The blood clot issue returns...

With no mention of the blood clot issue for the entire first 24 hours Mark was at the James, we all assumed it was a non-issue. Yesterday, the doctors read the report from Med Central and were very concerned about getting more information on the blood clot in the lungs. They weren't able to get the images from Mark's CT scan from MedCentral (which I still don't understand why not) so they wheeled Mark to the chest hospital (next hospital over from the James) yesterday to have another CT of the chest done. Once they got him there, they decided they didn't want to make him go through the trouble of drinking the liquid for the CT scan prep, because of all the stomach/digestive issues he's been having from ippy, so they wheeled him back to his room and scheduled an MRI of the chest for this morning (should be happening right now). I will let you know when I learn the results of the MRI.

When I spoke to Mark yesterday morning, he didn't sound good. At first I thought it was because he was highly medicated, but he informed me that he hadn't taken any medication all day except for the steroids. He told me he was just very, very weak, which makes perfect sense since he has lost 16 pounds in a week (probably more at this point) and hadn't eaten or drank anything since Sunday. He had to get off the phone suddenly because his stomach was upset again.

When I talked to him later that evening, he sounded much better. His spirits were good and he was anxiously awaiting my Mom's arrival after work - with a bag of goodies for him: his laptop and cell phone. The James has wifi in their rooms so I'm glad that after the testing today, he will be able to peruse the Internet (which he can do for hours) to help the day go by faster since he'll be all alone again.

While my Mom was there, she felt very good watching him eat and drink and thought he was moving in a positive direction. Unfortunately, right before she left he got sick and it all came back up.  She's worried about the fact that he still can't hold anything down.

On a positive note, a group of Cub Scouts put together Christmas packages for the patients at the James Cancer Center and Mark received one yesterday. It really made his day! He was telling me about all the items that came in it and how touched he was by their kindness. So thankful for those Cub Scouts!