Relay and No Radiation!

While this past weekend was spent with friends doing fun things – it was still another packed weekend – I am very excited for this coming weekend where we have no “out of town” visits planned – we can simply relax in our own relaxing way – i.e. spend time with friends on Saturday and the rest of the time get caught up around the house – and hopefully be able to find some little flowers to plant for my front stoop container garden (based on timing and cost – most likely only impatiens this year - next year I will get "fun with flowers" again!)

Friday night was the Cockeysville-Timonium Jaycees Relay for Life. It was fun – great to hang out with friends, and the irony of the location – to actually not talk about cancer for a few hours! I did set up my two luminaries – one in memory of mom and one in honor of Chris. We only stayed for a few hours and then headed to meet some friends for dinner and drinks before heading home to get some much needed sleep.

Saturday we were up early to pack and head to Salisbury to help their Jaycees with the Chicken Festival and then on to a night in Ocean City where Jeff was gracious enough to host us for the night! Funny, after leaving the chicken festival Rob and I both said that we didn’t want to even look at chicken for quite some time – so when we went to Harpoon Hanna’s in DE, we ordered wings – doh!!!

As for Chris, he continues to be at Hopkins as an inpatient. They are not foreseeing a release until later this week. More tests have been completed and we are beginning to get some answers though every one answer tends to raise more questions. They are starting to get his pain under control but every now and again he is having “pain attacks” – requiring higher doses. I think right now we could stop a rhinoceros with the amount of medication he is on. But, his best friend and family were able to make it down from PA this weekend to see him which helped raise his spirits some and I think helped him set a “fight resolve” a bit more!

Previously we were looking at radiation in his back specifically to reduce the pain so he could function and potentially not be in the wheelchair / scooter for mobility assistance. The concern with the radiation is that it would either delay the clinical trials and/or make him ineligible for some of them. Well, for good or bad, radiation has been ruled out as an option for the same reasons that it cannot be used for the rest of the cancer – even within his back region – the cancer has spread too much for the radiation to be of much use. On Friday / Saturday the doctor’s were considering a procedure where they would go into his back and deaden his nerves to the pain so that he simply wouldn’t feel it – again, the spread of cancer is too great to deaden that many nerves, and the preference is to not do the procedure if it will not work effectively enough. So, the current plan is to implant a “pain pump” into my brother’s back that will release the pain medication directly to the area where it is needed. He will also have a button to release higher does if necessary, which will also be placed under his skin. This will eliminate the need for the extent of the oral medication which was getting out of hand. The next steps continue to be the same – figure out which is the better option, clinical trials at Hopkins or see what CTCA has to say in Philly.

We also continue to look for apartments in the Parkville / White Marsh area that will allow my brother to keep his two cats (Palmer and Calvin – yes, he is a HUGE Orioles fan!) as well as provide ADA accessibility and be close enough that I can get there within a short period of time to help out with various items including any emergency visits to Hopkins since calling 9-1-1 would only put us at the wrong hospital and transfers between hospitals seem to be next to impossible to complete. The search continues!