Monday, February 28, 2011

Origami Cranes

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone that folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy beasts , and is said to live for a thousand years. Over the past year Duke patients and families enduring the journey through the cancer experience have joined together to bring the 1,000 paper crane project to life.  To date over 3,000 cranes have been folded and are on display as a sign of encouragement. This joining of forces shows us that we are not alone.  Mine and Joe's sister-in-law, Sandy Okazaki, folded 25 cranes in Las Vegas and sent them to us to hang for Joe.  Each of the cranes has his name on them and they now join the other cranes in the lobby of the 9th floor which is the cancer floor.  Thank you Sandy, your love and caring for Joe is so greatly appreciated.



The cranes are so delicate and lovely.  Especially the ones made with the patterned paper.

Joe has been completely removed from all his tubes as of today.  No IV, no folley.  His pain level has increased, but most likely due to the fact that it has now been over 24 hours since the epidural was removed and his only relief are the 2 pain pills every 4 hours.  We walked a lot of laps around the floor this evening and he is currently sitting on the side of the bed tapping his feet.  Even after surgery, he can't keep from tapping his feet to the music in his head.  There are rumors that he might be allowed to go home tomorrow, but we are trying not to count our chickens before they hatch, so we will just wait and see!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

5th Day after Surgery

This will be a really quick update as we are watching the Academy Awards and those that know Joe well know that this is his Super Bowl!  Today Joe had lots of visitors, both family and friends.  He has moved onto solid foods and has eaten well all day.  They took out the epidural late this morning, so no more morphine.  Now they have changed his pain meds to oxycodone pills every 4 hours.  The result, he feels the pain just a bit more than he has the last 4 days.  The end result, he only has 1 IV at this point.  Practically "disconnected"!  He walked 3 times, 3 laps around the floor each time.  

I did sneak in a few hours at home this morning, doing some laundry but mostly napping on the sofa (unintentional).  I guess if you are tired and you get comfortable, that's what happens!  Sort of messed up my morning plans however. Oh well.

Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed and visited.  You are helping to keep Joe's spirits high!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

4th Day After Surgery

The 4th day after surgery has been uneventful but a good one.  Joe ate his popcicle & jello for breakfast, followed by a bath and then 2 laps around the unit.  Then back to the room where he sat in the recliner for a couple of hours.   During those 2 hours he had 6 visitors and really enjoyed the company.  Lunch came during that time and he had his popcicle & jello as well as juice and tea.  He was enjoying his visitors so much that I went downstairs and had my lunch.  He moved back to the bed just prior to my return for a little while and after all his visitors were gone, we went for another walk.  This time 2 laps around the unit and a quick trip down the hall and then we returned to the room.  He soon after had his IV changed to a different arm and since has been reading his Nook in bed.

Right after this photo was taken we heard the lovely singer who had toured the 9th floor last week down the hall from us.  When the song she was singing was over, I went out in the hall and motioned for her to come to our room.  She remembered us from last week when she sang  "Defying Gravity".  This week she suggested the theme from "Beauty & the Beast".  Her name is Jae Choen and she is a student at Duke who volunteers to go from room to room on weekends to see if patients would like to hear a song.
Thank you Jae.  You have no idea how much Joe enjoyed your song and how touched he was after you left.

It's dinner time now and Joe has Jello, Popcicle, tea and chicken broth.  I'm going to do my best to talk him into trying the broth.

Thank you to everyone's get well wishes and prayers, cards and letters!

Friday, February 25, 2011

3rd Day after Surgery

Joe slept very well last night considering the nightly interruptions.  The doctors started coming in this morning by 6:15am.  Throughout the day he say Dr. Tyler the surgeon who did the operation, the pain doctor, and a few other residents drifting in and out as they all seem to do.  Joe did 2 laps around the unit and journeyed out to the visitor elevators which is about equivalent to a 3rd lap.  For breakfast he had jello and a popcicle for lunch.  They brought him broth, jello and a popcicle for dinner, but his stomach was too upset to eat.  It's just as well since what he had had earlier in the day came back up soon after I got here at 6pm from work.  The nurse quickly retrieved some extra anti-nausea meds and within a few minutes he was no longer complaining of feeling sick to his stomach.  He sat up in the recliner for about 6 hours today and maybe that was just a little too much for one day.  Maybe tomorrow, he will have better luck keeping his meals down

Apparently he has talked a lot today as his voice is very weak and rough sounding this evening.  I "ordered" no more talking and so he has resorted to his own version of sign language and nodding.  Every now and then however, he forgets and says something.  Like right now commenting on the Jeopardy contestants small wager on final jeopardy.

Tonight will most likely be another early night for both of us.  Last night we were both fast asleep around 9pm..  At least tomorrow morning I don't have to get up at 6a.m. to get home/shower/change and get to work.  Maybe I will sleep in until at least 6:30am.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Day 2 After Surgery

He walked and sipped water & apple juice.  Those are the highlights.  Specifically, he walked 2 laps around the 2100 unit and sat in the recliner for about 3 hours.  They finally allowed him to start sipping some water and some apple juice, but only sipping.  If he continues to handle that, then maybe tomorrow they will allow him to start on some liquid food.  He says his pain levels are "pretty good" which translated means the pain meds are working.  He continues to run a slight fever but that appears to be expected.  He also continues to doze off constantly, even in mid sentence sometime.  I went on off to work this morning and managed to stay until around 3:30.  I don't know which is more exhausting, staying at the hospital or playing catch up at work.  It's a real toss up there!

Tonight is going to be an early night for both of us.  Hopefully lights out by 9pm.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed, sent get well wishes, and good thoughts our way.  A special thank you to everyone at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church and to the staff and agents at The Home Team.  Each one of you is so dear to us.  We could never have anticipated such an outpouring of love.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Day after Surgery

Joe had a restless night. Slept in between nurse visits for vitals, blood sugar level checks and moving him in the bed from side to side.  However, that meant that they were in doing something about every 30 minutes.  Amazing how bright the florescent lights in this room are.  Today the nurses did get him out of bed and sitting up in the recliner.  He was in a lot of pain getting up and soon after getting in the chair complained of nausea and they gave him the little pink kidney shaped container to hold under his chin.  Needless to say, that doesn't contain much, so after cleaning that up, they gave him a bath, changed his gown & socks and he settled in with a blanket to keep him warm.  He was still complaining about pain, so one of the doctors did come in and up his dosage.  He felt the effect within about 30 minutes and was no longer complaining.  He sat in the chair for about an hour before asking me to get the Nurse Assistant to help get him back in bed.  When Joe pulled back the blanket so he could start to stand up, he quickly noticed that his entire stomach was red and the gown was saturated with blood. The NA quickly, and I mean quickly, paged for Joe's two nurses, Katie & Martha.  Katie arrived as I fled the room (so much for being supportive huh?).  Seeing so much blood all over his stomach freaked both Joe and me out and I knew I would only be in the way so I just waited in the hall.  Martha arrived pretty quickly, Katie exited soon after only to return within about 2 minutes with one of the surgical residents in tow.  As it turns out it was just where the incision had been draining, but had pooled at the bottom of the dressing and during the activity of moving to chair and bathing, etc, the pooling had given way and thus the blood and ooze all over him.  They assured both of us, me in the hall a little freaked out and Joe in the room that this was perfectly normal.  The doctor removed the dressing, inspected the incision, they cleaned it and applied new dressing,  Joe was put in a new gown and back in bed within all of 20 minutes.

This happened about 45 minutes ago and since then 2 more doctors have been in, can't even begin to tell you what kind of docs, never seen them before, but they were all questioning him about pain levels, any problems, etc, etc.

Typing to calm down and think things through so please forgive misspellings.   Joe has just drifted off to a sound sleep for the first time today so I'm sure that within the next 15 minutes, a nurse or doctor is bound to come in and wake him up.  It always seems to happen that way.

Thank you for all the inquiries today about Joe.  I am trying to respond to as many as possible but it has been hectic thus far today.  If I don't respond to you, please do not be offended, sometimes it is just timing and sometimes it is just a bit too emotional for me.

Thank you for the prayers and get well wishes.  We are feeing the love.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Post Surgery Update

This is a very hard post to do so I will make it brief and just the facts as I know it right now.  The surgeon was unable to remove the tumor from Joe's pancreas due to it's attachment to the main artery running through the area. We knew from the scans that this was a possibility.  He did remove Joe's gall bladder as it appeared to be non functioning and may have been the cause of the 2 infections he has had in the last few months.  He also created a new connection from Joe's stomach to his large intestine.  This was done due to the fact that if the tumor should grow anymore, it could possibly cause an obstruction from where the stomach normally dumps into the large intestine.  So for now, he has 2 passage ways from stomach to intestine.  I think he said he also did something about constructing a new area for the bile duct that should keep the bilirubins from doing their up/down routine anymore, but I'm not to clear on that since the surgeon was drawing the diagram of what he had done on his blue scrub pants with a blue pen. There was clear evidence that the chemo & radiation had had positive effect on the tumor as there were dead cancer cells. Just not enough for what we needed.  Also, the surgeon said that there was no evidence anywhere of an spread of the cancer outside the pancreas. More chemo is in his future and them we will re-assess what our options are.  Joe is resting comfortably right now, though really doped up.  Until we see the doctor tomorrow, I can't really speculate on how long his hospital stay will be.  As for me, my emotions are so rattled right now that I think it's more numb than anything else.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be more coherent and have some more information.  For now, thank you for all your prayers and support.  As Joe has said on his videos, "Happy Trails".

Surgery Day....

The day started very early this morning with a 5:30am wake up from the nurse.  Joe showered using the special soap/scrub brush he had been given and slipped into his gown....and then we waited.  We should be really good at it by now.  First to arrive was Joe's sister Bettie and his mother.  Then came our minister, Jay Minnick and bringing up the rear was my sister Phyllis, and niece's Aimee & Sara.  We sat around and joked & laughed until they finally came for him around 11:30am. Up to pre-op and then they ran me out of pre-op about 12:45.  We were notified at 2pm that the surgery had begun.  So now we wait some more.

4pm report from the nurse is that everything was progressing as expected.  Open to interpretation, but I choose to believe the surgeon is working magic back there!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Twas The Night Before Surgery and All Through the Hospital......

..nurses and residents scurried about.  At least on the 2nd floor at Duke.  Joe's IV which he had had in his right arm since midnight on Thursday night began to leak this afternoon, so they had to remove it and put the cutest little band-aid over the hole.  About 15 minutes ago they came in to put a new IV line in.  An 18 gauge needle.  Pretty darn big needle.  But it's in the underside of his forearm rather in the elbow area like before so maybe he won't be setting off the IV machine all night like he has been doing since Thursday night.  My family arrived tonight to see Joe before the surgery and are staying at our house tonight.  Joe's family is driving over early tomorrow morning from Greenville, NC.  Joe INSISTED on a video of my family, so here is a quick one of them saying good-bye, followed by his phone ringing, imagine that- Joe on the phone- so we had to abruptly end it.


As you can see by the clock on the wall, it was already 30 minutes past visiting hours.  I hope my family makes it home and isn't being held by the fearless Duke Security downstairs being interrogated! :)
Please note in the video that Joe is in new fresh clothes (red shirt, grey sweat pants) since he was able to take a nice long shower this morning and shave as well.  .

All kidding aside, please continue to say prayers for Joe as he undergoes the surgery tomorrow and help guide the surgeon skillful hands to make it possible to completely remove the tumor.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Joe LOVES the cards from PGUMC

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church family!  You have totally made Joe's day!  Both of us love the cards!  We have so enjoyed reading the messages on the back.  They are totally cool!  


This really pepped up his spirits!  Thank you Jay for delivering and staying and visiting with us for awhile.  It was really thoughtful and appreciated.   And thanks for Jill and Renee visiting and talking with us this afternoon.

The most recent update on Joe is that it appears there is a really good possibility that the surgery will still happen on Tuesday. (as of 15 minutes ago with the most recent visit from the doctor)  Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!

Joe on Sunday Afternoon at Duke

Just thought we would show folks that Joe is feeling well, looks good and is very good spirits.
Once he gets his food and his Sunday paper, he's like a whole new person!  Other than really missing being at church this morning --he was really looking forward to the choir's anthem- his only regret for the day was not getting his McDonald's sausage biscuit!

And then we went for a walk.  7 laps around the unit and then we veered off the beaten path.
Joe preferred the route out of the unit which is where the video is taken.

Sunday Morning 2-20-11

Joe did not have as restful a night last night as the night before since they came for him around midnight to go do a scan and they didn't bring him back until 2:30am.  He did sleep well after that but was up at 7am when the nursing shifts changed.  He has seen the doctor this morning and they are planning on doing the ERCP to check out the stint and possible "sludge" that has built up. That should happen tomorrow, but it is a relatively minor procedure (he's had it done twice before already).  However it could delay the surgery that was scheduled for Tuesday.  We will find out more about any delay after the ERCP.  I came home this morning, doing 2 loads of laundry and hope to be back at the hospital around 11am.

Please keep saying prayers for Joe.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Move is On....

...actually the move is over.  At 4:45pm we got word on the 9th floor that Joe was moving to the 2nd floor after all.  So at 5pm the transport arrived (otherwise known as a wheelchair), I loaded my pillow & blanket onto Joe's lap, struggled to get Joe's bag of "stuff" on one shoulder, my bag with phones, computer, Nook, my green notebook of all of Joe's appointments/medications/lab results/procedures (yes I keep a notebook of everything) on my other shoulder and my bag of drinks & my dinner in my hands and off we went to the 2nd floor, otherwise known as the surgical floor. Room 2116. Basically we are 7 floors, 1 room over and opposite wing from where we were. On the positive side, the helicopter landing pad is no longer just outside the window I sleep by so the noise should be less and we are on the west side so the morning sun will not brighten the room so quickly as this morning.  Maybe sleep after 7am is possible for both of us tomorrow.

Joe's dinner tonight was as he put it, "The Best Meal I've Ever Had At Duke".  Roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots & peas, salad w/thousand island dressing, dinner roll.  He scrapped every morsel off the plate.  Temp continues to be normal and his 2 nurses until 7pm, not much longer, are very nice and attentive: Katie and Martha.  Thanks to both of them for making the transition to the new room so easy.

Also a big shout out of Thanks to Julie, Jacquelyn & Rhonda on the 9th floor for a great night and wonderful day today.  All were sweet, caring, attentive and fun.

So the basics: in room 2116, surgery as we know at this point is still on for Tuesday, but that could change if the fever should start back up.  So it is time for me to unpack again and settle in hopefully for another early night to sleep.
And this of course is what Joe has been doing most of the time....talking on the phone!
Also a big thank you to Mike & Jeff for their visits today.  It really lifted Joe's spirits to see you.

Guess What folks???

Joe stayed on the 9th floor last night so my re-packing was in vain.  The 2 bags are still sitting next to my chair.  The ERCP for today has been cancelled, at least for now, so Joe will get to eat all day.  What does this mean as far as when we will be going to the 2nd floor???...Ask the Magic 8 Ball, you'll probably get as accurate an answer as we will get from asking someone here.  But we are quite happy to have stayed here on the 9th floor.  This is where Joe was back in December and the nurses and staff here are the most wonderful and kind people you will ever meet!  They took very good care of him last night and we will just relax and get moved in until someone from transport shows up at the door.  For now, room 9315.

Sleep does a body good!

Let me just clarify about the 24 hours (and 15 minutes) in the Emergency Department.  Although long, our time there was understandable given the number of people in the waiting room, waiting to be seen, and the number of ambulances that came in during the evening.  They take people in order of arrival, along with severity of illness.  Although Joe did not feel good, he was in no way a high risk, trauma patient.  The frustration from the long wait was more from anxiety over what was happening with Joe's health and boredom combined.  24 hours sitting looking at each other, conversation was really starting to wain.

Friday, February 18, 2011

24 Hours & 15 Minutes at Duke Emergency Department....

That's how long it took for Joe to get a regular room up on the 9th floor...But wait, before you ask what room.  Upon my return from home with his toiletries and clothes, and unpacking everything, they tell us he is moving to the 2nd floor tonight.  The 2nd floor is the surgical floor and since as of right now he is still scheduled for his surgery on Tuesday the 22nd of Feb, they figured they would go ahead and get him set up down there.  Sooooo I re-packed everything and now we wait in his room on the 9th floor to go to his room on the 2nd floor.  Yesterday and this morning we couldn't get a room and now he has 2 of them!  I (Jeff) have not slept for 38 hours and am pooped so this will have to be a very brief post.  They are doing the ERCP tomorrow to see if they can identify where his apparent infection is coming from. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you all that.  That's why we are here.  Great storytelling Jeff :(   Yesterday (Thursday) morning, Joe started having chills and running a fever. He monitored his temp all day and in the afternoon after it topped 101, he called the triage nurse in Oncology. She promptly told him to go to the Emergency Dept..  So I left work, we arrived at 4pm. and waited until midnight before getting into an exam room in the dept.  And that is where we stayed until 4:15pm today when a room on the 9th floor opened up.  So here we are at 7:45pm waiting to change rooms and floors.  Once I wake up tomorrow, I will update as to where he is.

Thanks as always to everyone's best wishes and prayers.  We both love and appreciate all of you.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The End of the Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Though I never experienced the flavor of the chocolate covered strawberries for myself, Joe enjoyed every last one of them immensely.

Surgery is scheduled

One bit of good news. The vascular surgeon that our Surgeon, Dr. Tyler, wanted to have ready if there is the need for the artery graft from his thigh to the area next to the pancreas is available and on the schedule for that day.  At the very least, we will have the best possible team of doctors in the operating room working on Joe. So the surgery will be Tuesday, February 22.  Time to be determinded.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Long Duke Valentine's Day

We arrived at Duke early enough to find a good parking place near the level 2 bridge to the Duke Clinics from the parking deck. We checked in at Clinic 1A via the arrival kiosk just prior to 8am.(Joe loves this part where he gets to scan the barcode). Soon thereafter Joe was called to the back for them to draw some blood and about 10 minutes later he was called to the back for them to take his vitals.  He's only lost 2 lbs. since his last visit 3 weeks ago. Yea!  Minokah, Dr. Zafar's nurse, came out and told us to go on up for him to have his CT Scan.  He was called to go back for his CT scan about 10 minutes after we checked in at that clinic.  They called 10 names and the waiting room emptied.  It would appear that they do them "en masse" since they called so many at one time :) .  So now I wait.
 Joe came back from his CT scan about 9:40am and now we are off back downstairs to Clinic 1A to wait some more.  Patience is a virtue that I am sorely lacking....especially now.
After 1 1/2 hours we are still waiting in Clinic 1A.  Let me emphasis how impatient a person I am.  Joe is reading from his Nook, and now trying to figure out how to get on the free Duke wi-fi.  That should keep him occupied for a little while.  I've played several games of Liquid Measure, AngryBirds and Cat Physics on my iTouch......my eyes are crossing and the caffeine from the coffee earlier has worn off.  Yawning once again.
Finally about 11:15am we were called back to the exam room.  After a couple of minutes, Dr. Zafar's nurse, Minokah, came in to check on how Joe was feeling and go over his current meds.  She left after a few minutes and then in came Kara Penne, Dr. Tyler's (Surgeon) NP.  She examined Joe, asked questions and then Dr. Tyler came in to talk with us about the results of the CT Scan and the possibility of surgery.  Apparently, the chemo and radiation seem to have had no effect at shrinking the tumor, and possibly it has grown some.  However, Dr. Tyler still feels it would be best to plan on the surgery.  But, and this is a big but, it is possible that once he begins the surgery, if there is evidence that the tumor has encompassed some vital veins, ones that can't be cut around, then he would not be able to proceed with removing any of the cancer.  After Dr. Tyler left, Dr. Zafar (Oncologist) came in just to follow up and make sure that we fully understood what Dr. Tyler had said.  We were able to re-state for him about 90% of what Dr. Tyler had said, so Dr. Zafar went over it all again for us. The scans did not show what he was hopeful for, shrinkage of tumor, and he went over what our course of action would be with both scenarios.   If the whipple (the pancreatic oncology surgery) can be performed, Joe will have a couple of months of recovery time followed by 4 months of IV chemotherapy.  If the surgery can not be performed, then after a short recovery period, he will start IV chemotherapy indefinitely.  Once Dr; Zafar left, then Dr. Czito (Radiologist) came in and although he fully agreed with both Dr. Tyler & Dr. Zafar, he felt that although the CT scan did not show shrinkage, he felt the growth was negligible and he was optimistic that the afore mentioned veins would not be engulfed by the tumor.  He stated he didn't want to paint a rosey picture, but he repeatedly stated he was optimistic.  The main point through it all was that if when the surgery starts, if there is evidence that the tumor has attached to the aforementioned veins, then he would not proceed with the surgery and Joe will go back to weekly chemotherapy indefinitely.
Our appointment for the Surgical Pre-screening clinic was for 1pm, so we were about 5 minutes late getting up there, but we only had to wait until1:30 before going back to yet another exam room.
A nurse soon came in with lots of questions and double checking his current medications and went over the procedures for the day of surgery.  Soon thereafter, the Nurse Practitioner came in and went over more questions, more medications and went into more in-depth answers about the surgery.  She had to order up more blood to be drawn and an EKG. After getting that taken care of we were finally out of the Pre-Admissions room around 3:20pm.  That's 7 1/2 hours at Duke today.
We quietly walked back to the car without much talk.  Todays news has taken the wind out of our sails somewhat. Tears have flowed some, nerves are a little frayed.
We treated ourselves to a late lunch at Elmo's and now have returned home.

Try as I might, I can't seem to come up with anything clever or humorous to say for this post.  Be patient with me, maybe next time.

Thank you to everyone who has called, texted and inquired about how Joe is doing and we continue to be grateful for your good wishes and prayers.

P.S. One bit of good news today (Tuesday). The vascular surgeon that our Surgeon, Dr. Tyler, wanted to have ready if there is the need for the artery graft from his thigh to the area next to the pancreas is available and on the schedule for that day.  At the very least, we will have the best possible team of doctors in the operating room working on Joe.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Happy Birthday Joe!

Today, February 11, 2011 Joe turned a distinguished 55 years old.  Still looking good for such an old man, huh?  Yesterday his cousin Steve came for an overnight visit from Asheville.  We had a delightful dinner at Toast downtown, then the 2 of them went to see 127 Hours.  I opted out of that event.  I think I would rather cut my arm off myself rather than watch a movie about someone cutting their arm off, but that's just me.  This morning Joe & Steve went to Elmo's for breakfast and then Steve headed back west.  Joe has had a wonderful birthday, filled with gifts and well wishes from family and friends.

As you can see, Joe is not an easy person to film.  But then again, my camera abilities leave a lot to be desired.  The best part after the video was done was finishing off the red velvet birthday cake that Stacey Potratz of Joe's choir made for their surprise birthday party last Wednesday night after choir practice.  Both of us agree it was the best red velvet cake we've ever had!!!!

On Monday, Feb. 14th, will be the day that we find out whether or not Joe will be a good candidate for surgery to remove the tumor.  His appointments at Duke start at 8a.m. and continue through mid-afternoon.  We start with the Radiologist, then scans, then the Oncologist, then the Surgeon, then hopefully the surgical screening clinic.  If everything goes on time, we should know before the evening rush hour when his surgery will take place.  We've already received a letter from the Pancreatic Surgical Oncology department with details of what the surgery will be, how to prepare for it, and what to expect, should it actually happen.

Thank you to everyone who has remembered us in their prayers and sent their love and best wishes.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Weeks End Update

Not much to report this week as it has been rather uneventful.  Joe continues to monitor his blood sugar levels 4 times a day with his glucose monitor and take all his meds.  The last few days he has had a few readings below the diabetes level (under 125), so that is promising that possibly the medication is working.  He felt well enough to attend the 2 night performance of "Angels in America" at Playmakers in Chapel Hill with 2 close friends.  I stayed home for some alone time.

Joe has been busy working on practicing piano for the pieces he will be recording next week for his "A Time of Centering" cd whose proceeds will go to the PGUMC music fund.  He will be recording next Monday and Tuesday at the church.

February 14th is still the long day scheduled for appointments and scans with all 3 doctors at Duke.  Hopefully soon thereafter we will know when his surgery will be scheduled.

Thanks to everyone for all their good thoughts, prayers and well wishes.

Vaccination date set

 This morning at 8 a.m. we began the process of trying to get an appointment date.  I had 3 appointments at the Duke Cancer Center so I was ...