Friday - Part 1

I think this will be a long day so I am going to start a blog now. It is another beautiful, sunny day. I forgot to mention that Curt looks and feels much better. I got here after 8:30 this morning. The surgeon came in earlier to see Curt. They were supposed to operate at 1:30 and he is still waiting to go to the operating room at almost 5. He got back from his MRI last night about 10. This morning he had a little bit of a sponge bath and walked a little to "get things moving". It worked. Angie came about 11 and will stay this evening. Jef has the girls. The nurse said once he goes to surgery, he will be gone about 3 hours. Shortly after Angie arrived, a Pallative Care Nurse came. She spent a lot of time with us. She wanted to know how the cancer has progressed, etc. Then she asked what we wanted to know. Among other things, Curt said he wanted to know what the prognosis is, how it would be, etc. The PN was very caring and informative. They are still waiting for the results from the MRI. Dr. Chui is out of town today, but will be here this weekend. So I don't think we will learn the results until tomorrow. The PN said it is important that Curt feel better after getting the fluids, nourishment, blood, etc. (he does feel better). She said it is also important that it seems the cancer is still in just the head area. They are trying to figure out pain medicine dosages by how many times he uses the morphine pump (I don't think he uses it enough - he says he his pain level is always 2 or 3). They will then prescribe a long lasting pain patch or pill to use at home. She said she thinks he still has time to spend with the grandchildren and thought it would be nice if Beth came to visit while Curt is still feeling okay. If the prognosis is not good, they will refer us to hospice. She had a Resident Doctor come back later with a "pink form" called POLST. It is essentially a shortened Advanced Directive. The Sprechers (Lynda and Steve) came as she was finishing. It looks like we won't come home until Monday. Curt was awake quite a bit this morning and has been sleeping quite a bit this afternoon. I will write more later tonight.