Just when we thought...

Hi, everyone. Well, so much for the good news. You know, I thought to myself when I was telling you how great Dick was doing that maybe our rejoicing was a little premature. Not that my faith was weak, I just know how things go sometimes.

Dick had another "double-whammy" chemo infusion last Friday, which always sends him into a bit of a tailspin for a few days, but he always comes out of it and eventually feels tons better. He felt pretty rocky through the weekend, and still wasn't feeling well on Monday. He went to bed Monday afternoon and wouldn't come out of the bedroom the rest of the day. He begged Nancy to stay home with him on Tuesday, but she was unable to get a substitute to take her classroom. So she went to school at the regular time that morning and was able to come home just after 9 a.m. He never did feel well enough to get out of bed on Tuesday and pretty much spent the whole day there.

When it was obvious that Dick was feeling even worse on Wednesday, Nancy arranged to spend the day at home. She contacted the Dr. who advised us to take him to ER, but Dick refused to go. By Wednesday evening, he was writhing in pain and Nancy's son (a home health nurse) dropped by and assessed the situation. He was able to convince Dick to go to Emergency. He was so sick we knew we couldn't get him into the car, so we had him taken just down the hill to St. Helena Hospital by ambulance. They ran some tests and admitted him that evening. At that point he hadn't eaten or drunk anything of significance for nearly two days. Among other things, we're pretty sure he was severely dehydrated.

The Emergency Room tests showed that he had blood clots in his right leg and multiple clots in both lungs, which they felt were possibly the source of the excrutiating pain. They kept him on high doses of heavy-duty pain medication throughout the night at St. Helena. On Thursday evening he was transferred by ambulance to Kaiser in Vallejo, where he is now. Nancy spent the night with him at Kaiser.

We went this morning to Vallejo to visit Dick and take poor Nancy some clean clothes and some other things she needed. She reported that they had a horrific exhausting night, and that Dick had developed a low-grade fever. They haven't determined what's causing the fever. He seems extremely disoriented and confused, and we can no longer blame it on the pain meds, since they are no longer giving those to him. It's more than a little frightening to consider why that may be happening.

We stayed with Dick while Nancy went to her son's home to take a shower and get a few minutes rest. Dick's daughter arrived to spend some time with her dad. She said, "Hi, Dad." He didn't open his eyes, but he called out her name and grabbed for her hand, gripping it tightly for a few moments. A couple of tears rolled down his cheeks, - He seemed so pleased to know that she was there.

While Nancy was gone, they took Dick for an ultrasound to check for gallstones. We left the hospital just before 4 p.m. and he still hadn't come back to his room after the ultrasound. We may have to wait until after the weekend to learn the results, since they haven't given us any clue about what they found. We would love it to be something fairly simple and benign like gallstones, but fear it could be something much more serious. He looked so frail and helpless lying there.

So... Just when we thought things were looking up, we crashed and burned. But, not to worry, our faith is strong. We know God is still on His throne. Please let your prayer warriors know of this new crisis and ask them to lift Dick up to the Great Physician.

I love you all!

Too tired to choose a text tonight. Please forgive! XOXO