A little music to soothe the soul

This week was a whirlwind of sorts. I took Kelli to her School Of Music audition at James Madison University last weekend.  The link which says CLICK HERE below shows 7 pieces from her solo concert performed this weekend. A show that brought down the (full) house! We are so very proud of her and hope you'll take some time to enjoy listening to what we are privileged to hear every day. This house will be so quiet in a few months when she leaves for college. She will be attending JMU and hopefully their music program as well. We should be finding out that part here in a couple of weeks. All of the videos from this concert are at You Tube click here to find them:  CLICK HERE
I continue with the pain medication and am thankful for your continued prayer as I have continued pain in the right rib cage area but am into the 3rd week and a double dose now so will wait and see if any difference is found. God Bless!

A New Approach

My gastroenteroligist does not believe this pain is digestive tract related. He thinks that if it were, then there would be diarrhea or constipation or longer lasting bouts of pain, cramping...so he is trying a new approach. He is having me try a nerve targetted medication for 4 weeks that may help calm down a misfiring nerve (IF that is what this is). The oncologist said to go ahead and give it a try so I am. It's only been 5 days and no effect yet but it can take a couple of weeks to work and after 2 weeks the dose gets doubled so we shall see. I'm willing to try almost anything at this point, just don't take away my caffeine!

Happy Valentines Day to everybody! You are loved!

The Price of Survivorship

My oncologist just called. MRI results are negative for any growths or masses. Yeah! They saw nothing that could be explaining this upper right quadrant pain I have had for 6 months. I asked him, do I just wait now to see if it worsens or if miraculously goes away on its own? He said, 'No, I don't want to quit. There has to be something causing this pain." He wants to talk to the G.I. doctor and ask about something to do with the valve between the small intestine and large intestine, because THAT is where the pain is when he presses on my abdomen and the pain comes in waves, which explains the way the bowels work. This also explains the 2 week long food diary OI kept and the pain that came every 2 or 4 hours AFTER eating. It never seemed to matter what I ate but WHEN I ate.

Fortunately we have ruled out anything like cancer (whew), but daily pain is no fun and is worrisome. So now, another waiting game. He said there are medications they can prescribe that would treat what could be small bowel infection or relax the small bowel if it is spasm-ing , and in which case would provide some answers if they provided relief. I'd be willing to try that if it leads to some answers and some relief! He will get back with me as soon as he consults with Gastroenterology doc. Funny how the G.I. doctor checked out everything from the throat to the stomach (found stomach erosion and strictures and resolved the strictures which in turn allowed me to keep food down), and everything from the bottom end through the colon, but nothing in between (small intestines). All of this began at the same time the upper G.I. problems started so it makes sense to follow through with digestive tract causes. Chemo therapy can damage the lining of the digestive tract so all of this may just be a result of having been "poisoned" for the better part of a year, and now my body is paying the price for survival. I am very grateful for a doctor who is not going to just throw up his hands and walk away. Now we are in need of direction of which way to go.