Hospital CMC Main Room 4926

Both Gavin and I have been flooded with memories these past few days. He has been very fortunate over the past 21 months to not have had any hospital stays. Even this stay was very unexpected but definitely necessary.

Details...
As I have mentioned previously, this past Friday, Gavin got a nerve block to try to ease his back pain. Well unfortunately it didn't work, it even seemed to aggravate his back even more. His pain became increasingly worse throughout the weekend and into Monday. He was scheduled for a CT/PET scan on Monday and we both were concerned as to how he would be able to lie still at the level of pain he was in. Dr. Pal's office ramped up his pain meds in hopes of helping him get through the scans. Let me tell you, he took a lot of pain meds on Monday. A lot. It barely took the edge off. So by Monday night, Gavin was ready to go to the ER. We headed down to CMC main thinking in the back of our mind that they might want to admit him and it would be useless to start at CMC Pineville. In the course of 2 hours, they gave him a lot of pain meds in the ER. They would work for a little bit but wear off more quickly then you would think possible given the dosages. About 2 a.m. or so they called Dr. Pal's office and it was determined that he needed to be admitted. I really don't think there is much worse then seeing someone you love in that much pain and feeling helpless to do anything about it. I think as a parent or as a spouse, your knee-jerk reaction is to take away the pain and as quickly as possible. As I typed that I couldn't help think about the relationship between God and Jesus on earth. God watched his son go through excrutiating pain and yet he didn't feel helpless because it was His plan! He allowed his son to go through that for us! Amazing.
So after a non-restful night (are there any restful nights at the hospital?) it was time to talk to doctors and get some plans in place. The first thing they did when they admitted him was put him on a PCA pump. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a pump that is attached with an IV for the patient to self-administer pain doses in a controlled way. This seems to be working at the moment. Unfortunately he can't go home with this pump so the docs need to figure out another way of pain control. Hopefully that will be figured out today. The doc did say that they would put him on his home meds here at the hospital and have him on those for 12-24 hours before they release him. I was very glad to hear this. I didn't want to take him home and then have to rush back to the hospital because the regimen wasn't working.
We did get the results of the scans back. Unfortunately (man I have used that word a lot) all of the tumors have shown a significant increase in size. Obviously this is not best case scenario. The one that is causing Gavin the most pain right now is the one situated on his right rib. This tumor has always been there but has never changed or caused any issues. Fortunately the radiologist oncologist feels that it is in a place where they can radiate it and try to reduce it to alleviate Gavin's pain. I think at the moment there will be 5 rounds of radiation. He is very hopeful that the radiation will be effective because it was supremely effective on reducing the tumor in Gavin's spinal column at the initial diagnosis. In fact, according to the scans, while everything has increased, there is no activity at that spinal tumor site! Praise the Lord!
Today we are hoping to finalize a pain management plan with the docs. Gavin will also have his first round of radiation. At the moment, he is getting some much needed rest. I know, you are thinking that I need to do the same! Maybe sometime today, he will feel like sitting in the chair and I can grab the bed for a quality power nap!

Thanks...
to Jennifer - for sitting at the hospital with us until 3 a.m.
to Dana - for giving me great advice and all of your offers of help Monday night
to Anne and David - for bringing the kids up to see us
to Scott - for running up supplies to the hospital
to the Crosby's and Heck's - for meals
to everyone - for your visits, thoughts, prayers, offers of help, loving words, and helping hands

Love and blessings to all,
Maria