May has been the month of mystery fever resolution.  As many of you know Ron has battled infection and fever since January of this year and we entered into the one year mark with Ron being very weak, emaciated and exhausted. He had the PET scan which showed no changes to the cancer. The liver did not have any active spots this round. But Ron's appetite, weight, and blood counts remained dangerously low. We struggled with controlling pain, balance, and the mystery fever.

The doctor took the extreme measure of putting Ron on a ten day round of IV antibiotics. Chemo Treatment was halted and three times a day we pushed Vancomycin and another heavy weight antibiotic directly through the port. Ron ran a fever even with the antibiotics on board. At the end of the full course of antibiotic the mystery fever hid for one day. As soon as Ron had chemo it came back.

Unlike previous weeks, the fever did not respond to Levaquin. Dr. Lobo made the difficult decision to remove the port. He deduced that the fever was the result of a port infection. The next day we found ourselves at the surgeons office and in short order ... the port was removed.

The day after the port was removed was the first day in months Ron was free from fever. Mystery solved.
But this of course. left us with no means to provide palliative care. The Dr. gave time off to try to regain lost ground and that became our focus. Eat, sleep, strength, stamina, prayer... not in this order.

Ron's blood counts finally have begun to recover. We tweaked his daily medication and his balance, stamina and strength are improving slowly. This week has been a whirlwind of appointments and arrangements. After meeting with Dr. Lobo on Tuesday we discussed another port, and stopping Abraxane. Dr. Lobo felt it had served it's purpose and we need to try something different.

We saw the surgeon today to get a new port inserted. This will happen on Monday. Then Ron will begin 3 day infusions of 5FU. Ron will wear a pump for this treatment. It is supposed to have fewer side affects and we are hoping for better pain management. We also pushed to get back to doing things that bring quality of life back into Ron's daily routine: visits from dear friends, The St. Joseph Men's group, short trips out and a wonderful visit with longtime friends Lee and Julie. 


We are so grateful for all of you!!!

Thank you all for the prayers and visits and help! Thanks for hanging in there with our family! Thanks to Fr. Charles and Fr. Vinson for their visit and to the  St. Joseph Men's group!!!

Much love and gratitude,

Maureen