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It is Sunday afternoon
February 26, 2006 by Dick in Lytton
It is Sunday afternoon. I have just openned our internet access for the first time in a couple of days.
As Betsy has posted, Bill has been in the hospital since Friday mornign. He experienced a significant decline on Thursday afternoon and into the evening-- congested coughing from his lungs, uncontrolled tremors, sweats and chills but not apparent fever, etc. Perhaps, we thought, related to the radiation treatments on Monday through Thursday. As I think you know, he has a tumor in his chest that has grown and inteferes with his right lung's ability to inflate. (This is my understanding.. which is no guarantee that it is a medically accurate description). We wondered if the condition was related to the radiaton.
Thursday evening and just after Meg started to prepare to take him to the ER around 10:30 PM, he had a miraculous recovery-- able to use the walker to get to the bathroom (previously he could not walk with the walker from the couch to a chair 2 feet away); being hungry and having two cans of Ensure; watching the 11:00 News and the Letterman show-- and falling asleep again shortly after midnight. On Friday morning, he awoke again with tremors, sweats, difficulty breathing, etc. and Meg took him to the hospital. He spent Friday in the ER because of a full-house in the ICU with a diagnosis of pneumonia. By Saturday afternoon (and in the ICU), he was much, much better-- and even had a great sense of humor. Meg stayed with him for the entire visiting hours (11AM - 8PM) on Saturday and has been there since 11 today (Sunday). Saturday evening, he had a relapse into the pneumonia behaviors. I don't know that any causes have been tested yet, although we suspect that the cause may be aspiration while eating/drinking. Thicken liquids and pureed foods have been recommended for him several times before but he is not interested. (This may change his mind.)
Julie came home today and spent about 4 hours with Bill and Meg in the ICU-- which brought joy to Bill and to Meg. Callie is occupied this weekend in DC with her boyfriend's family and a memorial service for his grandfather but Bill asks about her constantly too. Mikayla has been tied up all weekend getting her school's light and sound system ready for the school musical next week-- but has been a big help too.
We hope that Bill will move out of the ICU tomorrow and back home soon after that. But we have already learned not to try to predict too far ahead!
Love to everybody who reads this and-- on Bill's and Meg's behalf-- thank you for your interest, your thoughts, and your love.
(BTW, he loves receiving mail which "feels" more personally addressed to him than the e-mail we print for him.)
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It has been a fine week for Bill-- and for th...
February 18, 2006 by Dick in Lytton
It has been a fine week for Bill-- and for the Lyttons. Sue was a wonderful addition to the household but left for her home on Tuesday morning. Betsy arrived on Thursday morning early-- without Will & Patrick who slept a bit later at a nearby motel. All three were here for dinner on Thursday--including making dinner for us all! Betsy returned on Friday morning (perhaps with Will, but I was off to work before they arrived-- so I'm not really sure :-) before heading home.
Dee is a young woman who works for a Companion service and has beeen spending the days with Bill while Meg & Dick work and Mikayla goes to school. She is delightful. She and Bill generally charm each other. The only friction between them seems to be that they have exact opposite interests in television stations: one prefers the Food Channel and one prefers the NASCAR channel (and neither one likes the other!). We will leave it for you to guess who prefers which....
One doctor who they saw together described Bill as "charming" and Dee as "wonderful and competent".
Naturally, this all puts our minds at ease a bit.
Bill has been to a couple of doctor appointments this week. The first to an Oncologist and the second to a Radiologist who will be directing Bill's coming radiaton treatment. He wants to do one more CT Scan of Bill's chest and lungs on Monday before starting some low-level radiation treatments.
Bill is doing nicely with short walks around the house with his walker, helping with all of his daily routines, sleeping better through the night, etc. One of today's errands for me will be a visit to the library to pick up Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears for him!
Finally, I just asked Bill what he would like me to type here for him:
He says that he is going as well as can be expected. Florida is all closed up and he wishes he could visit more with EVERYBODY in Oregon! Bill also commented that "we don't know yet what is going to happen" but he was very happy with the doctors he saw here this week.
And now it is back to the Speed Channel and NASCAR news and races for him!
On his behalf, thanks for everybody's concern, caring, and messages!
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Bill did beautifully yesterday afternoon and ...
February 13, 2006 by Dick in Lytton
Bill did beautifully yesterday afternoon and last evening after the long car-train-and-car trip from Florida. About 4:00 PM, he even wanted to go over to the grocery store to get a PowerBall ticket with "his numbers". He was even impatient to go since it had already started to snow. So before the roads got slippery, we bundled him up and used a wheelchair to get him from the house to the car (faster and easier through the snow than the walker) and around the store for a little legalized gambling and a few breakfast foods-- and back home. The portable oxygen machine that accompanied him in the car and train from Florida went along with us-- and he seemed to be in good shape. Dinner went well as did his walking around the house with the walker a little for exercise and his learning to operate the stair glide. The night was rough-- punctuated by his discomfort and pain from lying in one position in bed too long, by apparently poor oxygenation until Meg hooked up the noisier larger oxygen machine. Meg was up with him most of the night-- but he has now been sleeping well for most of two hours (it is now 8AM our time).
It really is wonderful having Susie here-- not just for her help and kindness with Bill, not just for her organizational expertise with Bill's affairs (that would be the paperwork affairs, not the "other kind of affairs"), but particularly for her company that we have missed for so long!
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