I don’t know if this is too much detail or what.  Ultimately, we’re talking about cancer here – and there’s nothing good to say about it.  At all.

Around 7:30am we headed to the ER as we handed the kids off to Stef’s sister, Courtney.  We were seen relatively quickly – but pain management couldn’t come soon enough.

Several tests were conducted, including a CT scan, which revealed that her urethra was essentially pinched shut and her bladder was FULL.

Relief provided through a wonderful foley catheter..  To the degree of 1500mL.  That’s a LOT.

I had no idea I was bumping over the wonderful streets of Baltimore with a giant water balloon ready to burst.

This damn tumor had grown to the degree where it was now pinching tubes here and there.

We were admitted.  Stef was still battling pain – see the previous post, and we had to see what could be done about that.

We’re now on our 5th day in the hospital.  I’ve asked if I could get Marriott points for this.. They’re looking in to it.

Stef’s pain management has been varied.  We came in on dilauddid (hydromorphone), and that continued.  They gave her a push-button pump – where she could self medicate through IV.  She was pretty conservative – or so I thought – nurses always stating she wasn’t hitting it very often.  Good, I thought.

Ultimately – what is the best route here?  Dilauddid was absolutely flooring her.  Knocking her out..  So in came the pain management team with Palliative Care.  Nerve Block.  We were going to try a nerve block.  It was explained that there were one of two, or both nerve groups that we could attempt to block and would give relief.  There was an easy one to get to, and a slightly harder one to get to.

The ‘easy’ one was tried yesterday morning.  Sadly – no relief..  We’ve spoken about potentially trying the 2nd group after another day or two (probably Tuesday).

In the meantime, we’re rid of dilauddid – good and bad.  Bad because we knew what it took to get rid of the pain – but good because we’re getting rid of some nasty side effects – like shaking and trembling.  Seriously – watching your spouse shaking/trembling is not fun at all.

So we’ve taken a slight step down and utilizing Oxycodone..  So far – she’s had two doses, and is sleeping peacefully.

The idea is to manage the pain while this recent treatment starts knocking down this tumor.  The treatment takes time – and we need the pain management in the meantime.

We’ll be at the hospital through the weekend, and in to next week – while we wait to see if that next nerve block works.

Spoke with the doctor yesterday evening.  We’re definitely in the midst of a battle.  One hell of a battle.  We need this treatment to work and this tumor to start to shrink.  Please keep the prayers coming.