Julie's take on things

Jim asked me to write for him today, since he is getting behind in blogging.

This has been a busy week. On Monday morning, we had an appt with Dr Te, (pronounced Tay) Jims oncologist. We had blood work done, and everything looked good clinically, except that Jim is losing weight again. He has been suffering from a lot of nausea, and has not had an appetite for a few weeks. We are not sure why, because he has not had chemo for five weeks. Possibly a side effect of some of the medications he is taking. But he didn't want to start another round of chemo if he was already feeling sick. The Dr agreed. He felt that we should change to a different type of chemo, and maybe that would make Jim less sick. The one he is on now is very harsh. So we are going to another regimen, once a week for three weeks, then one week off. We are scheduled to start that next Tues. We will see....

After the Dr, we went over the the new hospital to radiology. Jims drainage tube has not been working, and we, along with Dr Te, had decided that there was no reason to keep it in. They did a CT scan of his lungs, and there was not much fluid present. There also has been no shortness of breath, or pain in the lung area. We were baffled by this, because he has been producing so much fluid since October. The Dr told us there could be many reasons for the lack of fluid, but the most likely cause is that scar tissue has built up and fused the lining of the lung to the chest wall. This does not allow any space for the fluid to build up, which is actually a very good thing. The removal was easy, and only took about 10 minutes after the Dr came into the OR. Jim felt pretty good afterwards, and we went home after about 90 minutes in recovery.

Wednesday morning, Jim was scheduled for a PET scan. For this test, he has to drink a liter or so of radioactive fluid, then they strap him to a table and run a scan for about 30 minutes. He has to hold really still. They can then look at the results, and it tells us if the cancer is actively growing, and where and how much there is. He had one in October, another in December. Jim has been having increased pain in his back, so we were afraid that the cancer had been growing more in his spine and bones. He did pretty well for the scan, but had a hard time drinking all the fluid.

Wed afternoon, Justin competed in the regional solo and ensemble festival. Jim and I really wanted to see him perform, so we went to the school after the PET scan. We arrived in plenty of time, but were told the wrong room, so we sat in an empty auditorium while Justin played in the Seminary building. :( Such is life......

Wed evening, I was singing and speaking for a RS program, and Katie had a special fireside at the temple visitors center at the same time. So Jim packed up his oxygen, his blankie, pillow and fentanyl stick one more time, and drove Katie to the fireside. They even stopped by the Church on the way to hear me sing! Jim was exhausted when they got home, but he slept better Wed night than he has for a long time. :)

Thursday afternoon we had an appt with the lung Dr. He saw Jim in the hospital several weeks ago, and has been treating him with antibiotics for the lung infection. He looked at the CT scan, and told us that it looked like the infection was cleared up. Jim was very happy to hear this, because the antibiotics he has been taking were really yucky, and Jim had to take them four times a day for a month. It also has been upsetting his stomach. No more icky antibiotics, yeah!

The Dr. listened to Jims chest, looked at his bloodwork, and also looked at the PET scan results.
He told us that there is some new growth of the cancer, mostly in his bones and spine. There is also a small new growth in the upper lobe of the left lung. He said Jim has about 2/3 lung capacity still in his left lung. He also saw a small amount of fluid between the top and bottom lobes of the lung. Jims oxygen levels continue to look good. His blood count for the cancer is still high. We have another appt with Dr Te on monday, and we will discuss the possibility of radiation again, as well as the new chemo.

Today, we went for a drive. One thing that Jim really enjoys is going for a drive. We drove north today, and went all the way to Enterprise. Its a tiny little town, one gas station/grocery store, a miniature library, and a wee bitty post office. It looks a lot like Richfield, but much smaller. To get there, we drove through some amazingly beautiful country. Jagged red and white rocks one minute, forrest the next. We even saw some snow! We have gone lots of places the past few months that neither of us had ever been before, just driving around the countryside down here. It is so beautiful, we are truly blessed to live in such an amazing place.

Jims parents drove down to visit today, we are grateful to have them here. Next week is spring break for school and college, so we hope (with Justins help) to get some yard work done. Anyone who would like to volunteer to help........ :)

We rely so much on the Lord, and are so grateful for all the prayers and service in our behalf. We are reading a book together, The Peacegiver, by James L. Ferrell. It is a wonderful book, and we are having some great discussions about the atonement and forgiveness. It is really neat to have this time together, to draw closer to each other and to the Lord.