Sunday

Well, he was supposed to come home tomorrow but now it might be Friday before they release him. Dr. V wants to run some tests. None of the nurses knew why, all they know is that he's having a CT scan. They took the stomach line off the pump and are using the gravity method now. Still feeding him through the central line in the chest and the navel. He did walk around the whole floor three times today, which is good. The more he is upright the sooner everything in the abdomen will move back in place. He is not in any pain, the incision is healing very well.

I spent all weekend between visits to the hospital cleaning the house and fixing it up so when he came home he'd be comfortable. I asked if he wanted a hospital bed and he said no. Dr. V said he'll be able to go up and down the stairs so he won't have to stay in the bedroom all the time, as both of our bathrooms are upstairs. A nurse will be here to teach us how to use the feeding pump and how to keep the abdominal site clean. He can't wait to be able to eat food and drink again, but it has to wait until the insides are healed. We need to put some weight on this guy, he's all skin and bones!

Friday

A little set back today. Burt vomited once or twice so they had to put the stomach tube back in. He had it in for 15 minutes and it pumped half a liter of bile and stomach acids out. That stuff was making him throw up. He's not happy about it, but it's necessary. It will have to be removed again before he can come home.

I arrived home after work to find a Medical Supply truck in my driveway. They delivered a food pump for Burt to use after he is released. They showed me how it works, hope I can remember what to do when it's actually time to use it! He will be fed through a tube in his abdomen until he can eat solid food. The pump is just like the IV machines they use in the hospital.

It rained tonite and on the way home I saw a rainbow. Another sign that God is watching over us!

Thursday, May 28th

Surprise! The doctor said we could take Alleyah up to see Burt! He was soooo happy to see the dog! And she was just as happy to see him!

All the nurses came in to see her and just loved her! I have to say it made Burt's day so see her, it's been over a week since he's seen his "baby".

He is getting better every day. They are going to wean him off the central line and take it out. They are feeding him a little bit through the feeding tube in his abdomen. He can sip water but no food in the mouth yet.

Dani visited him during her lunch break and they walked around the floor. He's walking slowly but he's walking! Every day we are more encouraged that he's going to be ok. Keep those prayers and good wishes coming!

Wednesday...

Another tube out! The nose drain popped out this morning and they decided to leave it out for a while. He may have to have it put back in tomorrow, we'll see. As it has been, he's been in good spirits, but he's a little worn out. Got up out of the bed several times today to sit in the chair. His blood pressure has been a little low so they hooked up another bag of fluid to his central line. Right now he's nothing but skin and bones, we need to fatten this guy up some when he can eat again! Dr. V told him they sent the tumor to Johns Hopkins for diagnosis, seems the lab here can't figure out what it is.....

Thanks for all your comments and good wishes, prayers. I tell him you're all asking about him. I went back to work today so didn't get to see him until around 3:30. Working tomorrow and Friday. Taking Mom and Dad to the airport Saturday morning, they are going to California to see Ryan (Buddy's oldest) graduate from high school. Way to go Ryan! Wish we could be there. And congrats to Kayla and Noah who are getting married Saturday, wish we could be with you all too. Say hi to Michael and wife for us.

Tuesday

A good day for Burt. They are starting to slowly feed him a liquid diet through a feeding tube in his abdomen. They are still feeding him through the central line in his chest also. He got out of bed today and did a little bit of walking around the room. Can't go too far as he is hooked up to the stomach drain. Incision is healing well, have no idea when the staples will come out. Still haven't gotten the pathology report yet. Maybe tomorrow.

He's out of intensive care (ICU)

He's in a regular room (247A) now and feels much better. They've removed all the tubings and lines and whatnot, now he only has two drains in the abdomen, the central line in his chest, and the nose drain. Dr. V stopped in today and said he's progressing very well. No news from the pathology department, tomorrow we should hear from them. I'm starting to think he's amazing!

Sunday

Well, he is doing good but mentally he's struggling. It's tiring to watch TV all day in bed. Every time he falls asleep a nurse or doctor or technician comes in to check something. The tube in his nose that goes to the stomach slipped out an inch today and had to be put back in. That was not pleasant. Yesterday they took out the two IV's in his arms so that helps. The swelling in his hands and arms has gone done. He still has several IV lines going into the central line in his chest. Two drains in the lower abdomen. 33 staples! The incision is healing well, no redness or streaking.

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. This is the first time in 9 years we haven't thrown our Memorial Day party for our family and neighbors. Oh well, there's always next year.....

An uncomfortable day...

for Burt today. He just can't seem to get comfortable for long. He did get out of bed and sit in the chair for two hours today, that's an improvement. His hands and arms are swollen from all the fluids they're putting in him. He has tubes and drains and whatnot running everywhere. I saw his incision today and it runs from one side of the stomach to the other. He must have like 50 staples in there! The doctor's are impressed with his progress so far, he may move to the PCU tomorrow sometime. We have not gotten the pathology report back on the tumor yet. Probably won't get it until Tuesday now, as Monday is a holiday.

He's resting comfortably

Just got back from the ICU, Burt is resting comfortably. They started to feed him through the central line in his chest, they are managing his pain okay. He will be in the ICU for a couple more days before they move him to the step down unit. He is awake on and off, cannot talk too well because his throat is sore from the ventilator. He was happy the hospital carries the channel that televises the hockey playoffs.....LOL. He will be able to watch the game tonight.

Short visit to the ICU at 11

Burt is off the ventilator and breathing on his own! He can't speak, throat is sore but is awake for short periods of time and was happy to see Dani and I, gave us a "thumbs up". He said all five doctors came to see him this morning and let him know what was going on. He's very happy they got it all out, tomorrow we get the pathology report and will know if it was cancerous or not.

Anna and I will be going back sometime after lunch to check in on him again.

Doing good

Got a phone call from the ICU nurse this morning at 6:30, Burt did good last night and was awake for a short time this morning. They are going to try to reduce the pain meds so they can wean him off the ventilator. Hopefully it will be out this afternoon and he'll be able to talk.

Final surgery update

Well, Dad is out of surgery. Dr. V said it went well. He's going to be on the ventilator until tomorrow morning at least, and he'll be in the ICU through the weekend. They were able to take out the entire mass. They did find a small nodule on his small intestines, they removed it and the pathology came back negative. So they do not think it spread. Dad does have a pretty bad case of Pancreatitis, which is swelling and infection in the pancreas. So they are going to give him antibiotics for that. He has a feeding tube in, and he will have it for a few weeks. But Dr. V was very optimistic, so that made us feel a lot better. We're going to ask that if you guys want to visit, to wait until next week. Once we get him out of ICU we'd be more comfortable with people coming up. Keep the prayers coming. We're not quite out of the woods yet and we know it's helping. :)

Update #5

We heard about 40 minutes ago that Dad was doing really well. They are putting him back together and it would be another hour or two before they'd be done.

update #4

We just got a call from the OR Nurse, they said everything is still going really well. They estimate the surgery will take another 2 hours.

Update #3

Just received a call from the nurse in the OR, Dr. V was able to get the whole tumor out. They are still in there, and it looks like it will be another few hours before we actually see him, but we're feeling pretty good right now.

Update #2

Everything is going according to schedule for the surgery. We still have a long way to go, but so far so good. They told us earlier this morning the surgery would take about 5-6 hours on average and the recovery will take about 1-2 hours and we'd be able to see him after he comes out of recovery. So we'll be able to see him sometime between 5-7 pm tonight.

Surgery update

This is Anna Renee. We got Dad to the hospital this morning and they took him into surgery around 10am. We just had a nurse come out and tell us that the laproscopy looked good, it doesn't appear the mass is attached to any blood vessels and it doesn't appear it has spread. So they are begining the actual surgery now. I'll update this throughout the day to keep everyone up to date.

Question asked by Dani this morning:

"Dad, are you ready for tomorrow?"

Burt answered, "No, but I'm ready for Thursday."

:-)

Two days to go

Dr. V called this morning, all systems are a go for the surgery Wednesday. So now we wait. He did not get the results from the second biopsy back yet, but because the CA 19-9 test came back so high he's sure it's cancerous. So it has to come out. Burt started a clear liquid diet today. Tomorrow we go to the hospital to get his blood typed so they have some on hand for the surgery. We are ready for Wednesday.






Yesterday was a good day. My Dad made a sign for the front yard of our church and yesterday was the dedication. Family came from everywhere and I am so proud of my Dad! He did a great job building the sign and it is a wonderful memorial to his parents and two sisters.

Then after lunch Dani and the girls in Anna's wedding surprised her with a bridal shower! They had been planning this for several months now, and did not want to postpone it. We just moved it from the house to the firehouse, so Burt would not come into contact with anyone, just in case someone was sick. AND we managed to keep it a complete surprise!!


A good time was had by all, and Anna and Jeff are thankful for all the love they received today. We are so looking forward to this wedding August 1st!

Things seem normal around here

Burt is doing well, not losing any more weight but still thin. We are watching what he eats so his sugar doesn't go up too high. It's almost impossible to control with the meds anymore, in the hospital they brought it down with insulin shots. Why they didn't give him insulin for home is beyond me. He starts a liquid diet on Monday for the two days before the surgery. I think the closer we get to Wednesday the more nervous we get. Today was a quiet day, everyone has something to do so only a few visitors.

The kids are at the wedding of one of Robert's friends. We would have liked to go but don't want to chance Burt catching something. Adrian promised to take pictures for us and so did Dani. Tomorrow I hope to go to church, they are going to dedicate the sign my Dad made in memory of his parents and two sisters. I will post pictures tomorrow. Almost all of our family is coming so it will be a nice occasion. Time to do something 'normal' for a change.

Burt is back home!

And enjoying being able to watch his precious hockey on TV. He looks much better and is not so weak as he was on Monday. His color is better and there's not much yellow in his eyes and skin. Only six more days until surgery to get this nasty thing outta there. We are gonna take great care of this guy so he can beat it and bounce back!

Thanks to everyone for the prayers, cards, phone calls, visits. We can't face this with out y'all!

We are all so tired

Burt had a stent put in his bile duct this morning. Hopefully in a few days he won't be so "yellow" anymore. They have him on a liquid diet until they see how the stent does. He may be coming home tomorrow, we seem to have him stabilized for now. He is controlling his sugar with insulin shots as the meds aren't working. The liver being unblocked now, maybe he will be able to get some nutrition from food now. It has been an exhausting three days, who ever said you can get your rest in a hospital has not been in one recently.....

Once he comes home, the problem will be keeping him strong and healthy until the surgery next Wednesday. The doctor's are going to do a Whipple procedure on him and take out the tumor, the gall bladder, part of the small intestine and part of his stomach. The surgery may take between 5 & 7 hours so it will be stressful on all of us. Please keep those prayers coming.

Today...

This is Anna Renee, Sherrie's daughter. She wanted me to update the blog so everyone knows what's going on. Over the weekend, Dad wasn't feeling too good. He started to look yellow and he was very fatigued. Dani called Dr. D early this morning and he wanted us to get Dad into Union Hospital so they could monitor him and get him some fluids. We ended up getting him into Christiana after some discussion with his doctors. They advised us there that they would check his liver and kidney functions, give him fluids and run some tests. They also gave us a surgical consult and their surgeon said it would be about 3 or 4 weeks for them to assemble the team and run the tests they needed to do the surgery right. This is major surgery, and not something that should be rushed. They explained that if a matter of a day or two would make a difference in whether the tumor/cancer had spread or not, then the surgery would not be effective and they would be doing more harm than good. So we feel a little better having that explained to us.

So that leaves us with him in the hospital now. They are going to keep him for a few days at most to ensure he is stable. They have told us he is malnurished, since his body is not absorbing the nutrients from what he eats, he is also dehydrated. They are running tests to see how his liver and kidney functions are. We have a meeting with a Pancreatic surgeon in the morning, and a dietician. The dietician is to make sure we are getting him foods that will make him stronger for the surgery next week. As of tonight, it looks like we are going to stay the course and have the surgery with Dr. V next Wednesday. Dad is still in good spirits and hanging in there. Please keep the prayers coming, we know they are helping.

May 20th

That's the day Burt's surgery is scheduled. There are still more tests to run and results to wait for. Right now we're waiting for the results for the CA-19-9 blood test. This is turning out to be quite a complicated mess. I have to get it all straight in my head before I can share any with you. Please keep us all in your prayers.

The Lord works in mysterious ways....

Good news! The biopsy results..... not cancer, just a tumor. We feel like we're on a roller coaster ride. The news is good, but the tumor still needs to come out. Burt had some more tests done today, and may need another endoscopic ultrasound, we're waiting to hear about that. We go to the surgeon tomorrow to find out when the surgery is scheduled and all we need to do for that.

Dr. B explained that even though the sample was not cancerous, it was hard. Usually cancers are hard like that. They will do a complete biopsy on the tumor when it's removed and then we'll know for sure.

How quickly our life has changed. I am going to work for a couple hours tomorrow to do something normal for a while. It's tough spending all day at the doctor's or the lab or the hospital, or just being home. I have to thank you all for all your prayers and good thoughts for Burt. Keep 'em coming! We're going to beat this!

Conflicts....

Went to the GI doctor early this morning who told us we caught this in time. Said if we'd waited two or three more weeks before coming in Burt would have a 6 month survival rate. Dr. D said he could send Burt to a surgeon at Johns Hopkins or UM but we have the best surgeon right here for this type of surgery. We want to wait until we get the biopsy results tomorrow before scheduling surgery but we need to have it done right away. Don't want to give this mass anytime to spread or get larger. Burt is still losing weight and I want him to stay strong for the surgery.

So later this morning we went to see the surgeon, Dr. V, who comes highly recommended by everyone we've talked to. He explained what he'd have to do to remove the mass, and will also be removing his gall bladder and part of the small intestine. It's a long all day surgery and Burt will be hospitalized for 10-12 days afterwards for recovery. Then he dropped the bombshell, he can't do it for two weeks. He is off next week and needs time to gather his team for the surgery. He wants to have the best people around him when he's doing the surgery. I'm like, I wanted this done yesterday!!!

So now we're waiting to hear from the GI doctor, we called him after visiting the surgeon, not sure if we should wait the two or more weeks. I hate this waiting, I want to get this done and over with, now.

It's cancer

Burt had the endoscopic ultrasound done yesterday at Christiana Hospital and it revealed that he has a 2 cm mass in the pancreas. Dr. is certain it is malignant. We find out for sure on Tuesday. Either way, it has to come out. The duct from the pancreas to the small intestine is blocked by the mass, that's why he hasn't been getting any nutrition from the foods he eats. That's why he's been losing so much weight. The good thing is that the margins around this mass are clear and there are no veins feeding it.

At least now we know what's going on and can deal with it. We meet with a surgeon Monday. Please keep Burt in your prayers.