March 3, 2008

Colleen & Kelly here reporting from RUH while Brenda is with the patient.

The last few days have definately been a real whirlwind with family and friends sitting with Donna around the clock to get her through a very difficult weekend.

This morning she had another 3 litres tapped from her abdomen ... all looked normal.

This after noon family met with Dr. Ahmad & Miriam (social worker) to discuss options at this point. The 24/7 cylinder of Chemo that we thought was the full cause of Donna's vomiting was actually doing it's job and started shrinking the cancer cells that are splattered in throughout her abdomen ... liver and kidneys are fine but kidneys have some pressure on them from the cancer's location and the fluid build up.

Option One - to continue with the 24/7 cylinder Chemo and to treat the symptoms as they occur ... the first thing we should notice from the chemo positively working on the cancer is that the vomiting and diaharea should be decreased because these symptoms are actually started by the cancer itself ... should Donna choose to go back to start chemo again. Even though her energy is not up to par without chemo her energy will continue to deteriorate and only make it more diffucult to start treatments later on should she choose that route.

Option Two - would be to not continue with chemo and choose the route of comfort care which would include pain management and treating the symptons as they occur.

As of this time Donna is weighing her options and will decide on her course of treatment tomorrow ... the families will support Donna in which ever decision she chooses.

On a lighter note us 3 sisters along with 2 porters took her to her X-ray department for the fluid tap ... as we got in the elevator and the doors began to close, Donna with her eyes closed said to the porters, "that's good we got rid of them" only to open her eyes and see the 3 of us looking at her in total shock as she was referring to us .... I guess there really can be too much of a good thing.

After the procedure we were hemming and hawwing if we should take her back to her room on our own or call the porters ... too late porters were called but we never stuck around it was time to take Donna on an adventure. We were off and running
..."Donna do you want to do some ramps"
... "oh shit we hit that wall"
... "watch out for the soiled laundry baskets"
up the elevator past her room, past the nuring station
... "run we have her records for you Barb" and off to the family room
whew we made it for the 3:30 family meeting. All this with a little more than a few giggles, oh well if you can't have fun with your sisters why have them.

On that note we are signing off from the Family Room at the RUH ... we think we hear Brenda calling.