Lunch with Friends

Mom said that dad was not as restful today as he was yesterday. He was having a hard time breathing. It causes him to get uptight and panic - but it is good. The respiratory therapist said that the lungs are shedding a lot of the 'gunk' that's in the lungs. They have been doing more deep breathing treatments and suctioning out his lungs. They had an x-ray done today of his lungs and they look better. Dad is feeling the 'gunk' in there and isn't strong enough to cough out the stuff. Tonight they are planning to do a CT scan of his lungs to make sure everything is doing okay.

It also looks like we have a new diagnosis. Vasculitis:

• Vasculitis is an inflammation of your blood vessels, which include your veins, arteries and capillaries. Also called angiitis, vasculitis causes changes in the walls of your blood vessels, such as thickening, weakening, narrowing and scarring. Inflammation can be short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic) and can be so severe that the tissues and organs supplied by the affected vessels don't get enough blood. There are several types of vasculitis but all types of are rare. Though some forms of vasculitis improve on their own, others require treatment — often including taking medications for an extended period of time. (excerpt from the Mayo Website)

The doctors are pretty sure that this is what they are dealing with. There are several types of Vasculitis and there are a few that are similar. The results from the nerve biopsy they took yesterday should be able to help narrow down which type we are dealing with. They don't want to wait to treat him until the tests come back at the end of the week so today they started dad on the new treatment. It involves steroids & chemo. The goal is to stop the damage from continuing. There is a risk that dad will be more prone to an infection (because of the chemo) so they are also starting dad on an additional antibiotic. They will give this treatment 3xs a week.

Mom feels that dad is weaker today than he was last week. He could give her fingers a little squeeze, but was unable to lift his hand at all and only pushed his foot back against her hand 3xs before he couldn't do it any longer. She told him he did a good job each time - even though he was unable to actually do it. She is trying to keep his spirits up - but it is hard.

GOOD NEWS today was that there were a few women from mom & dad's church who drove out and took mom for lunch. Mom said it was very nice and she really needed to be able to laugh with some friends for a while. THANKS LADIES!!! You helped mom more than you will ever know!

I'm putting a link to the Vasculitis site from the Mayo Clinic Website. Again, there are a large number of different types of this disease. We won't know for a while what exactly they are dealing with - but the Great Physician knows what is wrong with dad and how best to treat him. Thanks for your continued prayers.