Words from Dennis

We had a great Turkey Day, here at the homestead. Or to be more accurate, a great, Turduckin Day. For the past few years, we have cooked a professionally prepared dish called a Turduckin, which is a turkey, with a duck inside of it, with a chicken inside of it. It has no bones in it and the variety of the three meats is a nice variety. Cooked just like a regular turkey, it is very moist and delicious. Highly recommended.

Family assembled in force, with Darcy, his son Niles and friend Erica coming down from Boston, sister Kay from Hawaii, Steffen and Elizabeth up from North Carolina. Missing was Gary, but he was here in spirit and we had a nice phone chat with him.

Everybody fixed their favorite dishes and it was a real feast. Tasha put in her contribution of pumpkin pie, apple pie, and apple crisp. What a way she has with baking. Deeelisssshhhhh.
Weather was mixed, but didn't dampen anybody's enthusiasms. Still working on the leftovers tonight (Friday night).

We've had good fun playing pool, eating, backgammon, eating leftovers, going for walks, Darcy on the piano, more food, hilarious games on the Wii, and, of course, the snacking on leftovers.

A wonderful time, all around.

On the health front:
I continue to improve and recover from my two week stay in the hospital. It is slower going than I would prefer but it is steady. Food during the Thanksgiving time has tasted good and the nausea has been kept to a minimum. I am able to dress myself, fix meals and get around the house. I can't drive a car yet, because of the narcotics for pain control. My stamina and strength are still very low. I can walk up a flight of stairs, slowly, but by the time I get to the top, I have to stop and rest.

Next week we will do another CT scan and see what progress the tumor has made. It has been growing, no doubt, since I have been off treatment, and we need to get back into combat mode to try to shrink this thing again. The difficulty is that the treatment itself really beats me up and I'm not sure I'm strong enough yet to withstand the chemo. We are now finished with radiation and can't do any more on this body.

I have been having trouble with swelling in my ankles and lower legs. It doesn't really hurt, but does give us concern, in watching out for blood clots, fluid retention, etc. I am wearing support stockings (very stylish) which do help, and I try to keep my legs elevated as much as I can. They are pretty funny looking, since they are white. When I am wearing just the support hose, without pants, I look like that painting of King Louis the 14th (I think) by either Ingres or David (I think), wearing his panty hose outfit. What a dandy.

I have a nurse come in once a week to check on me and make sure we are tending me correctly and that things are going well. Since I still have a tube sticking out of my stomach, we have to watch for infection, and make sure the bandages aren't leaking too much. Rebecca is still doing a fantastic job on the home care. I couldn't do it without her.

I hope to get back to full energy at the office sometime soon. I do what I can from home, keeping up with emails, advising students if necessary, writing recommendations and occasional reports.

A Delightful Homecoming

Dennis says the food looks and tastes a whole lot better at home than in the hospital. He is happy to be home, spending the entire day grazing on food to make up for what he didn't get while away. The warm sentiments sent from so many have touched Dennis, making this journey easier to bear.

Dancing Lessons

Dennis is still in the hospital. Just when we think we are headed out the door, the word comes down that yet another consult or observation or procedure needs to be done before we can leave. The team of doctors working with Dennis are all wonderful, but sometimes I wonder if they actually talk to each other.

Today Dennis had a small procedure to help plug this leak that has sprung from the biliary catheter site. This does not complete the procedure that was begun last week which will still need to be done at some point, but it makes it more comfortable for him . . . and less messy for me!

Dennis is getting stronger and he is able to eat more diverse foods. The pain medications are tough on his system though, upsetting his stomach as well as his memory and logic. He continues to be a real trooper, never complaining, always ready with a joke, often at his own expense. Hopefully he will be able to come home tomorrow, but one never knows how the wind will blow from moment to moment. We just keep dancing to whatever tune the universe plays for us!

A Bump In The Road

After that wild roller coaster ride last week, Dennis was readmitted to the hospital on Friday. Even though weekends are always quiet in hospitals, Dennis' doctor was determined to figure out why he was not able to keep down even water. The antibiotics seemed to be the culprit, but it would take a few days for them to clear out of his system so Dennis got to sit out the weekend in a hospital bed. By Monday he was beginning to feel stronger and able to drink clear liquids. A series of upper GI tests today showed that everything was working just fine, confirming the doctor's suspicion that the antibiotics were causing all these problems. Dennis is feeling stronger now that he able to take some liquid nutrition.

We were so fortunate to have Steffen here to help us through the weekend, and to have fantastic food supplied by Rosemarie Green. The bump in the road is smoothed by the kind acts and caring thoughts of so many in our lives, for which we are so grateful.

A Roller Coaster Ride

When we left the hospital last night, we felt like we did when we first took home Jessica as a newborn: terrified. We had no idea what the future would hold, but we were ready for anything. Or so we thought.

Today has been quite the roller coaster ride. One moment everything is going smoothly, and then in the blink of an eye things skid in the opposite direction. The care of the biliary catheter which Dennis came home with turned out to be more difficult than either of us imagined. The visiting nurse arrived this afternoon at just the perfect time, calmly reassuring us that our concerns and fears were unfounded. And then she left. We promptly collapsed into second guessing our medical abilities before her car even left the driveway, just like in those early first days of parenting a newborn.

Dennis and I are able to actually enjoy this crazy roller coaster ride together. We manage to find humor in the absurdity and strangeness of this ride and are able to marvel at each others' strength. An exhilarating but exhausting ride.

Home Again

Dennis returned home today to a spectacularly exotic arrangement of orchids from our dear friend Sanaz, making us all giggle with delight.

Life feels good right now.

The Art of Medicine

The doctor has taken to doing drawings on index cards for us to better explain what the alphabet-soup words cannot. This drawing shows what the procedures Dennis has just undergone should have looked like, and all the little pen jab dots are part of the explanation of where the procedures did not work. The words on the other side of the card seem like a foreign language to me and so I don't even try to pronounce them. In fact, I no longer look them up on the internet either.

Dennis continues his stay in the hospital. While his lab test results are looking better and better, he is still having a difficult time with food, particularly the hospital food. He does better with the soups I bring from home. Rather than risk having any setbacks by sending him home too soon, he stays hooked up to liquids and medicines to ease his body back into some kind of balance.

Dennis is, and always has been, remarkably patient and persistent in his search for balance