Thursday, March 26, 2009

Stress, stress, and stress

Please accept my apology for taking so long to update my blog. We have had a ton of stuff going on. Gymnastics meets almost every weekend, doctor's visits for me, my mom, and my grandfather, in-patient stays for my grandfather 2 out of the past 3 weeks.
My grandfather was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer today. Not good!! I have been the caretaker for most of his and my mom's needs for the past 4 months. My mom nearly died back in December and she is doing somewhat better, but is still really sick. My grandfather complained of chest pain about a month ago on a Monday morning so we took him by ambulance to the hospital where he was admitted, cardiac cathed, and a stint was placed in his 95% blocked artery. He started looking jaundiced the day before that discharge, but nobody but us thought anything of it. He came home on Thursday. He was supposed to go to his regular doctor on Monday for bloodwork about that, but it snowed so we had to cancel it. He went on Wednesday instead. Thursday night they called my mom (who doesn't understand all the medical stuff much) to say that he was extremely jaundiced and he needed to be admitted immediately back into the hospital. I couldn't go that night so we took him the next morning. He was inpatient Friday, Sat., and Sunday. At discharge they told me that they had done some tumor markers on some blood work, but didn't have the results back yet. I was told to bring him to the gastroenterologist office in 3 weeks which we did today. She saw us and told him and me that he had extremely high levels of the tumor marker. Way off the chart so it is probably advanced stage. He has bad back pain, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, etc. Now, all we can do is keep him comfortable. I am going to call hospice tomorrow to see if I can get that started. I am his main caregiver b/c I hold his power of attorney as well as my mom's. My younger sister at home is 19 and pregnant. She is due in 2-3 weeks. I need prayers for my family, for Pyper's family (she is doing some better), and for my peace of mind please. I will try to update again tomorrow when I get a chance.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wendy,
I am working tomorrow at the school in the clinic, but I will keep you in my prayers!
:-)
We love you guys!