Catching up

Hi all -
Sorry I have fallen behind with posts. It's been busy.

Rick is in the hospital again. His right lung still has pockets of infection and Dr. Daniel put him back into the hospital on Dec. 23 so that he can give him high powered antibiotic, IV (Zosyn). He will be in the hospital until Dec. 27 or 28 and then home on IV for two more weeks. The CT last week also showed some small lumps along the incision on his back. Dr. Daniel will biopsy them on Monday afternoon. Of course, there is a possibility that they are meso - but they might also be something as simple as the "buttons" that were used during surgery to tack (something) into place. It is possible that the buttons are causing irritation. I'm going with the button theory.

It's been tough having Rick in the hospital over Christmas. Kate, Ken, and Ben were here on the 23rd and 24th. They took Ben to the hospital this a.m. to visit with Rick for a half hour before they took off for Ken's family in Phoenix. It was hard for Rick to know he couldn't watch Ben open gifts on Christmas morning. The good thing is that they will be back here for New Years and Rick will be home then. In fact, all the girls and husbands will be here for New Years, so we will have our Christmas next weekend.

Rick saw a gastroenterologist two weeks ago and his stomach and pyloris were scoped. They were clear and functioning well. He has an ulcer on his esophagus, but that is no surprise after the multiple lesions he had on his esophagus in April. The only surprise is that there was only one ulcer!

He saw a cardiologist on Dec. 23 who did an echo cardiogram and said Rick's heart is functioning well within the normal range and he doesn't believe the fluid accumulation was due to poor functioning of the heart.

So - the good news is that everything but the lung looks good. The concerning news is that he seems to have multiple pockets of infection in his lung and we don't know what the little lumps are along his incision.....More later.

Merry Christmas