Day Six Early Evening April 30

Hello again here on day six after surgery.

Your prayers have helped. Brock has gotten some rest today, but better than that, he had the best nurse all day. She helped him so much. He is on a different pain medicine now. I was partly right, he did have anxiety, but they think it was chemically induced by the pain meds he was on. The nurse on duty today said she's seen it many times. He also will get a sleep aid tonight, so pray that he gets a good night's sleep. If he does, he can work more tomorrow on walking and eating. He now can eat as much as he wants of a clear diet. A few bites of a popsicle, a few spoons of broth and that's about it.

They have capped off the NG tube, but haven't taken it out yet. As he begins eating, he needs to be aware of any nausea. If he has nausea, they will connect the tube again to relieve it.

The surgeon was in late morning. He said Brock is doing great. He was about to leave and so I became bold and asked him if there was any decision made regarding further treatment. He said, "it's very unlikley." He said he might have an oncologist come in to talk to us, but it's unlikley any further treament will be needed. So there it is. Our miracle.

I rested for an hour and a half at my Dad's place (just a quick walk from here), while he stayed with Brock. Although I didn't sleep, I did relax a bit.

I'm going to leave you here for tonight.

Thanks for listening, thanks for being there, thanks for the prayers and just being you.

Our God is an AWESOME God! Always.

Sleep Well.
Love,
Chris

Day Six Prayer Request

Good Morning to all,
I couldn't sleep at 3 am , so I got up and got a few things done before coming to the hospital at 6 am. I wanted to make sure I see the doctor today.

Brock slept only 2 hours. The nurse even said he had a very bad night.

Please pray for sleep. He can't rest for some unknown reason. Personally I think it's some anxiety which he has never had his entire life.

When he dozes off for all of 5 to 10 minutes and wakes up, his eyes are big and he looks scared.

It's now 7 am, I will update you later today.

Love,
Chris

Day Five Tuesday Evening April 29

Brock says, "I'm mobile", but he does have a lot of baggage! :)

Hello to all of our readers. I don't know how many of you are sticking with me on this daily saga, but I welcome all of you!!

I made it to the hospital at 7:15 am today and the surgeon was just finishing in Brock's room. I caught the tail end of the conversation. It was concerning the NG tube. It can't come out until the digestive system begins working, so he suggested liquid diet. Juice, jello, broth, popsicles, pop and water. Before this, it was ice chips only. The nurse suggested apple juice. That did the trick about 6 hours later. So this is a huge praise! Brock is back on the throne after a 5 day hiatus. The only thing missing was the ShotGun News, his favorite bathroom reading material. But with juggling all the tubes and wires, I don't even think he noticed he didn't have anything to read.

One strange thing that I didn't understand, was that his blood pressure dropped immediately after going to the bathroom. How one has anything to do with the other is beyond me and I'm not even going to try any further to understand this miracle God made called the human body!

The port in his neck is gone. It has a huge bandage on it that should come off this evening. Ever so slowly the apparatus is disappearing. I did take a picture of his incision today, but I will forgo showing it to you for fear of someone not being able to handle the shock. There are 25 staples. I think it looks very good, considering. And even Brock said he thought it would be longer.

He took lots of walks, at least 7, I might have lost count. He sat on the edge of the bed and in the chair quite a bit too.

He did say, "this place is like a dungeon during the night." I wish I could be there for him at night, but I just can't. I am surprised at how tired I am in the evening. I really thought I could take it better than this. People are always talking about how exhausting it is to have a loved one in the hospital. Now I know what they mean. Especially one as sick as Brock is. It's not just visiting, it's helping in any way possible to get him comfortable or keep him comfortable. Brock will not be comfortable until he is home.

It's a sad thing, but we still haven't had time to pray together. I'm still counting on you holding up that end for us right now.

A lot of you have sent verses for us. We really appreciate that and will be going over all the comments and emails when he is home. Still no idea at all when that might be. Originally the surgeon told us 10 to 11 days in the hospital. If that is still the case, he could be home before the weekend is over.

Oh, I almost forgot. The pathologist friend was in and said that he and the surgeon just weren't able to connect yesterday on the final report on the cancer (chemo or no chemo?), so hopefully we will hear tomorrow. That is a step we will take when we come to it.

Remember, God gets the Glory!!

Love you and bless you,

Chris

Day Four Monday Evening April 28

Hello to all,

He's lookin' good, huh? He's still smiling, praising God for every wonderful day!

I'm sure a lot of you are keeping up with this blog on a daily basis. I am thankful I started it because there just isn't time to make phone calls. It won't be long and Brock will be on the phone himself. The tube in his nose is aggravating his throat somewhat, so he really isn't talking a lot.

This morning he called me a little past 7 am. The surgeon had been in already. He seemed pleased with Brock's progress. He said again that the margins were all good and wide and the lymph nodes in the area of the tumor were cancer free. But, we still haven't gotten the pathologists report. The pathologist was in today also. He said they were having a meeting later in the day about whether or not Brock should have chemo. Maybe tomorrow we will hear. We hope so.

Today Brock ate a lime popsicle. It was so good to see him eat something. Still no luck on the digestive tract. Maybe before I see him tomorrow. They aren't acting real concerned yet, but the nurses are very hard to read. Just have to pray for the best.

The catheter came out today. That was sure a blessing! Brock never complained about it, but I know that was very hard on him. They took the IV out of his neck and put it on the back of his right hand. The doctor said to take the port out of his neck, but they hadn't done it yet when I left. Hopefully it will be gone by the time I see him in the morning. Every tube and wire that comes off, makes life easier for him. They took the dressing off his incision today. I guess it is 8 to 10 inches long. It's stapled. It didn't look bad at all. They left the bandage off so it could get some air.

Brock took 5 walks today. The doctor wants him out of bed more than in it during the day. I am now getting him ready for his walks. Helping him out of bed, taking the oxygen off, unhooking and capping off the NG tube, unplugging everything and making sure his drains and feeding tube and IV are all tangle free. It's a major deal getting him out of the room and back in the chair and then into bed again. Then he sleeps awhile and the whole thing starts over again. Needless to say, I was quite exhausted this evening. It's starting to cross my mind how nice it will be to have him home. And of course when he gets home he'll have even less things attached. :)

I am still not saying we are out of the woods yet, but the countdown is on. We started with 5 to 7 critical days and now we are on 1 to 3. His blood pressure is under better control now and his blood sugar is staying within range. His lungs are clear.

We feel that without you and all your prayers, we couldn't have come this far. We treasure you and thank each and every one of you.

Brock is still in control of the visiting and hasn't told me he's ready yet, so hang in there with us.

We need you.

Our God is an AWESOME God!

Sleep well,

Love to all,

Chris

Day Three Sunday Evening April 27

Hello from Brock!!

We hope everyone had a blessed Sunday and enjoyed their church service, no matter where that might have been.

As you can see, he is still smiling and has a thumbs up!

We had a busy day at the hospital. They removed the epidural and replaced it with self-administered pain meds. He still doesn't seem to be in a huge amount of pain, just more uncomfortable than anything. We had 2 different nurses ask him if he has a high pain tolerance. I know that he does. Thank the Lord.

They took the IV out of his hand and put it into a port in his neck that was placed there during surgery. This sounds worse than it is. Brock doesn't even feel it. They say an IV is only good for about 3 days in the same place and then it begins to get sore.

He still has the tube in his nose which keeps the stomach empty. The immediate prayer concern is that his bowels begin to work. They should at any time now. When they do, he should get the nose tube out (NG..for the medically knowledgeable) I know many of you are chuckling now, because you know Brock well and his bowels have never been a problem for him. Maybe his bowels have been a problem for me...but not for him. OK, now I'm laughing.

He took 3 walks throughout the day. Each one longer. He is steady on his feet. He does seem quite exhausted from the effort. The doctor said he could have a popsicle or two, but so far I haven't been able to talk him into it.

He had a few minor things today, a little bit of fever, a little bit of high blood pressure. The doctor said that was caused by too much fluids, so they gave him a diuretic to counter act. It's literally one thing after another. Brock said, "We haven't even had time to give praise." I had fully intended to read some scripture for him today in our quiet time. I had some good verses picked out, but there was no time. Well, one thing for sure, we will have plenty of time in the coming weeks.

I am still counting on the prayers from all of you. We started at 5 to 7 critical days, so now we should be at 2 to 4 more critical days.

So as you all start your Monday morning, we hope you have a wonderful week. Every day is one more day closer to having Brock home with me.

Prayer concerns:
That Brock's digestive system begins to work.
That the pathologist report comes back tomorrow so we know where we stand with cancer.
That Brock would have physical comfort.

Our God is an AWESOME God!

Love to all,
Chris

Day Two Saturday Evening April 26

Well, it's now been 48 hours since the surgery was finished.

When I last left you, I was heading back to the hospital for an evening visit. I ended up staying almost 4 hours. Brock waited a little too long to ask for more pain medication and was having quite a bit of pain. He just could not get comfortable. The bed seems too small to me. He is 6' 1", I don't know what really tall guys do.
Evening is not Brock's best time even under perfect circumstances, so I have to realize he will always feel better in the mornings.

Today the nurse told us that today or tomorrow will be his worst day.

Since the surgeon told us the next 5 to 7 days are critical, I'm not really going to be comfortable till next Thursday, which is the National Day of Prayer.

So, there is not really a lot to report. He sleeps on and off through the day, sits in a chair 2 or 3 times a day.

Tomorrow I think the epidural will come out, so things will change a bit. Possibly he will start taking a few steps.

I have a message to you all from Brock. "God Bless" and hopefully in a few more days he will be up to seeing some of you.

Keep praying for his healing. Not only day by day, but hour by hour.

Brock hasn't heard his favorite song now for 3 days, so this is for him.

Our God is an AWESOME God! He reigns from Heaven above, with wisdom, power and love. Our God is an AWESOME God!

Love to all,
Chris

Day One Friday Evening April 25

Hello to all and welcome to our church family that might be reading this blog. I saw the weekly email and noticed that this blog address has been posted. Thanks for putting it out there. It sure is easier than a lot of phone calls. Brock is the phone person in our family and I have his phone, so he's out of luck for a few more days at least.

I've seen Brock twice today and was there when they moved him from ICU to his room. He does have a lot of tubes and machines connected to him. I didn't really talk to him about visitors yet. We did get a good update from the nurse on what to expect. The pain most probably will get worse before it gets better as they will stop the epidural on Sunday. It is blocking a lot of the pain.

He sat in a chair for an hour and stood up to get in a wheelchair to go to his new room. He was somewhat tired after that.

He is also having his first meal through the feeding tube. It looks like baby formula and drips in very slowly like an IV.

His surgeon is off this weekend, but other doctors will check in on him.

We should have the pathologists report soon. That will be key on the decision whether or not he will need chemo.

Just about all the nurses we've seen so far ask where we are from. They told us people come from all over for this Whipple surgery. They have called it a "doozy" of a surgery and "when you have a surgery like this". When I see Brock (he looks so good) I can hardly believe that his body has gone through such a traumatic episode.

Well, I think I'll go back to the hospital and see my husband!
Praise the Lord!

If you would like some direct prayer requests, it would be....
That Brock continues to improve each hour
That the pain is not more than he can bear
That his spirits stay high
Remember the next 5 days are critical.

Our God is an AWESOME God!
Love to all!
Chris