Happy Birthday Troy...and what a week it's been!

Our middle son Troy turned 40 on Wednesday, but we celebrated his birthday last Saturday while Keith was here from Austin.   This post is a little late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY TROY!

It was a simple celebration at home.  Reid has been in considerable pain and we couldn't go out to a restaurant, so we cooked hamburgers out on the grill and had some cake afterwards.  When our three sons get together there's a lot of teasing and joking and this day was no different from any other.  It was a great diversion.

Troy blew out the candles on his cake (and  hammed it up a little bit for the camera).  Reid asked him if he had made a wish.  He said he had and Reid replied, "If I get better we'll know your wish came true."  They both laughed and then Troy said, "But tonight is lottery night."  We all laughed.  I know the humor sounds a little bizarre, but the important thing is that we were all able to laugh together.

They indulged me and posed for a picture together.  L-R: Reid, Keith, and Troy.

Keith and Jim observing the festivities.  Be sure and enlarge the picture.  Jim's shirt says, "My Wife Rocks."  We joke that the shirt is a chick magnet because he always gets comments from other women on his shirt.  It was a gift from me. :)

Keith was only supposed to be in Houston for work until Wednesday, but he extended his stay until Friday with a couple of vacation days.  It was really nice for Reid to have Keith here as a diversion.  The pain had become so bad that I finally contacted the Physician's Assistant and she was able to get his appointment at the pain clinic moved up to Thursday.  It's made a considerable difference.  Although he's far from pain free the additional medication (long acting pain killer, nerve relaxer, and more Hydromorphane) has made the pain more tolerable.  He's lost 20 pounds in the last month because the pain seemed to take away his appetite.  He's eating a little more now.  His left arm has gotten very weak and he can no longer type on the computer.  He pretty much holds it in one position most of the time. 

On Friday he was seen in the brain and spine clinic.  The doctor that saw him first said that they thought the cancer was around the nerve and not in the nerve.  With regular Lymphoma the cancer can get in the nerve, but he said he had never heard of that happening with Hodgkin's.  They also think the mass is outside the spinal canal and pushing in.  At least that was our understanding. That was the case last year too.  His one pupil is larger than the other and the eye lid is a little droopy.  We hadn't noticed and no other doctor had either, but this doctor caught it and said it's also from the mass on a nerve.

The strange thing about the whole appointment was that they didn't know why Reid's Oncologist had sent him to them for an evaluation.  It was our understanding that it was to see if he could benefit from some radiation now and I'm assuming that's for pain relief.  That was not conveyed to this clinic.  They also didn't know what the treatment plan was and we told them a stem cell transplant.  We were told they would speak with Reid's Oncologist and he'd let him know something.

This coming Friday he has his biopsy and then on November 5th he'll see the Oncologist again.  All these appointments are so spread out and it's taking time to get everything done so treatment can begin.  It would not be so bad if it wasn't for the pain.  I guess in a way the pain is our friend because without it we would not have known anything was wrong until sometime in November when he had his next scheduled scan.

I know last year when he went numb from the arm pits down they were very concerned.   It was considered a medical emergency and he was put in intensive care.  That does not appear to be the case this time, so I console myself with that knowledge.

I went out to Joanne's and bought some fabric.  I've decided I need to find something to work on to keep my mind occupied so I don't find myself worrying.  I'm hoping to get some doll sewing done for Ann Estelle.  I'm going to sew together some felt jackets and then take them along to the hospital and start the embroidery on them this week.

Thank you for your interest and concern.