Latest Health Update

Unfortunately the news is not good. For the past couple of weeks Janet has had a great deal of difficulty keeping food or liquid down. As a result she has lost more weight and has become progessively weaker. She has had to work at sipping water and gatorade in order to stay hydrated. Her Oncologist was very concerned about this symptom and scheduled her for a medical test to find out what was happening to food or liquid that she consumed. Her sister Marilyn, who has been staying with us for the past couple of days, took her in for the test yesterday. It was a difficult test for Janet in her weakened condition because she had to drink and hold down fluid containing a radioactive trace and then have xrays taken at various times after consuming the liquid. Janet, always the trooper, hung in there and did her best, and as a result the radiologist managed to get some excellent pictures of exactly what was going on. This means that her medical advisors now know why she is having difficulty retaining nourishment. It is because of multiple bowel obstructions caused by the cancer in Janet's peritoneal (tummy area) cavity. We met with Dr. Lam, Janet's Oncologist earlier today and she explained that the bowel is a flexible tube that has no internal support or structure. Food and stool pass through it as a result of smooth muscle contractions on the outside. Janet has cancer that has attached to the outside of the bowel and has effectively collapsed the bowel in a number of places so that virtually nothing can pass through the tube. Operating on Janet is not an option because of the amount of cancer in the area and also because she is not well enough for major surgery. Even if these blockages could be removed by surgery, or by other means, they would re-occur in other areas of her digestive system. Janet has an impending bowel blockage. We had a long conversation with Dr. Lam this morning about futures and next steps. Janet and I are both determined that she remain at home as long as possible. We have arranged for the maximum amount of palliative care within our home and a palliative care nurse will be coming by starting tomorrow. As a backup plan we have advised May's Hospice (a palliative care facility in our neighbourhood) that we may need a bed there if Janet's symptoms worsened beyond what can be managed at home. At this time we have to swing our efforts from fighting Janet's cancer and extending her life towards making her as comfortable as possible. My full time job from now on is going to be staying at home with Janet.