And the Wheel Grinds

Well, shoot. We had that fantastic day (Monday) and we were all feeling very optimistic and light hearted. Then the wheel took another turn. Yesterday, David had some very unfortunate news.... which has brought on a lot of emotions in addition to the stress of determining next steps.

David got a call from his doctor telling him that a recent blood culture shows that David has a staph infection. Staph infections are very dangerous if not treated immediately with the most powerful antibiotics. The unfortunate consequences of this news are many 1) tomorrow (Thursday) David will have his port surgically removed because staph have a tendency to thrive on foreign objects in the body... This means that in order to get a saline drip for hydration, antibiotic IVs, and chemo IVs he will have to get it the normal way, through his veins each time, which is very wearing on his small veins and more work to set up. 2) He will need to get a high dose of antibiotics through an IV each day for a few weeks (up to a month) to kill the infection. 3) As long as he is on antibiotics, he will not be able to continue his chemo therapy.

This news has brought a great deal of fear, emotional distress, and tension for David and for the rest of us. It's especially hard because things were looking up. I think it's been even harder on David because he not only had this bad news, but it was so unexpected and that it has plunged him down from the heights we had all reached two days ago with little to cushion his fall.

Nonetheless, we all know we're riding a wild roller coaster ride and that it will have it's drastic highs, gut-wrenching free falls, spins and turns and that you have to brace yourself, hang-on to who ever is next to you, and know that it will all unfold as it will.

More updates will come tomorrow.