Home Sweet Home

“There’s no place like home”
Late Monday morning, Earl’s cousin, Jeff Reinert, drove up to Rush & brought us home after Earl was discharged. Earl was very tired; it is amazing how just riding in a car can tire you out. He crashed out soon after we got home; I unpacked & sat down to go through a week’s worth of mail, but I soon realized how tired I was & also napped about 15 minutes. Katie was at her baby-sitting job and Jonathan was working. I am so proud of my children—they are hardly babies (19 & 16), but to step in and run the house (even if it was only a week)—Earl & I are so blessed. Some of you may not know the story—how we were unable to conceive for 12 years. I would pray, then curse, then cry. I have learned since that time, that God’s master plan is SO intricate, every minute detail has a purpose.

“To G or Not to G”
Before we left the hospital, Dr. Rodriguez had told Earl he wanted him to eat whatever he could and to drink the supplement 3 X a day. By Monday evening, even drinking the supplement was a chore. After the kids got home, I went to get his prescriptions (Norco, 10/325 [pain medicine] and Colace [stool softener]. The Pharmacist said the Norco could be chewed (as he was doing in the hospital), but the Colace was a gel caplet & had to be swallowed. After I explained the situation to the Pharmacist, she substituted a liquid for the gel caps. The Colace was so bad, it actually made him vomit, not something you really want to do a week after abdominal surgery. Needless to say, he refused to take anymore of it, opting instead for Milk of Magnesia. He also refused to eat anymore or use his tube. I told him if he gets weak from lack of nutrition, the whole operation will have been ENTIRELY for no reason. I am sure it is something that he feels makes him “less of a man” or maybe it is denial. Whatever, I am determined that he will use the tube tomorrow, if eating does not go well.

Tuesday morning, he decided he would like some Cream of Wheat, since the “stuff in the hospital was so God-awful”. After a few spoonfuls, he was unable to eat any more and had some water. By lunch time, he was finally willing to use his “G” tube. This was our first solo experience with his tube—kind of scary, but just to hear him say, “God, it feels good to have something in my stomach”, is what I needed to get over my weak knees.
The rest of the day’s calories consisted of Gatorade, chicken broth (maybe a couple noodles and carrot pieces), apple juice and another can of the 375 calorie Carnation Instant B’fast, that I had packed in my suitcase from his hospital food trays. (They would have thrown it out anyway, even in the can. He had been drinking the Boost before the operation, but it is only 250 calories.)
Earl’s Uncle Don came over unexpectedly in the afternoon and, after several hours of work, was able to get our computer up & running. We are grateful to him for that. I did several errands: delivering, mailing & faxing medical forms, buying additional plastic syringes for G-tube injection, & groceries.
Later on, we watched “Meet Me in St. Louis”, a gift from our dear friends and fellow Methodists, Bob & Pam Westfall. After the movie, I persuaded him to have the 2nd can of supplement, then we sat down to watch more of his Andy Griffith DVD. I must have dozed off, as I have so often in the past. When I woke up, I immediately thought, “we fell asleep again in the family room – we better get upstairs to bed, since we both have to get up early for work……and then total sadness came over me, when I realized, again, that this was NOT a bad dream from which I had just awakened.


Wednesday morning started promising, with Earl wanting poached eggs (“slimy”). I made him two; I think he got down less than one, and, later on, a mixed Instant B’fast, apple juice, a little homemade mashed potatoes & gravy, a couple ounces of broth, and Butter Pecan Ensure Plus in the G-tube. I have also started crushing his pain pill, mixing it with hot water & putting in the tube when room temp. He has to stay strong to enable him to take treatments when he is healed from the surgery.
It was such a beautiful morning – we sat on the back deck for quite a while. He asked me to fill his bird feeders, thistle in one and safflower seeds in the other. His birds are his 2nd passion (I would say music is his first). The above-average cost for these “special” seeds is justified as his only real “vice”. He then told me that he does not think he will want to go to Rush for chemo – that they would have the same drugs closer to home and the almost 3 hour round trip every time would be too tiring for him.
We then put an old step stool in the bathtub and he was able to sit & shower – he asked me to wash his hair.
Antoinette, the receptionist for Dr. Abrams, the radiation oncologist, called & gave us a July 6th appt. Dr. Abrams specializes in cancers of this type and has been at Rush for around a year, coming from Johns Hopkins. Earl said we can go & “see what he has to say”, but that we would also look in this area for a specialist. I may make him use that damn tube, but he has always had better instincts than I. I depend on him for so many things—to make the right choices. This will be the decision of his life.

My in-laws came over this afternoon and sat outside and talked with their son. I’m not sure if my mother-in-law realizes the gravity of Earl’s health, I hope not at this time. No parent should have to see their child suffer and she has already lost a daughter.

Several more people have called or sent e-mails or cards and Earl continually says that you just never know how many friends you have until you are in need. Thank you, again to everyone who has called, prayed, e-mailed, snail-mailed, or left a comment on the blog. Every one of them has a positive & uplifting effect.