The Good Fight

Mark has felt worse in the past week than he has felt since last Fall. He has been extremely weak, exhausted, coughing, and running a fever off and on. He had his regularly scheduled CT scan Monday the 9th and we contacted the doctor to alert him of Mark's condition. Dr. Aviles called back Monday night at 9 pm and said he had seen the scan and coupled with the symptoms we had described, he believed that Mark had pneumonia. He advised us to go to the ER at Falmouth Hospital this morning and get admitted to the hospital and begin IV antibiotics treatments. Although I thought Mark would refuse after suffering so much and feeling so depressed in the past week, he said he felt so lousy that he would let me take him anywhere! So, we spent five hours in the ER today, he was finally admitted and to a nice private room with much less chaos than the Boston hospitals! Tonight, he was visited by the pulmonary doctor, Dr. Shuttari and the oncologist, Dr. Aviles and both concur that the diagnosis is "gunk" trapped in his lower airway and building up with no ability to escape. It is definitely pneumonia and the plan is to keep him in the hospital for a few days and treat him with antibiotics and a muscle relaxer to reduce the headaches, muscle strains from coughing and pain in his shoulders. He is feeling a little better tonight and is pleased to be in a much more peaceful environment than he was in Boston! We are both extremely relieved to have the diagnosis of pneumonia because we had suspected that the cancer spread quickly and we were very depressed. So this was a much more uplifting diagnosis and we are confident that Mark will start feeling a lot better after he is rid of the pneumonia. He does have to start on some type of chemo regimen soon but we will deal with that after the pneumonia is cured.
Meanwhile, it was Mike's 26th birthday so Mike and Steph, Kristina and Gary, Barbara and Dave and Nick all came over for a roast beef dinner and birthday cake celebration and it was great for me to have a fun filled diversion after the past depressing week. So, although Mark is in the hospital and we missed him tonight, it was an uplifting day for all of us and we are confident that Mark will be feeling better and be able to attend our business' 30th anniversary on Wednesday, July 25th at Heritage Plantation!! Coincidentally, last year Mark missed our favorite occasion of the year, the Hospice Auction, because he had his first procedure to diagnosis the cancer. We were looking forward to his returning with me this year but it is Friday night and that is not looking too promising at this point!
Gary has another chemo treatment tomorrow which means that his chemo regimen will be over pretty soon. He is doing great, getting good lab reports and feeling more energetic after recent treatments than he did in earlier ones. He is reveling in the excitement of opening an additional business retail location in Falmouth down the street from the hospital. It's a stone's throw from Mark's hospital room!
I'll report back on Mark's progress over the weekend.