Tom’s latest…

Tom’s doing better today. He looks better too. He says it’s the good home cooking! HA! One thing about the hospital, the accomodations are decent but the food really stinks. Anyway we’ve calmed down a bit and I don’t want to sound too negative about OSU , at least re: Dr. Bloomston, his main Dr. They literally saved his life down there! If he had gone anywhere else locally they would have only offered chemo and sent him home to die. It was their aggressiveness that has given him the past 4 years of relatively good health- we just want them to be a little less aggressive now. Everyone gets panicked about elevated tumor markers but we really aren’t. He has a badly scarred liver, it may be pre-cirrhosis and everything I read says that causes elevated ca19’s. Anyway he will get through the next couple weeks and who knows, maybe stretching this duct will really keep him from ever having a stent again. The pain probably is from the stretching. but boy it really seems like a risky thing to do. I don’t want him to lift anything or bounce around on the tractor etc. It makes it very hard this time of year for us. Oh well, I actually like driving our little tractor and mowing so I’ll do that and he can stand and water plants for 3 or 4 hours a day! Fun, fun!!
Take care all, Mary

They’re sending Tom home today without really doing anything. In four years I have never felt like the Drs. have brushed symptoms etc off, ecspecially since we’ve never been ones to jump to conclusions or be hypochondriacs, but I feel that way now. He has a bilirubin of 3.2 when a week ago it was 1.2, his liver enzymes are out of wack and he’s having pain when he has never had pain before and they’re telling him he’s fine. I hope I’m wrong but I assume I’ll be hauling him back to Columbus in a few days. The problem is I am to the point that I think it’s time to switch to Pittsburgh for his care. I really don’t want him to go back to Columbus because we are actually concerned about them being too aggressive. We’re not worried about the cancer as much as we are that they will kill him with all of their dilations, scoping, biopsies etc. I wonder how Betsy Kubbins is doing ? She had a tear in her duct which is what I am really afraid of for Tom. What a mess!! I wish he had just gotten up off the table in Feb. like he said he considered doing. He really didn’t want them to do all of this and I don’t think it’s right for them to do it without your knowledge. All we thought Tom was getting was a stent change or removal on Weds and here they stretched him to the point of him having all of this pain, he has another infection and they scraped him looking for cancer cells when they just did it 2 months ago. Just venting… I’m very tired. I have a greenhouse business that I really need a little help with and last week I had my 23 year old son and a healthy Tom , I’ve been on my own except for my 11 year old dog since Tues and I’m feeling stressed with everything. I just wish they had left him alone…do no harm!!! Mary

Well, I just got home from Columbus. Believe me, happiness is Columbus in your rear-view mirror!! Tom got up at 3 this morning and was itching, jaundiced,etc and they said to bring him back down. He is to have another ercp tonight or in the morning. This will be his 24 th ERCP!! I couldn’t believe it when of the Docs said he reviewed his chart checking to see how many he had over the years. He thought maybe 4 or 5 was the norm but he was really impressed that Tom has had 23 soon to be 24. No wonder his poor liver is scarred and damaged. Hopefully this is it!! Mary