Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Happy 80th Birthday - Mom









Today, Wednesday February 27th, 2008 is my mom's 80th Birthday. Unfortunately, because of my mother's relocation to Arkansas I am unable to celebrate this milestone birthday. But, my Love, Thoughts and Best Wishes are with her especially today as she celebrates this birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom !

Clostridium Difficile (C-diff); Colitis - 02.27.08

After his last ER visit on 02.17.08, Jerry began doing better by Monday afternoon 02.18.08. Jerry continued on the B.A.R.T (Bananas, Applesauce, Rice and Toast) diet and finished taking the third prescription on Flagyl, as well as, finished the Cipro medication. Jerry started introducing other foods into his diet, such as a tuna fish sandwich on Friday... which he thoroughly enjoyed, after being on the BART diet.
Yesterday, Jerry had an appointment with the gastroentrologist at 3:00pm. Prior to his appointment, he started having problems and had an accident with diarrhea. Dr. Abousaif mentioned to Jerry about using Vancomycin, but did not give him a prescription yet. Dr. Abousaif requested copies of the lab and stool testing results done at the Placentia Linda Hospital ER on 02.17.08.* Dr. Abousaif also wants Jerry to get another stool sample for testing ASAP. Dr. Abousaif also told Jerry that he did not want to schedule a colonoscopy until this is taken care of. After his appointment and before he arrived home, Jerry had another accident with diarrhea. Last night Jerry was up several times, during the night, with diarrhea and continued having diarrhea this morning.
I suggested that Jerry should stay home from work relax and take it easy. However, Jerry insisted on going to work! I told Jerry he needed to get the stool sample ASAP and, contact Dr. Abousaif to let him know about the continued diarrhea, after his appointment, so that Dr. Abousaif can determine if Jerry should start the vancomycin sooner, than later.
* Davina - Can you please forward all those lab results to Dr. Alaa Abousaif, MD Fax # (714) 639-3474, please include a coversheet with an Attention: Dr. Abousaif. Thanks, Karen.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Nicole - October 27, 1990 - February 20, 2008

It is with a tremendious amount of grief and sadness to share the news of the passing of my mom's precious cat. Over the past eighteen (18) years Nicole has been a beloved pet, for my mom, and has brought so much unconditional love, affection, joy and companionship to my mom. It was seldom that my mom would go on an overnight excursion, trip or vacation without taking Nicole along with her. May God's blessings be with both my mom and Nicole and May God's peace be with Nicole and all our loved family, friends and pets that have gone before us.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Cambria Faith (aka) Tiny Camie



Zack Allan named "his" kitten, Tiny. When Zack heard us calling her Camie, he put his hand on his hip and said "HER NAME IS TINY". Zack gave her that name even before we found and adopted her. Trying to convince Zake that her formal name was Cambria Faith and that Tiny and Camie are her nicknames he just was not going to have it. Zack says she can't have two names and that her name is Tiny!!! Yesterday, the boys presented us with a gift, a heart shaped ID tag with Tiny Cambria and our telephone number engraved on it. Zack says Tiny cannot go outside without her tag on. Both Jake and Zack are really enjoying playing with their new little kitten. Camie... is enjoying them as well.

Health Update on family...

Jerry is finally feeling better, even though he is still trying to get his strength back. He has two medical appointments coming. On Monday 02/25th he has an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor to go over the results of his CT-Scan. He is also in the process of making another appointment with the Gastroentrologist (GI) doctor in order to schedule his colonoscopy.

Karen is finally feeling relief from Asthma and a Sinus infection. The Asthma flaired up late December. I have been under the care of my pulminary physican since. In the mean time, I caught a serious sinus; broncitus infection. I went back to my pulminary physcian on Friday and received a prescription of Avelox and received two Asthman injections of Xolair (see attached link). http://www.xolair.com/index.jsp?s_cid=0001&s_src=googleppc&c=720

Tiny Cambria Faith "Camee" is also doing much better with her upper respitory infection (URI). She is going crazy playing and playing and playing like a 5 month old kitten.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

CT OF THE PARANASAL SINUSES - follow-up

Today, Jerry had another appointment to follow-up on his blocked sinuses. He has been treated for a sinus infection and they wanted to do another CT-Scan to see if he continues to have a blocked sinus. If the CT-Scan shows a continued block sinus, the ENT will need to go in and physically unblock the sinus. We should have the CT-Scan results in a few days and then we will go from there.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Clostridium Difficile (C-diff); Colitis - 02.15.08

As Jerry progressively got worse after his routine oncology appointment, on Tuesday 02.12.08, having more chronic and severe diarrhea along with abdomen, back and upper thigh pain. I insisted we make another trip to the ER (Emergency Room). I told Jerry that if he didn't go voluntarily, I would call 911. We arrived at a very busy ER around 1:00am Sunday morning. Patients everywhere, including in the hallway on hospital gurneys from the Operating Room (OR). It was pretty chaodic. Of course Jerry has a problem sitting around anywhere, except for on the toliet, these days. When Jerry was finally set up in a bed, his vital signs were taken the when the doctor triaged Jerry they ordered pain medication along with a CBC (complete blood count), doopler for his upper legs (to rule out blood clots) and a lab test for stool and urine. The results of the doopler was negative, but the CBC and labs showed him to have very high white counts. The doctor's prognosis is again the C-diff and prescribed his 3 prescription of Flagyl and Cipro. When we finally left the ER Jerry was the last and only patient left with only one patient checking in, it was approximately 6:30am. It was a very, very long night. Jerry still continued having problems when we arrived home but around early evening he was doing much better. The ER nurse explained to me that having the C-diff infection causes the waste to go through his colon not being processed appropriately which causes a lot of acid pain in his body. Evidently, the colon produces a sticky substance that helps create your poop consistency and Jerry lacking sticky substance which causes Jerry not to get a fair warning that something's about to get eliminated.
I think that Jerry and I need to have a serious consultation with his oncology physician to see what we could do to discontinue as many of his regular medications until Jerry's body has a chance to heal with this C-diff. According to what I have read and heard about this condition it's a very stubborn condition to get rid of and it also causes additional problems with your colon and that's why a colonoscopy is necessary.
I guess the next step is to get his colonoscopy scheduled ASAP, as well as, have discusses about the situation with his gastroentraolist and oncologist.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Oncology Appointment - 2008 February 14 followup


Happy Valentine's Day...

Jerry and I are enjoying our new addition to our family. Our new little arrivals name is:

Cambria Faith aka "Camie". She is a sweet, loving, affectionate little kitty and we are enjoying having her around.

Well Jerry was doing pretty good for he last couple days, but today he started having the same old problem with the diarrhea. Started this morning. After about 4 - 5 times this morning he did take an OTC (over-the-counter) medication and when that didn't work he went ahead and took the Anti-diarrhea Rx the Gastroenterologist physician prescribed. So far he's doing better.

Oncology Appointment - 2008 February 12

Jerry is actually 1 week behind for his oncologist appointment. Because of all his problems and his visits with the Gastroenterologist physician, he recommended that Jerry postpone his appointment until they had the results of the series of abdoment xrays, blood test results and 3 days worth of stool samples he submitted to the lab. We still have not received any reports regarding any of the above, but Jerry has been doing better. I am not convinced that he out of the woods yet, and won't continue to have the same problem. I am anxious for him to get his colonoscopy scheduled so we can rule out a colon problem. But, today he did go for his routine oncologist appointment and hopefully he will have minimal problems and discomfort with the procedures this month.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

New Arrival - Cambria "Camee"


Monday, February 11, 2008

Our Newest Addition to our family

After waiting six (6) years, after the death of our beloved Sugars and earlier the death of Bandit... Jerry and I have adopted a new little kitten. We don't have her quite yet she is getting spayed (hopefully) today. Jerry and I have been searching the internet and I have been running around to all the local animal shelters, PetSmarts, as well as, private parties to find her. We were specifically looking for a kitten (it's not quite kitten season) and we were trying to find a kitten that wasn't a brown tabby (like Bandit) or a calico (like Sugars). So we adopted our new kitten on Saturday 02/09/08 from the Orange County Animal Care Center in Orange, CA. She is a 4 month old stray and she is a silver and white tabby. When I first saw her she wanted my attention and she wanted me to pet her through the bars of the door on her cage. When the attendant gave her to me to hold and get acquainted, the kitten immediately started to purr once she was in my arms. As I continued petting her she started rubbing against me. When I put her up to my face she started rubbing against my face. Since the attendant was familiar with me and what I was looking for since I had been to this shelter several times. The attendant said this is the best one for you. I had visited with several other young cats over the past few times and this one was definately a good match. As soon as she recovers from her surgery we will be able to pick her up from the shelter. If you can think of any cute names for a silver tabby, please pass them on. So far Jerry and I can not seem to agree on each others suggested names.

Gastroenterology Update 02/11/08

Jerry had a follow-up appointment with the Gastroenterologist however, since all the test results have not been received by the doctor's office... Jerry needed to reschedule. Jerry should be calling the office today and making sure they have all the results and then he will be scheduling another appointment.

Gastroenterology Appointment - 01/31/08

Jerry progressively got worse and was having cronic and severe abdomenal and back pain. Jerry was so sore from all the diarhea that he was jumping into the shower immediately after instead of wiping to hard with TP. I had schedule an appointment with a Gastroenterologist on Thursday. I had left for work in the morning and by mid morning Jerry was on the telephone with me in such pain and agony he was in tears. I tryed to get an earlier appointment but, Jerry said he didn't think he could make it. I was so upset trying to work that I decided I needed to leave to help Jerry. By the time I arrived home Jerry was doing better, but had had a terrible time earlier. Our appointment was to be at 2:00pm, but the doctor's office had called and said the doctor was about an hour behind schedule. We arrived at 3:00pm. Jerry could not sit in the lobby so he was sitting close to the bathroom. I sat in the lobby and filled out all the paperwork. Once I was done with the paperwork I came inside and waited in the room for the doctor. Periodically, I checked on Jerry. He was in the bathroom and was not able to come out to the examination room. So I filled the doctor in on what was going on. The doctor said he needed to take some blood tests; a series of abdomen x-rays; and 3 consecutive days of stool samples. Once the diagnosis was made and the problem cleared up he would schedule a colonoscopy to see what was going on. Jerry's mother died of colon cancer and Jerry has only had one colonoscopy and that was in the year 2000 (I think)! Dr. Winkle (my maiden name) ordered three (3) prescriptions for Jerry. One would stop the diarhhea; the other was Flagal for Colitus and the other a cream for his buddy cheeks.

BTW... Jerry's brother who died of Throat Cancer (and nothing to do with colon cancer) died a few days after his 66th birthday.