entire day in a recliner they moved into his room, and only uses the bed for sleeping at night. There are less and less doctors from various departments coming in to look him over each day -- the less interesting he is, the better.
They feel the flu virus is gone, and there is likely just a bit of lung damage that will (hopefully) heal over the coming months. This recovery will take time, but he'll get there.
Of course, his oncologist has been bringing up chemo in her daily visits, reminding him that there's still the issue of the cancer to deal with. We haven't been too happy with her suggesting chemo while he still has lots of recovering to do. This thing brought him to the brink of death (no exaggeration) and now she wants to give him poison that will potentially drop his counts again and make his recovery even more complicated -- and dangerous. She feels some "low-dose" chemo which wouldn't affect the counts much would be a good idea to keep the lymphoma in check, but Mike and I agree he isn't ready for that yet.
I've also been spending some of this weekend re-capping the events of Mike's first two weeks in the hospital for him. To my surprise, there are a lot of those first two weeks he doesn't remember at all. He said it's like going on a two-week bender where you only remember bits and pieces. That's a little scary.
All in all, we're so excited at how Mike's been doing recently, and we know it's no accident. We know the Lord has had Mike in the palm of His hand.
In a couple hours we'll have our own little in-room Super Bowl party in the hospital. I got a bunch of fun snacks for us to have so things should feel as normal as possible. Hopefully, Mike will be home in no time at all.
Mike has been back in a regular room for nine days now, and the doctors and nurses are amazed at just how far he's come since the end of the week. He's been working with a physical therapist who has been getting him moving around again, something he could barely do just a couple weeks ago, and he is off his high-flow oxygen mask and is back on a nasal cannula (the tube that runs across the face and delivers oxygen through prongs in the nose). He's only on about three to three and a half liters of oxygen (the average person needs about two and a half). His appetite is just about totally back and so is his personality. He's no longer half out of it and lethargic in bed all day. He spends the entire day in a recliner they moved into his room, and only uses the bed for sleeping at night. There are less and less doctors from various departments coming in to look him over each day -- the less interesting he is, the better.
They feel the flu virus is gone, and there is likely just a bit of lung damage that will (hopefully) heal over the coming months. This recovery will take time, but he'll get there.
Of course, his oncologist has been bringing up chemo in her daily visits, reminding him that there's still the issue of the cancer to deal with. We haven't been too happy with her suggesting chemo while he still has lots of recovering to do. This thing brought him to the brink of death (no exaggeration) and now she wants to give him poison that will potentially drop his counts again and make his recovery even more complicated -- and dangerous. She feels some "low-dose" chemo which wouldn't affect the counts much would be a good idea to keep the lymphoma in check, but Mike and I agree he isn't ready for that yet.
I've also been spending some of this weekend re-capping the events of Mike's first two weeks in the hospital for him. To my surprise, there are a lot of those first two weeks he doesn't remember at all. He said it's like going on a two-week bender where you only remember bits and pieces. That's a little scary.
All in all, we're so excited at how Mike's been doing recently, and we know it's no accident. We know the Lord has had Mike in the palm of His hand.
In a couple hours we'll have our own little in-room Super Bowl party in the hospital. I got a bunch of fun snacks for us to have so things should feel as normal as possible. Hopefully, Mike will be home in no time at all.
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