Comfort Mode
Thursday, 27 January 2011
We met with Dr Chadha, our oncologist twice this week. Once for a routine office visit, during which he explained that he has done everything he can to treat the cancer and now we will just have to let it run its course. It appears that there is probable cancer recurrence in both of the surgery sites. We are now in a comfort mode, during which we will simply try to make Michele as comfortable as possible. The second visit was for an emergency infusion of fluids because Michele was dehydrated. Yesterday she was unable to keep anything down--she regurgitated everything she ate or drank.
This week our psychologist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and physical therapist all said that they could no longer do anything to improve her condition and saw no value in continuing their treatments.
Michele’s condition is rapidly deteriorating. Muscle control for her entire right side continues to be limited and her right arm is almost paralyzed. There seems to be no improvement of her partial amnesia. Michele is practically mute--she can only occasionally give one-word answers to questions. Even her once emphatic “NO!” is gone. At times, she seems to understand what is said to her, but often she only looks at the speaker with a blank stare. Phone conversations are impossible.
So, next week Michele will become a hospice patient, but we plan to keep her at home. For the dehydration treatment, we were considering an ambulance to the emergency room, but she made it quite clear that she did not want to go back to the hospital under any circumstances. Fortunately, we were able to go to Dr Chadha’s office for the infusion.
RKS
4 comments:
I'm sorry, Robbert. You guys have put up a valaient fight.
I'm so sorry, this has been such a long fight and one so hard to lose. My thoughts are prayers are with you and all the family, with all my love,
Denise Knapp
Dear Robert,
Thank you for taking such good care of Michele, for keeping her on her toes.
Please tell her that the few years I am so happy to have spent learning from her during my time at St. Edward's are forever valuable to me. What she has taught me, both about journalism as well as about being a decent person, has lent my life a degree of purpose and usefulness that is unmatched by all except a handful of people in my life.
I am so glad that we all were able to share a meal together this past summer and catch up. It is always nice to be able to feed friends, enjoying one another's company on a sunny afternoon--not least of all with that wonderful view of outer Austin lighting the background beyond the porch. I want her to know that as I receive this sad news, I am two days away from flying south to begin a newspaper internship in northern Ecuador, something that I suspect never would have come to pass for me had it not been for her catalytic influence on me at a crucial period in my life, and for her faith in what drives me to pursue journalism.
As the news in recent days brings word of popular revolutions in Africa and the Middle East, Michele's voice and face have again been surfacing in my memory. As with those living through these upheavals, I wish for peace for Michele in her body, mind and soul. And I hope that you too, Robert, and the rest of Michele's family, can be comforted in the knowledge that Michele obviously loves you all and is going nowhere in your hearts. Tell her I love her for everything, and give her a hug and a kiss for me.
Hi RObert- I am thinking abuot you both and hoping/praying that you are doing ok under the circumstances.
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