Wednesday May 17

Mom is doing ok, getting tired again from the radiation I think. She is also either very nauseous or very hungry and she can never decide which it is. I just give her a pill and give her food to eat that takes care of both problems. Her recent appointment with her G.P. Dr Hunsiker went well, still trying to work out getting off the lovenox shots. Hopefully she will be off them by the weekend. She also lost a few pounds, not sure how many I was unable to attend that appointment and she wouldn't tell me. She has another appointment with her oncologist Dr. Razia friday. Hopefully one of her valley friends can take her since Tim, TJ, and I will be in North Creek all day. She has been driving herself but she appears to be getting a titch weak so a drive to utica may not be so good.

TJ recently was diagnosed with Bronchiolitis with apparently is very contagious. He is on antibiotics again I just hope mom didn't catch anything. The doc's keep a good eye on her counts so she should be ok.

Back to Botsford Hospital

Dad is back to Botsford Hopital today. He had some minor angina Saturday night, but had a severe case this morning, and they sent him from the rehab facility back to the Botsford ER. They're going to admit him today, and we should know about a room assignment a little later. They're going to hold the rehab room for 24 hours, and then they'll have to box up his belongings and we'll have to pick it up. This will be a busy week as we're having our annual user conference, and I'm heavily involved in the setup and coordination of the event. Luckily, Gail had already taken today off to get caught up at home, so she's already been to see Dad at the ER, and doped out the situation at the rehab facility.

I'm not sure why he's continuing to have angina pain as they were supposed to be getting him on a new drug regimen to assist with the blockage in the one vein, but it's evidently not doing what it needs to.

May 11

Today was a good day for mom, she drove. First she drove from herkimer to ilion with me in the car. Then she drove herself to herkimer later in the day. She did ok but drive a bit slow with me, like 40 in a 55. But she isn't going to drive to utica so it's ok. Tomorrow is the colonoscopy as planned. Tonight she is preping, probably not a good time to call for those who are interested. Yesterday the nurse told mom to get out more and not be so home bound so mom is getting out more.
She went to wal-mart so all is right with the world again. Sunday we may attempt church if she isn't too tired from chemo and other stuff.

May 9

Today mom had her markings done for radiation. She will have 15 more days of radiation starting this thursday. This morning I began giving her shots of lovenox to thin her blood a little. She has blood tests everyday this week to see if they can do the colonoscopy friday, we won't know until thursday if that will still happen. That is all.

Monday

Today we found out mom's blood is normal and they want it thinner. So I have to give her a shot twice a day now, we'll see how that goes. Radiation is still on for tomorrow, and chemo wednesday. I guess the colonoscopy is still a question up until thursday, depending on her levels. More tomorrow.

Dad's Moving

Dad will be leaving the hospital today, but isn't quite strong enough to head back to his apartment by himself. He'll be going to a geriatric rehab facility associated with the hospital called Botsford Commons. They said they're planning to move him today by ambulance at about 2.00p. They'll be working on building his strength back up and he should be able to return home soon.

Help

TJ's birthday present is to ride thomas friday the 19th in north creek ny, which is 2 1/2 hours away. I can't drive that by myelf (and all our friends are busy) so tim is going to drive but that would leave mom alone. I am not comfortable with that at all so I was wondering if anyone can come up and stay with her. We would be leaving early probably 8am and we'd be back at night. If anyone can I would be very grateful.

Thursday

Well, no colonoscopy this week. They are still checking coumadin levels and they are not happy with it yet. So we actually have NO appointments tomorrow! Wow. Next week is really busy. Radiation starts at some point, Chemo next wednesday and they say the colonoscopy will be friday. Plus there are some random appointments thrown in there.

Mom is tired, and losing much more of her hair. Our pastor came today for a visit which was nice. She has been out of it as well so if you speak to her and she says funny stuff i guess it is a side effect of chemo or drugs or something like that.

Latest Updates

I spoke to Jennifer last night to get the latest news on Mom. She's continuing her treatments, and is proceeding with a wonderful colonoscopy on Friday that was scheduled way before any of this started. The doctors recommended she move forward with that to see what's what and deal with anything they might find. The side effects from the treatment have been more difficult to contend with. She's got sores in her mouth, and the medicine they gave her helps for a little while, but it makes it painful for her to eat, so Jennifer and Tim are working with her to try to get her to eat something each day. The next chemo is scheduled for next Wednesday, and there are some new cat scans scheduled to see where things are at.

Dad is still in the hospital, and had a catheterization yesterday. They determined that one of the grafts from his bypass surgery is partially blocked. Dad didn't have the whole story, but I doubt it's cholesterol build up because that's been closely monitored since the bypass, so it's most likely scarring that has developed over the years. They plan to do another catheterization to "roto-router" the vein so that it allows for better blood flow. This is critical because he's had three more incidents of angina pains since he thought he had a heart attack last week. There were two events overnight Sunday, and I haven't heard any more today. The next procedure will likely take place at a different hospital, but they said that it would just be a day trip, and then he would return to Botsford. If this procedure opens up the vein, then hopefully he can return home, maybe by the end of the week, but we'll have to wait and see.

Saturday-Happy news!

Yesterday was exhausting but we did get good news. The radiologist Dr. Crawford showed us the x-rays of mom's lung and it is much clearer now than it was, so it is opening up for her to breathe better. He gave mom the option to wait on doing more radiation or going ahead with more, the benefit to continuing it was making sure it remained clear. Mom said do whatever you gotta do! So we have more markings for radiation scheduled, followed by actual radiation. The oncologist Dr. Razia tested her white blood cell count and it was fine, so that was more good news. Razia set up her next chemo which will be in less than 2 weeks. She will be doing it in utica right at slocum dickson. Mom is getting some more side effects more sores and thrush, I believe that was from chemo. She also has a very sore throat from the radiation but she has this cool new medicine for that which she can take 3 x a day.

Dad Update

Got some good news yesterday about Dad. He did NOT have a heart attack on Wednesday, even though it had all the appropriate signs. He had chest pain that started moving up his neck and into his jaw. He got the nurse's attention and received nitro right away so that it probably helped to avoid any further problems. His doctor referred to it as an "episode" and they still plan to do a chemical stress test today, but if the results of that don't show any anomalies, then he may get to go home later today. If he doesn't get out by tomorrow, he'll likely be stuck all weekend because they don't have a lot of activity on the weekend.

More later once we have more details.........

Wednesday

Sorry I am slacking with updating, been busy. Everything is going ok, last radiation thursday with an appointment friday with the radiation guy. He will let us know when the radiation will continue. There is also an appointment with razia the oncologist friday so that will be a big day with lots of talking about lots of important stuff. Mom is doing ok, she has started losing some hair. We are getting on the whole cutting of the wig thing soon. I will most likely update again saturday morning when I come to work. Please continue to pray for mom, dad and anne. Also please pray for the rest of us cause our luck is getting pretty bad lately.

Craig's dad

Well if all hasn't been bad for this family - now Ron is in the hospital too. He went in on Friday with pnemonia and had a heart attack while in the hospital on Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers as well.

WE were able to visit with Liz, Jen, Tim and TJ over the weekend - it was a lot of fun. Nate had a blast with his cousin, grandma and aunt Jen and Uncle Tim. He was able to play with some of TJ"s trains too.

Liz seemed to be doing really well over the weekend. Tired of course - but it was a nice visit. We even got to see Uncle Bill too.

Again - keep the whole Backus clan in your prayers.
Gail

Saturday

Mom is doing a little better. She was picking up her room this morning, sorting things so that is a good sign. She is having a hard time right now because she can't go see Anne in the hospital. For those who don't know Anne is in the CCU at St. Lukes and she is not doing all that well. Mom can't go due to all the germs. Mom is scheduled for radiation up to thursday and then thursday or friday she meets with a doctor to see where we go from there.

Thursday

Mom was tired today becuase TJ was up last night with nightmares so none of us slept too well. Plus she has been more nauseous. Luckily they gave her a pill for that too and it seems to be helping. She actually made two phone calls today so I was impressed but then she was exhausted.