Love the new doc!

Lerin (our #2 daughter) met us at the hospital to go in with Danny to see the new oncology doctor. We checked in, waited about 3 minutes and were called to go back to the little room to see the doctor. And guess what? We loved him! He was warm, compassionate, good-looking( always important) , relaxed, knowledgeable, good communicator and took a long time with us. He gave Danny information about chemo but didn’t try to threaten, manipulate or frighten him. He told us that which ever way Danny wanted to go- chemo or no chemo he would be supportive of his choices. He was sincere in his desire to help Danny do whatever he wished with the rest of his short life.

He told us the fevers were nothing to be concerned about. It’s just Danny’s body trying to fight the cancer. He said we would handle each problem as it came. What a freaking difference! I don’t know ladies it looks real bad for our gender. In Danny’s case , anyway! The males doctors score 100% magnificent- Female doctor’s 0% . Well, except the Irish female doctor. She was the only good one. But then, she was Irish. They are in their own catagory!

Doctor Lamparelli hooked us up with the hospital’s special program for terminal patients. Lehigh Valley Health Network’s OACIS Palliative Medicine program.  We go to meet with them next wednesday at 1:00. March 19.

This is how they describe themselves:

OACIS stands for optimizing advanced complex illness support. We are a team of doctors, advanced practice nurses and other caregivers who are skilled at helping make your journey easier. We provide assistance with managing difficult symptoms, can make house calls and can help facilitate conversations with family members or other health professionals involved in your care. If you require hospitalization, we can be there to make sure all your doctors know what kind of care you want.

House calls? They make house calls? I think the last time I heard of a doctor making house calls was when I was seven and home sick with rheumatic fever and the doctor came in a horse and buggy!

Also they have grief support. They have a ladies lunch club. I like lunch. Is it free? Sounds good to me.

The Ladies Lunch Club

This is a supportive social club for women only. It serves as an alternative to traditional grief groups and provides you with a unique opportunity to heal and grow. The club meets once a month and welcomes adults 18 and older.

Bereavement care workshop

Through a combination of education and support, this eight-week workshop can help you come to terms with the loss of your loved one and learn how to process grief. This workshop is designed for adults 18 and older.

Grief process groups

Along our journey through grief, there is nothing more powerful than having our thoughts and feelings validated and understood. The grief process group is held two times each month and  participants are welcome to attend any or all of the sessions. This group is for adults 18 and older.

Individual, family and couples counseling

This service provides bereaved family and friends the opportunity to get the individual attention they need to help transition through the grieving process. It also serves to support the family dynamic structures that may be impacted during this difficult time.

So they have lots of programs in place that may help us. Cool.

So now Danny has a new doctor, new hospital, but same old cancer.

Danny and Lerin

New Oncology Doctor, new hospital. Same old cancer.

Danny, his brothers and mother. 1960. he would’ve been 5 years old. Notice the attitude, the commanding presence. He’s always been the “Big Cheese”.

Today Danny is going to see a new oncology doctor at Lehigh valley Hospital Cancer Center. He’s suppose to be brand new. So maybe he has brand new ideas! I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Nicholas E. Lamparella, DO
Medicine – Hematology – Medical Oncology

He has a nice face, right? No more mean,cold blond bimbos! Sorry, all my blond friends, this is not an attack on blondes,my dearest friends are blond. But we’ve had some real bad experiences with blond female nazi cold hearted bitch doctors. A little harsh? Okay, okay, it really has nothing to do with their blondness. It has everything to do with their compassion, or lack there of. At this point, that is what we need. Understanding and compassion . Maybe they were absent on that day of class in Doctor’s learn compassion 101.

Danny has had a low grade fever for a month now. Last night it was the highest it’s been at 100.8. I read that cancer can cause fevers, as the body tries to fight of the cancer OR it is some type of infection. So maybe today we will find out what’s going on. The last doctor wanted to admit Danny to the hospital right away but he doesn’t want to die in a hospital. but he also doesn’t want to die sooner from a simple infection that can be fixed with an antibiotic. It took a month to change hospitals. The giant  wheels turn so slowly.

Oh no! Fever!

His pain has increased slightly. Still not enough to take pain pills, but enough to make him uncomfortable. He has night sweats that soak the bed. His appetite is slightly down, especially at dinner time. Although his weight is holding steady at around 179.

Christmas without Cancer?

Danny  had his appointment with the new oncologist yesterday. Sorry to say we weren’t that impressed with her. What is it with oncology doctors?  She did not like that Danny decided not to get Chemo or radiation. She tried all kinds of threats. She didn’t tell us anything new. I had hoped she would give us “some crazy miracle cure that works” cure, but I knew that was just a fantasy.
She said, ” What if it comes back in 2 months and then you’ll be sorry you didn’t do chemo.”  She threw all kinds of statistics at us. First she said if you don’t get chemo there is a 80% chance it will return and you will die., then she said if you get chemo you have a 75% chance of it returning and then you will die. I said, but that’s not much difference to make it worth going through chemo. She replied that it was. She said a 1 in 4 chance is better than a 1 in 10 chance! Hmmm, I’m not good in math, but somehow that just doesn’t seem to be the right numbers? We are going with the 25 % chance that the freaking cancer is just gone-zippo, no cancer. The chemo (which by the way was the strongest poison they could throw at any cancer cell did NOT do a thing to the pancreatic cancer cells in Danny’s body. The tumor did not get any smaller at all. You may say but maybe it prevented it from spreading. Maybe. But if that is true then wouldn’t it also have killed all the teeny microscopic cells that supposedly MIGHT be floated around his body undetected just waiting to settle down and grow in a cozy new home like his lung?
Danny wants to take the chance of living a good life without chemo and doctors making him feel like shit. And if he does get the cancer  back, he wants to die a dignified death and not become a walking death zombie,  barely staying alive only because his body is juiced up with toxic chemicals.

So….

January 8th, Danny is getting a small surgery to remove the chemo port embedded in his chest. The oncology doctor wanted him to leave it in there in case he changed is mind. He firmly told her he would not be chaining his mind. Then he has to get blood work, a new CAT scan to serve as a base line and we come back to see her in February 4 .

It seems our life has been divided into two parts, the life before cancer and the life after. I guess it won’t ever be the same.
But we make the best of it and try not to dwell on the icky, bad stuff. I mean, we can’t ignore it or deny it. It’s too big, too real. But we can always make the choice to either focus on the death and suffering  part and be miserable  or focus on the love, family strength and beautiful life we have together now and be happy. It is a choice. How you think your thoughts is a choice. You can either feel sorry for yourself and wail- Whoa is me? or Why  me? or think “No! I’m not going to allow my thoughts to take the low road and I’m going stop those black thoughts dead in their tracks and instead to think of all the good , wonderful things you have in your life right now and choose to be happy, thankful and joyous.
There was a time when Danny said, “I’ll never make it till Christmas.”
I couldn’t cheerfully chirp, “Of course you will. ” Because I try to never lie.
No one knows with Pancreatic cancer. But he did make it it. Hurray!
Merry Christmas everyone!

Danny with his 2 beautiful Granddaughters, Ana and Jocie who live with us.

“I’ve got nothing but good news”, said Doctor Lavu.

My day began at midnight when Danny woke up because he couldn’t sleep. Which is not surprising, considering he was about to get major surgery in a few hours. He had nothing but clear liquids the past 24 hours. Lots of broth, juice and jello. He had to be wiped down with some special sticky solution pads before getting into the bed with clean sheets and a clean wife( a first for everything).

We laid awake in bed and talked about the upcoming surgery. I reassured him that it was all going to be fine. I knew it in my gut ,that as usually we would have the “luck of the Irish” and pull through this trial by fire. It has brought our already close family into a tight little ball of love.

3:30 am Sean and Lara ,his girlfriend, showed up right on time and we tumbled into the truck . Lara took her own car because she had a evening class and would have to leave the hospital before us. We got to Jefferson Hospital in no time at all, for once traffic was light on Highway 76. We were directed to the 9th floor of the Gibbon building and they snatched Danny away to prep him for surgery.  I was allowed to go with him but Sonnet, Lerin, Sean and Lara had to stay behind in the waiting room till he was ready to say goodbye.

Again I wiped him down with the sticky solution on prepackage wipes but this time it wasn’t allowed in any skin folds or his genital because it might pool there and not dry and catch on fire! (That’s what Lerin told us- she just attended a seminar on OR fires!) And I sure didn’t want that to happen. He was robed in a heavy paper gown, thigh high white stockings (kinda sexy) and yellow socks that were too small for his size 11 feet. The nurse who wore her glasses over the middle of her ear injected his stomach with Heparin to help prevent blood clots. A baby doctor came in and introduced himself as a student doctor who would be observing the surgery, we could tell by his coat length that he was at Ashley’s level (our medical student niece).Then the nurse summoned the kids back to the room for our last teary goodbyes. Dwayne the pusher came and whisked him away to surgery.

We were directed to the 8th floor, where there was a very nice, huge waiting room with FREE hot drinks from a vending machine. Did I mention there was FREE gourmet coffee and hot chocolate and it was FREE! We staked out a L shaped area as our own and settled in for a long wait. Lerin snagged 2 pillows form the quiet room. They had a huge flat screen computer screen that showed each person’s location during surgery so you could know when they were done and transferred to their room. And then we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited. They had promised that every 2 hours a nurse would call from the OR to give us an update on Danny’s situation. We got our first notification.

“Will the O’Connell family report to Phone #1 for your update.”

There was a row of phones with dividers and desks to receive your call. We gathered around the phone and held our breath, would the damn spot be cancerous or not? This gigantic question determined Danny’s fate . Life or death all determined by a spot no bigger than the mole on my cheek! Because if it was ,Dr. Lavu would just sew him back up and send him home to die. “Was the biopsy done and are they continuing with the Whipple?” I asked fearful to hear the answer.

“YES! The spot is benign and they are proceeding with the Whipple! I will call you again in 2 hours.”

YES! She said Yes, she said yes to life for Danny! We hugged in a big group hug, tears of joy and goosebumps and wicked crazy happiness! Everything is going to be alright! It was the happiest moment in my life. The entire room was staring at us with smiles on their faces.We were too excited to sit still so we went for a long walk and ended up at Ross. I pretty much HATE shopping but it was good to walk. Street people and beggars asked for money the whole way. Noone bought anything even though I encouraged Sean to buy Lara a diamond ring as we walked by rows and rows of sparkly stuff along Jewelers Row.

And then we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited .

Another call.

“Will the O’Connell family report to Phone #2 for your update.”

No much to say other than Danny was doing great. Okay. So we left for lunch, but Lerin’s belly was upset from all the crazy drama or something and she stayed back. “I’m sure I won’t want any of the strange food you guys will eat anyway.” she said. We walked down to Chinatown and had a giant bowl of $5.00 hand shaved noodles with seaweed at Nan Zhou Noodle house on 1022 Race street. It was so delicious and belly warming!. Sonnet said if she hadn’t recently become vegetarian she would have tried the intestines. Uh…..no thank yo. There are some things I don’t ever want to try. Sonnet said its good to try foods you’ve never had. I said, ” I never tried dog poop and I never will. Although who knows what I ate in Japan since I never knew what I was eating.

We went back to the waiting room and did what you are suppose to do in waiting rooms- we waited and waited and waited. After 8 hours Dr. Lavu came out of surgery, washed Danny’s blood and guts off of himself and came to see us in THE QUIET ROOM. This amazing man din’t even look tired but he assured us he was.

“I’ve got nothing but good news”, said Doctor Lavu. The liver spot was difficult to get to. I could feel it, but it was way under and behind the liver. We shaved off and biopsied three spots and it was benign. So we took out 1/3 of his pancreas (with all of the tumor), gallbladder, some of his intestine but left all of his stomach! It took so long because the chemo had enflamed everything. He didn’t need any blood and he’s doing really well. His margins are great ,meaning they were able to get all of the cancer and not leave any tiny bits around the edges. He said we would be able to see Danny once he was all settled in the ICU where he would be for the next 2 days.

So we moved to a new waiting room outside the ICU and guess what? We waited and waited and waited. We have now have waited about 10 hours. But it was all worth it when we got in to see Danny and he was awake! Well, kind of awake. Mostly lucid but occasional lapses into morphine induced fantasy. He mentioned that the happy ending was good. Maybe because his nurse was asian? Trust me , he’s never been to one of those “Happy Ending” places- I think? Then he started singing the theme of “Mr. Ed” But other then that he was thrilled to see us. He smiled a lot even though he was in a lot of pain. He worried that he only had a limited amount of morphine and what would happen if he ran out or what if he lost the button that he would push to get more morphine. We reassured him there was plenty and they wouldn’t let him suffer. He got his blood sugar tested while we were there and it was 160, which is a little high but Lerin (who is an RN said that’s normal for surgery patients) We all kissed him and I stroked his forehead which he always loved but this time he was worried I would mess up his hair! He hardly has any hair left to mess up, but I put the few strands left in place. He looked good, really good. I had been warned by Dr. Lavu and Sandy that he would look awful with all the tubes coming out of him- but he looked great. Good color and not swollen at all. We only stayed about 10 minutes because he really wanted to just sleep and he struggled to stay awake because we were there. We promised to be back the next day and went home. It was a hell of a happy day.

Hello Whipple, we’re ready to take you on!

We received fantastic news yesterday! Danny is getting the Whipple. After 3 months of torturous chemo (the strongest kind they have) and it didn’t do a damn thing except lower his markers from the 300 something to 100 something. The liver spot stayed the same (that’s a good thing), the pancreas tumor stayed the same (what?) and Dr. Lavu said we can get the whipple. We? It’s funny, I’m so involved with Danny’s cancer , I think it’s me getting a whipple!

Danny, Sonnet and I waited  over 2 hours and while the anxiety built to dangerous levels, our hero- Doctor Lavu walked in and told us this great news. He said there is still a little bit of doubt about that stupid spot on the liver. Since we didn’t get that PET SCAN ( I’m happy about that) the only way they will know for sure is to reach in and grab his liver to check it out and biopsy it. If all is good they will proceed with the Whipple. If it is a cancer spot (it’s not) they will just sew him back up and send him home. That’s not going to happen. They are going to do the Whipple, I just know it!

So now we are in training for surgery:

1. Eating good food and lots of it.

2. Exercise

3. No worrying!

 

Will we get answers?

Today we meet with Doctor Lavu to discuss the CAT scan ( I bet he’ll look at the scan ) and hopefully find out if Danny can get surgery- which is the only cure for Pancreatic Cancer. The insurance company declined the PET scan twice, so we don’t know what Doctor Lavu is going to say about that. Personally I’m happy it was declined because it was just going to hold things up and possibly muddy the waters. Just cut the thing out!

So at 10:15 this morning we will be nervously waiting in Dr. Lavu’s office for the answers to our questions.

Can Danny get a whipple surgery?

If not what are our options?

Where did you get such beautiful exotic eyes?

stay tuned for the next exciting adventures of the PANCAN MAN!

Scan Troubles

6:30am only 27 degrees, I go out and start. The car to warm it up for Danny. Headed to Philadelphia to review. The Cat scan. He is scheduled for chemo but he is not doing it today. He wants to be strong for surgery.

8:30am- Darryl , the best blood taker in the world  finds a vein and draws blood from Danny As we wait to talk to the doctor. When I called earlier in the week to find out the results of the scan, I was told they won’t give results over the phone because the doctor likes to put up the new scan and old scan and compare them and show you everything while explaining and talking about where to go from here.

Wasted time.

Doctors love Sugar water!

When the doctor finally came in she didn’t have any scans to show us. I believe she hadn’t even looked at the scan at all before walking into the room. She turned to Danny and commented on his weight loss of 50 pounds.
She berated him with, ” Why don’t you just eat?”
What a stupid question, especially from a cancer doctor. It seemed she had no understanding of how pancreatic cancer works. It affects digestion and makes it nearly impossible to eat. Danny tries really hard to eat, but he just can’t.

 

She began with saying things about the initial scan that was totally wrong. This set my alarms off right away. Who was she talking about? She wasn’t talking about Danny. I certainly know every minute detail of his initial scans. I argued with her and she started back peddling. I guess she thought she was dealing with some backwater yokel. I’ve been reading volumes and volumes of information about pancreatic cancer and I at least know when someone is bullshitting us. Once, she realized she couldn’t lie her way through the visit, she began bullying Danny into getting more chemo treatments even though Dr. Lavu only ordered 6!
Danny said “no”.
She said his cancer would grow while he waited for surgery which could be a long time. We said we wanted to talk to Dr. Lavu first before making a decision. She said, we had to make a decision now! ( the old car salesman trick)
I said, “We don’t have to make a decision now.”
She said,”If we didn’t we would never be able to get an appointment again because it would fill up.”
Danny said ” No!”
And we left. Danny fired her and will look for a new oncology doctor.

We walked the cold, blustery streets of Philly over to Dr. lavu’s office to see if we could pick up the prescription for the PET scan. And maybe even catch a glimpse of Dr. Lavu and just touch the hem of his white lab coat for good luck.

Nadine, the office girl, told up the Pet scan was denied by the insurance company! We have learned that much of what goes on with modern medicine is powered by “the insurance”. But she assured us that they were reapplying and will get back to us tomorrow. She said, that if we can’t get a PET scan Dr. Lavu still wants to see Danny on Thursday.
Aghhhhhhhh… It makes your chemo head spin! Needless to say Danny is feeling discouraged, but only for a short blimp , tomorrow he will be back to his chipper and hopeful self.

Good news! Hurray!

Last friday, October 25, Danny went to  the Jefferson Imaging Center  in East Norton to get a CAT scan  to check on his progress. While he was getting his scan done, I got bored and went up to the desk and asked if they could smash my boobies and do a mammogram while I was waiting.  They said, “Yes”. I didn’t need a prescription, appointment or anything and no copay! They told me the results right away- I have empty boobs- yep, nothing in there. Too bad they couldn’t do the same for Danny. He had to go home and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. He got sick from the anxiety of waiting. He lost 8 more pounds during the wait. He now weighs 172! That makes it a total of 44 pounds he has lost since July 13th.

But yesterday, around 4 o’clock, Doctor Lavu’s office girl (Nadine) called and told us that Dr. Lavu looked at the scan and it was good! GOOD! Wahoo! I knew that damn spot wasn’t cancer. I mean, he still has cancer on his pancreas but that teeny little spot on the liver is NOT cancer. I think it was just a Jack Daniel brand mark. Anyone who’s ever drank Jack Daniels has this mark. We all do- you , me and Dotty!

Nadine said Doctor Lavu wanted Danny to get a PET scan now ( a very expensive test, $5,000) to prepare for surgery and to double check the CAt scan results. Danny picked up the other phone and in his sexiest voice politely asked Nadine to please see if she could pull a few strings and get us into the PET scan sooner? She , of course, replied yes. Who can resist that sexy voice- not me that’s for sure!

We hung up and Danny had tears of relief and happiness streaming down his cheeks. I whooped and hollered with extreme joy. Ana sat next to her Gramps and cried with him, while she held his hand. He doesn’t like to cry in front of the kids but this was too big a release of tension after 6 days of agony! Josie and Ry (the other two grandchildren) just walked into this scene after getting off the bus. They didn’t know what was going on. Gramps and Ana crying, Nana jumping around whooping  and doing the happy dance. I explained what had happened. Gramps said, “Don’t tell the kids on the bus that your Gramps was crying.”

I immediately began calling and texting everyone who had been waiting along with us. It is certainly an occasion to celabrate! Now we have to concentrate on fattening up Danny and preparing him for surgery. He has another chemo scheduled but we are going to cancel that. He sure doesn’t need gallons of poison dumped into him to weaken him before his Whipple surgery!

Don’t forget the Walk for Pancreatic Cancer is only 10 days away!

Walk or run a 5k course at Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park on November 9!

Enjoy music, food, kids’ activities, our ShopPurple store and awards, all while raising awareness of pancreatic cancer.

 

Chemo #3

5:30 in the morning and its time to get up and get ready for the third chemo treatment. Danny walks into the living room naked and let’s me know he is up. I’ve already been up for two hours. I finish up the artwork that I have been drawing on my iPad and go to take a shower. Where’s Danny? I see a large lump in our bed.

“Hey, what are you doing back in bed?”, I ask.
“I don’t what to go.” He mumbles from deep under the blankets.
” Well, I can call in and tell them your too sick today to come.”
“No, I’m going. But I don’t want to.”

Danny has had a bad cold and feels pretty miserable. It’s going to be a bad day.

We get to Dr. Lewis’s office at 7:00am and they pretty much take us in right away. They weigh him:190, take his temperature:98 degrees and blood pressure: 125/85
The doctor says all the blood cultures and tests from Danny’s visit to the emergency room on Jocie’s birthday are negative. He’s in perfect shape- except he has pancreatic cancer.
She is concerned with his reluctance to eat and nausea and prescribes two new drugs: Marinol (appetite stimulant)and Adivan(nausea).  I asked if it was possible to get another dose of anti-nausea goo put into his IV on wednesday, after the initial anti-nausia stuff wore out, because that’s when he has so much trouble. This was by the suggestion of my wonderful friend and cancer advisor – Sandy . The doctor agreed that it was a great idea and ordered that also. She says its okay for him to take a cough suppressant for his cold but no decongestants because they interfere with the effectiveness of the chemo.

We go downstairs to The Kimmel Infusion Center. A man is setting up a wonderful buffet of Bon Pain pastries and coffee for us. He says due to the fact that they are installing a new computer system and waits will be longer they are treating us to breakfast. FREE! We love free and we stuff my backpack with bagels, cream cheese and chocolate croissants for later. I wish I could’ve figured out a way to stuff in some coffee too.

Today they took Danny to the BIG Infusion room, which we liked better than the LITTLE infusion room because it was much more open and airy. You can see all the nurses bustling back and forth and even see the other chemo patients across the hall. It helped keep us entertained. They plugged Danny’s chemo into his port and the long day began. It really was pretty uneventful accept due to his cold he had extreme runny nose, chills, hot flashes,violent coughing and the dreaded peripheral neuropathy, numbness and tingling in his fingers. This is caused by the chemo messing with the nerves in the extremities. Although some of the signs of neuropathy may appear suddenly, this change in sensation usually builds gradually and can worsen with each additional dose of chemotherapy.  It is usually strongest right after a chemo treatment, but tends to lessen just before the next treatment.  The symptoms usually peak about 3-5 months after the last dose of treatment is taken.

Finally we are done and head home. Danny is exhausted and pale. His fever has slowly crept up to 99.8. We have to keep taking his temperature to make sure it doesn’t go beyond the danger number. He resists getting his temp taken because he doesn’t want to go back to the ER. The tingling in his hands is getting worse. He yelps when he washes his hands in the sink under cold water. I rush into the bathroom to check what’s wrong and grasp his hands to warm them . He jumps back and yelps louder.
“It felt like you gave me an electrical shock.” he says.
“I’m so sorry, I was trying to warm you.” I  say.

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Emergency! Emergency!

Decorations are up, ice cream cake made,presents wrapped and waffle iron heated. We were getting ready for Jocie’s big birthday bash- 12 years old! How did she grow so fast? She’s as tall as me already.But when Sonnet walked in from work, Danny asked her to get his thermometer. His temperature was 101.3! Now that doesn’t sound like much for a normal person, but for a chemo patient that is bad. I have orders that is it goes over 100.3 we have to call the Doc. Jocie requested waffles and ice cream with roasted seasoned potato wedges  for her special birthday dinner, I dropped the lid on the waffle iron and ran to the phone. The on call doctor ( Dr. Sandrio) told us to immediately report to the Emergency room at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. Thank goodness Sean agreed to drive us. I mean, I can do it, but I HATE driving in the city- at night! So I was extremely grateful he was there to drive us. And drive us he did, at one point I looked at the huge round speed dial in the middle of the dash on my mini at it hovered at 100.  I couldn’t tell if my car was thrilled or as scared as I was. But I was proud of my little yellow car, it didn’t shake or shimmy at those high speeds.

We got to the ER in record time and they made Danny wear a yellow mask because of his fever. Not sure if that was to protect him or others. And then we waited and waited and waited. Finally they called us back to a room where they took his vitals. His temperature had come down to 99.8 already. Must have been the cool breezes down the highway. They took vial after vial of blood, put in an IV and took a chest X-ray. The doctor looked just like our nephew Jack. He told us that Danny would be admitted to the hospital tonight. The funny little Jamaican guy came in with a computer to fill out all the paperwork for admittance.

Soon as Danny got back from the bathroom they asked his to pee in a cup. He was pissed (funny choice of words) because he waited as long as could knowing that they would eventually need some urine. He knew it would happen this way and it did. He told them there was no way he could pee again. They said he wasn’t going home till he did. A STAND OFF.

Sean ran out to find a big bottle of liquid for Danny to drink so he could pee. Danny drank a whole bottle of FUZE ice tea and could fill that little urine cup in no time.  That did the trick. The sweet doctor came back and said they found  nothing yet that showed where the fever was coming from. He thought maybe it was some type of unknown flu virus. He told us we could go home but had to return in the morning because the hospital is too, dangerous a place for chemo patients! Well that made us feel better! I think?

We got home around 1:30 in the morning and tumbled into our wonderful germ-free bed.

Happy 12th birthday Jocie