Update on Chris 2-13-07
When I arrived at the hospital to see Chris this morning, he was still in bed. His schedule started a little later this morning, but he was getting some much needed rest from a hard night of very little sleep. He was also feeling some nausea, maybe from the chemo. He still did his therapy, dragging a little, but still followed all assignments through to the end. He started to feel better by mid-afternoon.
We had a case meeting with his treatment team today. All of the therapists gave their report to us and each other on Chris’ current progress and plans for the rest of the week. They also set a discharge date of March 13th. It’s exciting to have a “date”, but this also seems so far. They explained to us that they have to intentionally set it far out for several reasons. One of the most important reasons is that they give this report to Insurance and it is better to get that much time approved than to have to go back and ask for more time after passing up the estimated discharge date. They believe Chris will likely leave sooner than March 13th. Chris believes he still needs more time and still continues to see improvement every day, but there is still a long road ahead.
The other thing that is being considered… they have called in a liver specialist to help determine if there is a way to directly treat the cancer in the liver, possibly by shooting chemo directly into the liver. Until we see the doctor, we are not sure what all is involved with this procedure. But, there is a possibility that he would have to be moved out of the rehab hospital to be closely monitored during this process. We are hopeful that this can be done without too much time taken away from his physical therapy progress. Please pray for the doctors to have wisdom in this process. Hs AFP level has gone up again to 39,000, but is still only isolated to the liver.
Thank you for your love, prayers and support. We will never forget.
Love,
Mandy