From Today's Inbox

From: Sue
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 8:04 AM
To: 'Cynthia Miles', 'Paul Balfour'
Subject: Yesterday

Okay, I have had all I need for Christmas now. We had such a magical afternoon, Alex and Nicky in top form, laughing their heads off for an hour and a half decorating those cookies. Alex gave me his analysis of the North/South Korea conflict vis a vis the start of WW 1 ( differences and similarities, he could write a paper on it!). He seemed so comfortable to be out, you would never know it wasn’t something he does every day.

Anyway, I know, it was just a reprieve on the journey but I am so glad he has had a week of feeling relatively good and having some fun.  Thanks for sharing him for a few hours – it made my Christmas ( and Bud's!). xoxo Sue

Nicky, Alex, and Abby decorating gingerbread cookies.

Oh yeah, Alex had another visitor today!

The great Mason Raymond!  We first met Mason at a charity dinner several weeks ago and he and Darcy Hordichuk got their cell phones out and both called Alex who was supposed to be there but had to stay at home.

The Canucks do a lot of great community work, particularly with children and they should be commended for that.  Thank you, Mason and the Vancouver Canucks organization!

Alex and Mason Raymond

(and I'll fix the red-eye soon!)

Home Again ...

... and hopefully for more than a night this time.

Cynthia takes issue with the last entry. She says that she lived a different experience than the somewhat casual, relaxed one portrayed there, particularly leading up to the surgery.  There may be some truth to this.  It was pretty tough, and when someone is under anaesthetic and being operated on, it can be a little nerve wracking.  Particularly when you start to think  " ...what if it's not appendicitis, what if they find something else!"

Recovery times for standard appendectomies  are now about 12 to 24 hours so we had brief fantasies of getting home last night.  Alex had a fair bit of pain yesterday afternoon, which drugs eventually brought to heel but I was worried about his legs.  He still had a lot of pain when he tried to stand and walking wasn't quite possible.  As the night wore on, he got better at standing up beside his bed, but I wasn't sure.

There was a baby in the room next to us for both nights and this poor fellow was in great distress and cried frequently and loudly for what seemed like hours at a time.  Hard to be annoyed but it didn't make sleeping any easier.

This morning was great.  Alex woke up slowly but by 10 or so he was eating cereal and drinking well, making jokes and in a superb mood.  And he could walk! Actually, all round, he was the best he's been in probably the last three weeks. Most of the doctors stopped by, I think mostly out of curiosity -  "Seriously, Alex, you had appendicitis? Dude!"  

About 11 we found out we could go home but it took a couple of hours of messing around, then waiting for some drugs to go and  a few trips to the car to carry all our crap out (it's amazing what you accumulate in two days - Cynthia keeps bringing it - pillows, pajamas, crates of beer etc.) and it ended up being about four o'clock by the time we got home.

But home we are and .... aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The appendectomy

Incredibly, it turned out that Alex did have appendicitis and had surgery last night.  It went very well and he was quite chipper just a couple of hours later.

Technology is remarkable and the operation was all done using lathroscopic surgery so it is not nearly as invasive and involved only three very tiny incisions.  Quite cool really.

The surgeons declined my offer to assist during the surgery.  And I wasn't even going to charge them.

Alex and I thought it would be neat to keep the appendix so we could show it to Nicky and then maybe dry it and make a Christmas tree ornament out of it.  No one else seemed to find this particularly funny and we were unable to obtain the tissue.

After a lot of pain and discomfort Friday night and most of Saturday, Alex has been mostly okay today.  We are hopeful, but not certain, of getting out tomorrow.  He has been getting morphine for the pain from the appendix and so we need to manage the withdrawal of that very carefully.

Appendicitis is not related to the leukemia.  Just another stroke of bad luck.  Fortunately (he said, grasping for positives) it happened when his neutrophil and platelet counts were very strong, it could have been a little tricky otherwise.

Thanks for all the emails and texts these past few days, it has been tough and that helps.  I am slowly getting back to everyone when I can.

FFS

We got home mid-day Thursday and it was so great!  Once we were settled in, I went to bed and drooled into a pillow, it was dark when I woke up.  Alex was up the whole time and doing really well.  He came downstairs to sit with everyone for dinner and while he only ate a little, it was just fantastic.

Friday was great too although my brain felt like mush.  Alex was great, eating and drinking and seemed to be handling coming off the morphine very well.  At about 5:30 though he threw up.  This was half an hour before his next dose was due and I put it down as probably being due to that, he had no temperature and seemed pretty good other than a quick barf.  He had the morphine and some other medications he takes regularly and seemed fine, but tired and wanted to sleep.  I sat with him, reading while he slept.

At 9:30 he woke up and was sick again.  As soon as I touched him I knew there was a problem, he was really hot.  38.7 the thermometer said.

So we he had to come back to Emerg last night.  We got there a little after 10 p.m. and by 3 a.m. we were back in the confines of "2B" where we are as I write this.

Alex 's bloodwork when we got to Emerg showed a sky high white blood cell count 21 or 22 or something and his neutrophils were 19.9.  This and a temperature are classic signs of an infection.  In the car on the ride in though Alex developed a pain in his low right side which intensified as time went on. This raised the real possibility of appendicitis so at 2 a.m. we were in the bloody xray room for pictures of his abdomen.  In the meantime he got some heavy duty IV antibiotics.

He also developed incredible pain in both calves, so painful that he couldn't walk for a while.  And Alex has a very high pain threshold.

The pain in his side has all but disappeared this morning and the calves are much, much better as well. The temperature disappeared and is normal.

We sit and await the doctors' verdict.

We're not happy.  My primary emotion today is anger which I am having to keep a tight grip on.

Alex just wants to go home and have a shower.

Home

We're home.  And the Leafs dropped two in a row over the last two nights.  The natural balance of the universe has been restored.