It's 2014? When Did That Happen?

Hi All,

It seems we pretty much lost all of 2013. I keep thinking 2012 just happened and it can't possibly be 2014, yet here it is. Things are pretty quiet around here and we're trying to keep it that way. David hasn't been feeling great lately but we're not yet sure if it's advancement of the tumor or just an anomaly.

Christmas and New Years came and went without too much foofarah. Dave got up in the chair a couple times and all seemed mostly ok but afterwards his legs started swelling. A few days later one of them sprung a leak. It's called weeping edema and it's fairly common so there was no real panic, it's just something we have to keep an eye on.  That stopped after a few days and the swelling went down then unexpectedly and without obvious provocation the swelling came back.  It's in his whole body. The steroids he's been on for months could be making that worse so over the last couple of weeks we've done some adjusting of meds. Getting off the steroids, increasing the diuretic, increasing the morphine to help with the decreased steroid. etc etc..  He's had a few really bad migraines and now has a bit of a sniffle and an occasional cough.  We're not sure if he's sick or if it's the terrible weather inversions we've been having in the valley.  He thinks he may have a touch of a cold.  I hope not seeing as it was this same time last year that he and Owen got really sick and they were worried about Dave getting pneumonia.  We don't need a repeat of that.

Basically the hospice team feels that if the change in meds doesn't decrease his edema (fluid retention) they will consider it a progression of the disease. We can't really say that we would consider it anything else at this point.  He's been constantly tired and his appetite has gotten much smaller (probably thanks to not being on the steroid anymore) and we're just trying to keep him as comfortable as possible.

I don't mean to only post when things seem to be changing but it's kind of all I have energy for these days. That sounds really bad, I don't mean it to sound all Debbie Downer. I'm not.  I'm just focused on the things I need to take care of and not much else of anything.

Thankfully we got the insurance stuff all sorted out for the time being, hospice sorted out until he goes on medicare, our taxes are almost done (because I don't want them lingering over me), the housekeepers came in and did a deep clean of things (thanks to some awesome friends and me not using a gift cert until a year later and the owner of the company being nice and honoring it. Oops)   and Owen is being a giant help, as usual.  Even in those little teenagery moments he's still helpful... he just sighs about having to be that way. I really couldn't ask for more. 

Hope everyone had a happy new year and I'll update when/if we find out more!