2014 12/22 What Now?

What Now?

Leland has been feeling sick and weak for several weeks now.  He finished the radiation back in November, seemed to have minimal side effects.  The full  beneficial effect expected has not yet materialized, although he says there is some reduction in the leg pain.

We saw one local oncologist whom we liked very much, but he is not willing to work with Dr. E.  We saw another one on Friday who is willing to work with him.  Her name is Dr. Michaelanne Liss.  She prescribed a blood transfusion for today, which we went and did this afternoon.  It was in the Cancer Center of Peace Health Hospital. Very well organized, good ratio of  very skilled and kind nurses to patients.   Dr. Liss said he would feel better immediately, but we are reserving judgement on that.  Leland has not only been very fatigued and sick, but has not slept for the last 3 nights.  Dr. Liss believes he needs to discontinue several of his meds, and Dr. E. agreed, so we will begin immediately and reassess his situation in a week or so.  I am certainly hoping all this will help him have more strength and a better quality of life.

With a local Oncologist now, we should be able to cut down on the trips to LA, maybe every other month rather than every month.  The trips are very tiring for Leland, even though we are now getting wheelchair escorts through the airports, and of course they are also very expensive.

We have become the old couple who need assistance with routine things, and are thankful for motorized carts in the stores and wheelchair assistance when needed. There are perks to this-people are mostly very kind,  doing little extras to help us out when needed. We will be getting a handicap parking permit in a couple of days, which will also make life a little easier for us, as it is really hard for him to walk across the parking lot these days.

We take one day at a time, sometimes an hour at a time.  Mark and Grant have been over helping us for a couple of hours at a time, which we really appreciate.

 We are looking forward to Christmas with our family. We will all be at Cherilyn and Todd's including Dawn and her daughter, Ena, whom some of you know. We wish for each of you a full measure of God's blessings on Christmas and throughout the New Year.