The beginning of the End

There is not a whole lot of spicing up to this...

First off, we love all of you. Kathie's friends spread far and near, and it is impossible during this time to personally contact all of you that mean so much to her - please know that all of you are in our hearts as is this is being written.

As Lauren was driving through apparently the worst storm in Columbus in 98 years and getting out on the only airline that was flying out of Columbus still (God wanted to get her to NC), Bob was taking Kathie to the Lexington hospital, for what he and Kathie figured was more IVs of fluid. The gagging/throwing up motion had started back up with great frequency. Blood tests in Lexington revealed some serious chaos (red blood low, white sky rocketing, potassium sky rocketing) and the doctors suggested she head to Winston-Salem for oncology care. Bob and Kathie had experienced the best Lexington had to offer - people in cuffs for DUIs in the middle of the day and other wide assortment of the rural south.

Kathie began to decline very quickly. Last night, when Lauren finally got in, she was up watching Law and Order: SVU (one of our favorites). Lauren chatted with her about her thesis a bit, and she was getting up to go to the bathroom with the help of Bob and Lauren. She was pretty sleepy from pain meds and was mostly out of it. Bob spent the night in the hospital and Lauren at her fiance's parents' house.

Lauren was back at the hospital at 8:30 AM waiting with Bob for Dr. Aklilu to come around. Lynette and Chris and Kathie and Bob's friend, Glenda, were waiting at the house to see if Kathie was going to get to go home this morning. Dr. Aklilu came in with his "team" at about 10 AM and asked Bob and Lauren to join them in the conference room.

Dr. Aklilu said that from seeing Kathie, he felt that she was beginning the dying process. Bob asked him about the diet issues for now and about how to talk to Hospice. It was decided that Kathie would definitely want to be home for her remaining time. When asked about time... Dr. Aklilu said that we were talking days to weeks. They all returned to the room and Dr. Aklilu spoke with Kathie about the situation. Tomorrow, a social worker will come to discuss Hospice care and some doctors will come to do a swallow test to make better food and drink suggestions.

Since Kathie's meds are a bit much right now, and everyone, including Kathie would like this time spent a bit more lucid, Dr. Aklilu's team is working on a pain plan so she can have options for low, medium and high levels of pain, so that she can hopefully be more awake in the future.

Lauren called Fr. Cook, who will be one of the priests marrying Lauren and Ben, and he came over to do an Annointing of the Sick and to chat for a bit. Kathie was lucid for at least part of the time he was here. Her pain meds have kept her mostly asleep today.

When the nurse came in to do vitals, Kathie's oxygen level was a little low, so Kathie now has a bit of oxygen flow going.

She's been in a bit of pain in her abdomen, her kidneys aren't doing quite what they need to, and she's still gagging occasionally.

Soon after the oxygen was put on, Eddie, Melissa, Lynette, Christen the kids and Liz (Ben's younger sister) came to the hospital. We found a foosball table and a playhouse to keep them entertained.

Clearly, the diet is off - Bob and Lauren tried to give her some cottage cheese and applesauce today, but she barely got any in. Dr. Aklilu said that food now is mostly feeding the cancer, so we're not forcing anything she doesn't want, but will try to continue to encourage liquids (limiting caffeine and sugar still though).

The family is trying to spend as much time with her as possible. This is a personal time for us, and though we will try to keep you all involved through the blog, we would prefer if you have comments or questions you communicate through the blog or our e-mails. We don't want to spend our limited time on the phone.

Thank you for all of your prayers and continued thoughts.

Posted by Lauren