Houston Update!

Where do I even begin. This is not really part of our Houston trip, but Alan has had one steroid injection and one epidural steroid injection. To keep this part short...neither have helped. Alan's pain continues to dominate.



Houston....well, I guess we are kind of back in the valley. Alan had scans Monday. As soon as he was through with his scans, he came out and said the radiologist tech was calling Amato b/c they found some blood clots in Alan's lungs. We were not scheduled to see Amato until Tuesday, but he wanted to see us asap and look at scans and blood clots. After a brief wait at Amato's, they send us back to radiology to have ultrasounds done of Alan's leg. They found another clot in Alan upper left leg. Back to Amato's we go....waiting, waiting, and waiting. All of this back and forth is so hard on Alan, but we did have a wheel chair for the later part of the day. Once we finally got to look at the scans, Amato told Alan that he now holds the world record for the most blood clots in lungs. Looking at Alan's scans was unbelievable. Honestly, Amato has never seen this many clots in a set of lungs. He honestly had a blood clot, large and small, blocking or semi-blocking every vessel in both lungs. It went from being 2-3 clots in his lungs to being full of them. They decided to put him on Lovenox which is a shot he will take twice a day for 1-2 weeks and then he will start coumadin. Besides this being a life threatening situation, we also learned that Alan will not be able to have any type of back surgery due to the lung issue and clots. We are not sure if he will be able to have more injections either. This was a bummer b/c we were all hoping for some type of pain relief besides what Alan is doing now that obviously is not really working. Today, Wednesday, Alan is having a filter inserted in his Vena Cava (actually as I type this). Hopefully this will prevent any of these clots from going to his heart b/c we all know what that means. We have been at the hospital since 7:30am....another long day. Alan is still back in surgery. The clots could be caused from the cancer or from not being very mobile.

Alan's cancer seems to be stable...no growth, no shrinkage. I guess our biggest surprise was we learned that Alan's cancer has spread to his liver. Alan and I have never been point blank told it was in his liver. Amato swore he had talked about this before to us, but no...he hasn't. I think we would remember!! Regardless, the liver is stable as well. At this point I guess it doesn't matter b/c it's stable and that's good. After going through this last year and a half, nothing is really a surprise.

I guess that is about it....I think that is enough. Alan will continue taking his long list of meds. We will be staying tonight in Houston, unexpected, and coming home tomorrow. It's been another long day.

Last night our daughter read us "The Billy Goats Gruff" over the phone before went went to bed. It was so sweet and she did an amazing job. Our kids lift our spirits daily. They are such a blessing to us.

Thank you all for you your prayers. We know they are heard and we will continue to pray for our friends fighting this awful disease. We love you all!!

Ashley County Relay For Life
Hamburg
May 14th