Last Camping Trip

October - my favorite month of the year, especially in the midwest. The trees, the smells, the warm days and cool night.

We had planned a camping trip with our dear friends the Collings at Thousand Lakes RV Camp for my birthday weekend. We had been looking forward to it since we planned it last spring.

I had been having more "episodes" of the severe abdominal pains. I had no pain meds on hand since I had just gone through all my meds and discarded the expired ones.

I saw my local oncologist Monday to re-establish that my future chemo treatments will be received in SLC (instead of phoenix).

By Tuesday my pain was out of control. I was on the couch in severe pain. No one at CTCA would respond to my calls for pain meds. (I was so disappointed). I called my local onc and she wrote a prescription for me. Of course a new law was passed on Monday Oct 6 regarding the narcotics that I had just thrown out. So we could not have the prescription faxed to the pharmacist. we had to physically pick up the script and take it to the pharmacist. Finally about 6/7pm I had pain meds in my system.

At that point, we decided we better cancel our upcoming camping trip. Our camping site was hours from any medical facility. So Tim was off of work for the weekend - my 51st birthday weekend! Friday we made a call to my local onc to see if she would admit me into the hospital. The weekend was upon us and I knew that a trip to the hospital was inevitable. I didn't want to go through the ER over a weekend.

We called my local oncologist to request admittance back into the hospital. They told us we needed to be seen in person. So we packed me in the van, went to the cancer center and waited. we finally saw one of the oncologists. she agreed to admit me. Went to hospital and I stayed there through 2 weekends. Oct 10-22. X-rays again confirmed the partial bowel obstruction.

Ice chips, no liquids no food for the next 8 days. IV saline only. Reintroduce clear liquids, then full liquid, soft and then special diet of now/low fiber. Within the 1st 24 hours, I had a hypoglycemic event. With no food prior to my admittance and ice chips only my blood sugar was 46 in the morning!! From there we had to have sugar in my IV. They added an NG tube  on Saturday to help control the vomiting of stuff not going down my intestines.

I had a plethora of visitors each day, especially Sunday my birthday. My room was certainly the happiest on the 9th floor!! Over the next 12 days, nurses, doctors and PAs actually commented on nice it looked and smelled ...we had a Scentsy candle going with pumpkin spice in our room. Greetings cards decorated the walls, water color paintings were brought, lots of bouquets and plants sat on the ledge of the family-room-sized window and on any available space. My bed normally positioned directly in front of the TV was turned 90 degrees to face the 20' x 20' window overlooking the mountains, park and stores. Medical staff commented on the positioning of my bed and I advocated the necessity of turning ALL the beds because the view was much more healing.

I literally watched fall overtake the valley of trees! Each day a little more color would show up on the canvas of trees outside of my window. It was magnificent. I love the fall!

Tim and Laura took turns staying the night at the hospital and caring for David. How can we ever thank or repay all these wonderful people who continue to bless us?? Staying overnight, taking care of David, takng care of me, providing meals for us, keeping up with our yards and fall leaves, running to he grocery store, doing our laundry, cleaning our home, and bringing me clothes.  God, we rely on you to bless them. We are overwhelmed with their love which obviously demonstrates your love for us. Thank you so very much!